The Chinese state publication Economic Information Daily called online games "opium" and compared them to drugs.

An article by the Economic Information Daily, affiliated with Xinhua, the official news agency of the PRC government, said that online gaming addiction among children is “widespread,” which could negatively affect their development. The publication also called for further restrictions in the industry in order to prevent gambling addiction and other negative impacts on children. It states that in 2020, more than half of Chinese children were short-sighted, and online games had a negative impact on their education. In the article, the games were called "opium for the mind" and "electronic drugs."

After a few hours, the article was deleted. However, this did not save Tencent shares: in the morning they fell on the Hong Kong stock exchange by about 10%, while at NetEase it fell by almost 14%. Investors took this as a signal of possible industry restrictions, similar to those introduced last week for educational and food delivery services.

Finally. May be they could eradicate this useless time waste?