The Chinese government is in the process of placing some restrictions on the internet use of minors. Under this, children below the age of 18 years will be allowed to use the internet for a maximum of two hours a day. Under this, the Chinese government asked all mobile phone establishments to find a method called ‘minor mode’. Due to this, children will not be able to use the internet between 10 pm and 6 am.According to Chinese officials, the public has been asked for their views on this and they can be sent to the government by September 2.

According to this decision, children aged 16 to 18 years will be allowed to use internet for a maximum of 2 hours. Children in the age group of 8 to 16 years will be allowed to use the Internet for 1 hour, while children of younger age will be allowed to use the Internet for only 8 minutes.China’s Cyberspace Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that children under 18 should be restricted from using their smartphones for up to two hours per day, sending tech companies’ shares plunging. According to the draft guidelines published by the CAC, which is open to public comment until September 2, providers of smart device services will be required to implement “minor mode programmes” that bar users under age 18 from using their mobile devices. “Providers should also set time limits,” CAC said in a statement. “Users from 16 to 18 years old will be allowed 2 hours per day, users aged 8 to 16 years old will get 1 hour per day, and users under 8 years old will get 8 minutes per day.” The CAC said that service providers should provide parents with the option to opt out. However, investors were not impressed, with Chinese tech firms’ shares mostly falling in after-hours trading in Hong Kong. The proposed rules will be a major challenge for the internet companies, according to Xiao Hailong, an attorney at the law firm of Shanghai Shenlun. “It will take a lot of effort and cost to implement these new rules properly,” he said, “and the risk of not meeting the requirements will also be high, so many companies may consider banning minors from their services directly.” In recent years, authorities have become increasingly worried about the prevalence of myopia and the addiction of young people to the internet. In 2021, the government put a ban on video game players under 18 years of age. This was a major blow to gaming giants Tencent and Bilibili, as well as other video-sharing platforms such as Kouhei and ByteDance, which have offered “teenage mode” since 2019 to limit the users’ access and duration of use. ByteDance’s TikTok-style app Douyin, for example, bars users from using it for periods of more than 40 minutes for teenagers. Beijing’s proposed rules come in response to signals from the authorities that they will look to promote the growth of tech giants.