China plans to limit smartphone usage by children to two hours

China plans to introduce world's strictest regulations for children's smartphone usage, with parents required to sign on/off a "minor mode" and tech companies subject to regular checks. Age groups have different usage limits, with those under 8 only allowed 40 minutes/day and those 16-18 two hours/day.

China’s cyberspace watchdog has put forward plans to limit the usage of smartphones by children to no more than two hours a day and to require all tech companies to introduce a “minor mode” to enable restrictions.

A draft “Guidelines for the Construction of Minor Mode of the Mobile Internet” is open for public comments until September 2, State media reported on August 2.

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If the guidelines are adopted as is expected, China will be introducing some of the world’s most strict regulations for children in the usage of smartphones.

The proposed guidelines suggest restrictions for five different age groups: under 3, 3-8, 8-12, 12-16, and 16-18. For children under 8, the “minor mode” will only permit 40 minutes per day, and for those under 3, the guidelines said, “online internet providers should recommend children’s songs, enlightenment education and other parent-child companionship programs, and they are recommended to play via audio.”

The 16-18 age group will be given two hours of usage, and the minor mode “is prohibited from providing services to minors from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day.”

Some questions about how this will be enforced remain unclear, but the guidelines are the latest effort by the authorities to curb what they have seen as uncontrolled digital addiction among the youth, which has been reflected in numerous government surveys.