(Yicai Global) Aug. 3 -- Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest gaming company, has announced stricter anti-addiction measures for minors after China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency attacked online gaming in an article.

The Shenzhen-based tech giant will lower the daily online time limit for underage players to 1 hour from 1.5 hours on non-holidays, and to 2 hours from 3 hours on holidays, according to its WeChat account. The firm will also completely prohibit in-game spending by players under the age of 12.

The internet addiction of minors is so widespread now that the impact of online games on their healthy growth cannot be underestimated, Xinhua said in a commentary published today. Internet games are often branded “spiritual opium” and “electronic drugs,” it said.

Shares of Tencent [HKG:0700] closed more than 6 percent lower at HKD446 (USD57.36) after it unveiled the new anti-addiction measures. Earlier in the day, the stock had slumped as much as 10.8 percent.

The shares of other Chinese gaming companies such as NetEase also fell. NetEase [HKG:9999] ended down 7.8 percent at HKD145.90, having earlier plunged 15.7 percent. Sanqi Interactive Entertainment [SHE: 002555] slid 5.6 percent to CNY18.83 (USD2.91), while Perfect World [SHE: 002624] fell 5.3 percent to CNY15.40.

Tencent also said it would crack down on underage players using adult accounts to play games and called on the industry to discuss the feasibility of banning minors under the age of 12 from gaming.

China’s online games market was worth CNY278.7 billion (USD43 billion) last year, a 21 percent increase on 2019, Xinhua said. Tencent’s income from the sector, accounting for nearly a third of its total revenue, was CNY156.1 billion, the report added.

Editor: Peter Thomas