China said it would issue new rules cracking down on "undesirable" elements of online games amid fears of growing Internet addiction as the number of players soar, state media reported on Thursday.
The number of online-game players in China rose 23 percent to 40.17 million last year, Xinhua news agency said this week, citing an industry survey. Regular subscribers, accounting for more than half the players, soared 30 percent.
The demand propelled online-game sales to top 10.57 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in 2007, up 61.5 percent, the agency said.
The industry's growth comes after media reports of
"Although China's online-gaming industry had been hot in recent years, online games are regarded by many as a sort of spiritual opium, and the whole industry is marginalized by mainstream society," Thursday's China Daily quoted Kou Xiaowei, a senior official with the General Administration of Press and Publication, as saying.
"If we don't make adjustments, the industry will suffer sooner or later," Kou said.
China has
But attempts to regulate the booming industry have been undermined by lack of a proper rating system in China and easy access to pirated games online and on street corners.
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