Chinese authorities have put up regulations that would cap the amount of time that minors under the age of eighteen can spend on their smartphones—up to two hours every day.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which is becoming more and more powerful, has released radical draft regulations that demonstrate Beijing’s intention to control more aspects of the nation’s digital life.
The regulations may have an impact on businesses like Tencent and ByteDance, who manage some of the most popular mobile apps in China, if they become law.
The draft regulations from the CAC represent a larger effort by Chinese authorities to reduce and prevent app and smartphone addiction in those under the age of 18. China implemented a law in 2021 prohibiting minors under the age of eighteen from spending more than three hours a week playing video games online.
A few of the largest internet companies in China have tried to anticipate additional regulatory actions.
According to the proposed regulations, smartphones must feature a “minor mode” that is simple to access when the device turns on and can be found in the system settings or as a home screen icon for users under the age of eighteen.
Internet service providers will be able to display content according to a user’s age thanks to the minor mode, which will also let parents control what their children view. Children under three should only be shown music and audio-focused content, according to CAC. It is possible to expose 12 to 16-year-olds to news and instructional content.
Online companies were cautioned by the CAC not to offer services that lead to addiction or harm children’s physical or mental health.
The draft guidelines proposed by the CAC divide children into age groups and impose various limits based on the age of the youngster.
A maximum of 40 minutes per day should be allotted for children under the age of eight to use smartphones. Children who are older than eight but younger than sixteen are only allowed to use their phones for one hour a day. A minimum of two hours can be spent using a phone by someone between the ages of 16 and 17.
The draft regulations state that a handset should not offer any services to youngsters between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. the following day.
Certain applications, such as those for emergency services or regulated education items, are free from these temporal restrictions.
Any attempts to remove a device from minor mode must be confirmed by a parent.
China’s rules have not yet been passed and are open to public consultation.
There are still question marks over how the draft law would be implemented and enforced, and what impact this might have on China’s technology giants.
For example, it is unclear if the creation of a minor mode will be the responsibility of the operating system provider of the device maker. In either case, it could put the onus on Apple, for example, to create something new for its iPhones in China.
It’s also to be determined how these time limits and the minor mode software will be monitored by the CAC.
Technology behemoths with operations in China, including Tencent and Baidu, as well as manufacturers of software and devices like Apple and Xiaomi, will be keenly monitoring the legislation.
Two of the largest online gaming businesses in the world, Tencent and NetEase, claimed that gamers under the age of 18 only made up a small percentage of their total revenue when China clamped down on youth gaming two years ago.