New draft Regulations on the Online Protection of Minors (Draft Regulations) were released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on 14 March 2022. They update the 2016 Draft Regulations of the same name which were released for public comment but never adopted.
The latest Draft Regulations have been issued pursuant to the PRC Law on Protection of Minors (LPM), PRC Cybersecurity Law and PRC Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and reflect the government’s growing concern about the negative impact of the internet on society, particularly its youth – and come hot on the heels of the rules introduced last year that prescribe the amount of time minors are allowed to spend on video games on a weekly basis.