Concerned that your teenager could be up late playing video games?

China's Government is proposing a ban on children under 18 playing them between midnight and 8:00am.

A draft law would make it compulsory for computers and smartphones to be fitted with software that would track young night owls who flout the gaming ban.

Players are already required to use their government IDs to register with online gaming sites.

In theory, the software and ID checks will prompt gaming companies to identify minors who are still online, and shut them off.

Companies that let them keep playing beyond midnight will be fined or shut down.

What does gaming look like in China? Console games were banned in China in 2000, but the ban was lifted in 2015

Console games were banned in China in 2000, but the ban was lifted in 2015 The cost of a personal computer or internet connection remains prohibitive, resulting in the popularity of internet cafes

The cost of a personal computer or internet connection remains prohibitive, resulting in the popularity of internet cafes Some games are banned completely, while several have had their content screened to remove certain imagery

There are 170 million children and teenagers accessing the internet in China, and juvenile crime specialist Hu Faqing thinks they need protection when online.

"The proportion of young internet users in China is relatively high," Mr Faqing said.

"One of the reasons children and teenagers go online is to learn things, so the online environment needs to be perfected."

Already, the world's biggest censorship apparatus supposedly protects young minds from pornography, violence and politically unsuitable material, but China's Communist Party sees video games as another threat.

Professor Tao Hongkai is an anti-gaming advocate who wants to see more done to discourage young players.

"I think games is a kind of entertainment only after school, regular work or daily life, but most of the kids they play games, they don't go to school, they don't eat on time, they don't go to sleep," he said.

"This is wrong. This kind of game is like opium."

Warnings not heeded

While Professor Tao's concerns about gaming may be at the extreme end of the scale, China's Government hopes at the very least the ban will improve young people's health by forcing them off the screen and into bed.

"I do think now that this will work, OK," Professor Tao said.

"The main thing is not internet, it's the game. The first thing is it's not healthy.

"Second is the game is too big, you can never finish game, so the kids, they have to play the games day and night, hour by hour."

China's video game market is the biggest in the world and worth more than $30 billion a year.

China's Government has long tried to dissuade people from playing and up until recently, gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation were banned.

There are also existing rules that strip gaming credits from users once they play continuously for more than three hours online.

But at a gaming café employee in Beijing, Xiao Qi, said the measures do not work.

"Look at these mandatory warnings on the screen," he said.

"It's just a bit of text at the bottom saying those under 16 must avoid becoming addicted. People never read this sort of stuff."

China's Government plans to introduce laws for the new overnight gaming ban in next month's annual major political meeting.

Like many regulations here, once implemented it may prove impossible to enforce.