China’s authorities are considering stricter rules on smartphone use by children and young people. The rules, which the Chinese internet regulator presented in a draft on Wednesday, provide for smartphones and other mobile devices used by children and young people to be equipped with a “parental protection mode”.
This is intended to limit access to many applications to a maximum of two hours per day. The younger the children, the shorter the time. Children under the age of eight can be online for a maximum of 40 minutes a day, while the maximum age for 16 and 17 year olds is two hours.
However, there should also be applications such as certain learning programs that are exempt from the time limit. Parents can also extend the periods. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the devices should be largely locked in protection mode.
A few years ago, China instructed online game manufacturers to set strict time limits for children and young people. This should counteract the “addiction” to such games. In addition, China froze the approval of new games for nine months in 2021. Online companies like the industry rise Tencent suffered massively.
The announcement of the CAC suggests that the authorities’ crackdown on China’s tech sector is not over. The share prices of companies like Tencent or Baidu fell on Wednesday.
