People under the age of 18 who use a mobile device to access the internet in China will soon be subject to new, harsh restrictions that will allow them up to only 40 minutes per day.
The Chinese government announced new proposed regulations on Wednesday to keep track of how much time kids spend online each day. The Cyberspace Administration of China’s (CAC) proposal creates a “minor mode,” which would restrict the kind of content the minors view based on their age and would restrict their mobile device usage to only a maximum of two hours or 40 minutes based on age.
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The new law will also require manufacturers of smart gadgets to implement the so-called minor mode programs that would prevent people under the age of 18 from using mobile devices to access the internet between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The CAC mandates that users between the ages of 16 and 18 be granted only two hours a day, while users between the ages of 8 and 16 are given one hour and users younger than 8 are given just eight minutes.
The new law has elicited a mixed reaction among businesses and investors in China. According to Xia Hailong, an attorney with the Shanghai Shenlun legal company, the new policy would make it harder for internet service providers to offer their services. It will take a lot of work and extra money to implement these new regulations correctly, he said in a statement to Reuters. He further says that there will also be a very significant risk of non-compliance. Therefore, many internet service providers may think about explicitly banning children from accessing their services.
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Chinese nationals await the implementation of the new law to see the effect it will have on the country’s access to the internet and other services.
