The Chinese government has long been concerned about the amount of time teenagers spend playing online games, holding the games responsible for victimizing young people, creating addiction and even motivating suicides as China becomes the second-place nation in the world in terms of internet usage. Chinese surveys, for example, find that 90 percent of college flunk-outs and 70 percent of juvenile delinquencies are attributed to online game addiction.

"[Online games] are bringing calamity to the country and the people, but some of them end up being held up as outstanding enterprises!" Said Chinese sociologist Tao Hongkai, according to an article in Shanghai Daily. Hongkai treats patients suffering from "hardcore game addiction."

The Chinese government also funds a military-run "boot camp" that serves as a rehab to which sufferers are consigned (though they can also commit themselves voluntarily), in the wake of a China National Children's Center report that found that 13% of Chinese teens -- 2.3 million minors-- are "internet addicts."

Earlier this month, the Chinese government began implementing rules intended, according to the published guidelines, to "clean up the internet environment" and "promote civilized internet use." Online game makers are now required to install software that limits playtime for underage users, who must register with their ID card, to three hours or less a day, and users' points are cut in half if they persist past that time-- with all of their gains wiped entirely if they play beyond five hours.

But more than 20 game operators have failed to implement the regulation, and now the Audio & Video and Online Publication Management Division of the General Administration of Press and Publication of China (GAPP) has issued a warning that those operators in violation have ten days, upon the receipt of the notice, to adopt the anti-addiction software.

According to the article in China CSR:

Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of the Audio & Video and Online Publication Management Division of GAPP, has told local media that fully implementing the anti-addiction system is an important measure taken to carry out the State Council's rule on molding Chinese teenagers' morals and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of China's online game industry. He has called on the companies to strengthen their social responsibility and consult with the concerned departments to ensure the anti-addiction tasks can be carried out smoothly.

[Via China CSR]