China forbids minors from gaming more than three hours per week

Tencent and NetEase can only offer online gaming to minors from 8pm to 9pm (00:00 to 01:00 GMT) on Fridays, weekends and holidays.

China will limit the amount of time children can play videogames to just three hours most weeks, a dramatic escalation of restrictions which dealt a blow to the world’s largest mobile gaming market, as Beijing signaled it would continue a campaign to control the expansion of large tech companies. Gaming platforms from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to NetEase Inc. can only offer online gaming to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and public holidays, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing a notice by the National Press and Publication Administration. The new rules are a major step-up from a previous restriction set in 2019 of 1.5 daily hours most days. The escalating restrictions on the lucrative gaming business are likely to spook investors who had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days, exploring bargains after a raft of regulatory probes into areas from online commerce to data security and ride-hailing ignited a trillion-dollar selloff in past months.