While many of us go to sleep before midnight, some teenagers choose to stay up much later. They are not driven by the burning desire to write a better essay or achieve a higher grade. Instead, they are busy playing online games. Known as young Internet addicts, they have long been a problem in China. A report released（发布） in 2010 by the China Youth Association for Network Development showed that there were over 24 million young Internet addicts among China's young urban Internet users. The report also said that over 18 million youth tended to develop Internet addiction.

    To deal with the problem of Internet addiction among teenagers, the Cyberspace Administration of China released draft regulations （法规草案） in January which carried out a ban on online gaming. If the regulations are passed, under-18s would be banned from playing online games between midnight and 8 am.

    As soon as the government's draft law was introduced, it drew great attention from the public. Some thought highly of the law as a way to better protect teenagers, saying that too much overnight gaming is harmful to teenagers' health and believing the period between midnight and 8 am to be important to human physical functions. However, others wondered whether it would be practicable if it came into effect, as teenagers could just borrow their parent' IDs to register (登录）accounts to play online games. The Guangming Daily suggested that parents should help their teenagers find a balance between the cyber（网络的）world and the real world.

    China is by no means the only one trying to fight against teenage gaming addiction. Germany introduced a regulation in 2002 trying to stop teenagers from playing online games from 10 pm to 6 am. Meanwhile, the UK, the US and Australia have forced a rating system（分级制） on computer games to make sure that teenagers cannot access  “adult” content such as violence, sex or bad language.