China to ban 'vulgar' gaming advertising

The Chinese government is to ban online games companies from using sex, gambling or violence to promote their products, says BBC News.

Several firms have used women involved in sex scandals to help sell their games. The new regulation from the ministry of culture is the first to be applied to the country's online gaming industry, according to state media.

More than 69 million people, most of them young, play online games in China.

Children who play video games for two hours or more a day are 67% more likely to suffer from attention problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, claims a recent survey, reports CVG.

The report from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which followed 1 323 elementary school kids for a year, "strongly" suggest video games could be doing significant damage to children's attention spans.

These are apparently effects shared by over-consumption of TV. It theorises this could be because TV and games are so stimulating to youngsters that they can no longer pay attention to the real world.

The number of mobile phone owners who play games on their portable devices has grown by 7% to 34% in the past 12 months in North America, says MCV.

This is according to a new report from the Pew Research Centre's Internet & American Life Project. MSNBC reports that 38% of owners now use mobile to surf the Internet, with 55% of those doing so daily.

By comparison, of the 42% of Americans who own a games console, 29% of those use them to access the Internet.