I heard a little factoid the other day that absolutely floored me about video games in China.

And it's this. China has twice as many gamers as the U.S. has people, some 700 million of them.

When you go on the streets, when you are waiting at a bus stop, when you're at the supermarket,

it's inevitable, especially if you see a kid with his handphone out, he'll be playing a game,

or she'll be playing a game.

That's Brenda Goh. She covers technology in China for Reuters.

It's pretty much in your face everywhere you go. I mean, it's the world's biggest video games market.

That ubiquity, especially among young people, has worried China's central government.

So at the start of this month, they banned people who were under 18 from playing video games for more than three hours a week.

They can only play from 8 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

And it's not just video games.

The government has gone after tutoring companies and big tech players.

Brenda calls this the season of crackdowns.

They've laid down new ground rules.

They've cracked down on a whole bunch of sectors,

in a sense to bring them better in line with what they perceive as socialist values.

Yes, this is China, so some of this is to be expected.

But Brenda says these moves are part of a bigger plan.

The authorities have been trying to strengthen their control over various parts of Chinese society

and the Chinese economy.

Today on the show, how China's gaming curves are just the opening salvo in a fight to reshape

its youth culture and the internet.

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