China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s digital authority, is introducing fresh regulations to address the excessive use of smartphones among young people. These rules will have an impact on major online companies like Tencent and ByteDance, which operate popular social media and online gaming platforms.
As per the newly revealed draft law, youngsters will be prohibited from using most online services on smartphones between 10 PM and 6 AM. Additionally, it proposes that 16 to 18-year-olds can only be online for a maximum of two hours a day, while those aged 8 to 15 will be limited to one hour, and children under 8 will have a daily limit of 40 minutes.
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The CAC intends to exempt specific services that are believed to promote the physical and mental development of children, though the exact services have not been specified yet.
This initiative by Beijing is aimed at addressing internet addiction, which it perceives as a widespread issue among young people. In 2019, China had already imposed restrictions, allowing only 90 minutes of daily online gaming, and further tightened it in 2021, limiting gaming to one hour on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays.
Video platforms like Douyin, Bilibili, and Kuaishou have already introduced youth modes to control content and usage time for minors, even encouraging educational materials such as science experiments.
The potential impact of these new rules may affect companies like Tencent, China’s leading online gaming firm, and ByteDance, the company behind the popular short-video platform Douyin. In China, it is typically the responsibility of these companies themselves to enforce such regulations.
The CAC has stated that its previous efforts to implement youth modes on internet platforms have been effective in safeguarding minors online. It has expanded the scope of these modes and improved their functionality and content to cater to different age groups. As a result, internet addiction among young users has reportedly decreased, and they have been protected from accessing inappropriate information.
The CAC is currently seeking public feedback on these draft laws until 2nd September, but the official date for the implementation of the new regulations has not been disclosed yet.
