BEIJING: China will tighten its supervision on children’s internet use to ensure a healthier environment for their growth, according to a State-level regulation that will come into effect on Jan 1. The regulation has been approved by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, and will provide legal protections to children in terms of their rights to use the internet.
In the past few years, China has seen its number of child netizens continuously grow. A recent report shows that the nation had more than 193 million child netizens by the end of last year, with the internet penetration rate among the group increasing to 97.2 percent in 2022 from 93.7 percent in 2018.
The growth is due mainly to the growing prevalence and popularity of online education and online entertainment such as games and livestreaming, as well as short videos, according to the report. The report was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the China Internet Network Information Center, and is based on surveys of 31,688 students, 11,624 parents and 787 teachers from 31 provinces and regions. –Agencies
