Chinese publisher NetEase is enforcing a curfew on young users of its mobile games catalogue in China.

The move comes as part of a new anti-addiction system developed by the Chinese publisher, ChinaDaily reports. The system will initially affect 15 games, including wildly popular titles like Knives Out and Fantasy Westward Journey.

Underage users will be blocked from logging in between 9:30 pm to 8:30 am. Additionally, under-12s will only be allowed one hour per day of total play during the week, increasing to two hours daily on weekends.

Those between 12 and 18 gain an extra hour on each, giving them two hours daily on weekdays and three hours daily on the weekend.

Crowd control

The move stems from new regulations by the Chinese government to curb gaming addiction in China. NetEase’s Parenting Care app has also been updated give families greater control to limit or outright ban certain games from their child’s account.

Besides a government restructure and moral concerns, China’s 2018 game approval freeze has been attributed in part to attempts to combat short-sightedness among the nation’s youth.

The market officially re-opened in December 2018 and has since started going through its approvals backlog, which could include as many as 6,000 games.