Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), disclosed yesterday at a Shanghai conference that GAPP is investigating whether a gadget can be placed on a computer or within game software to decrease the chances of addiction to online games.

Local media report that Kou has asked several Chinese software companies to develop a system that will stop players' scores from accumulating after a certain point. It is hoped that if a game score does not increase after a certain amount of time, the player will stop playing the game.

Kou said that if a gadget or software can be developed, it would be added to all new games, and those games who do not have the anti-addiction system will not be approved for distribution in China.