CAC Notice on Seeking Public Comments for the Guidelines for the Development of Minor Mode on the Mobile Internet (Exposure Draft)

Promulgation Authorities: Cyberspace Administration of China

Release Date: 2023-08-02

Effective Date: 2023-08-02

Source: http://www.cac.gov.cn/2023-08/02/c_1692541991073784.htm

Original Title: 国家互联网信息办公室关于《移动互联网未成年人模式建设指南（征求意见稿）》公开征求意见的通知

CAC Notice on Seeking Public Comments for the Guidelines for the Development of Minor Mode on the Mobile Internet (Exposure Draft)

In order to effectively strengthen the protection of minors online, in recent years, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) has guided the website platforms to continuously promote the development of the teen mode, expand the scope of coverage, optimize function settings and enrich age-appropriate content. Since its launch, the popularization rate of the mode has increased steadily, playing a positive role in helping minors reduce internet addiction and the impact of harmful information.

In order to further enhance the efficiency of the mode and based on the new situation and new requirements for the online protection of minors, the CAC has drafted the Guidelines for the Development of Minor Mode on the Mobile Internet (Exposure Draft) to comprehensively upgrade the “teen mode” to the “minor mode”, expand the coverage of the mode from APPs to mobile intelligent terminals and App stores, realize the tripartite linkage of software and hardware, facilitate users’ entering the mode with one click and create a safe and healthy network environment for minors. The Guidelines are open for public comments and suggestions, and all sectors of the society are welcome to give their opinions. The public may give feedback through the following channels and ways:

-1. Send comments by email to: wcnrms@cac.gov.cn.

-2. Send comments by correspondence to: the Comprehensive Cyberspace Governance Bureau under the CAC at No.11 Chegongzhuang Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, postal code: 100044, with the words “Comments Sought on the Guidelines for the Development of Minor Mode on the Mobile Internet” indicated on the envelope.

The period for feedback will end on September 2, 2023.

Cyberspace Administration of China

August 2, 2023

Guidelines for the Development of Minor Mode on the Mobile Internet (Exposure Draft)

-I. Objectives and Basis

In order to better play the positive role of the Internet, create a good network environment, prevent and intervene in the internet addiction of the minors and guide the minors to form good internet access habits, these Guidelines are enacted in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors and other laws and administrative regulations, as well as relevant provisions on the online protection of the minors.

-II. Scope of Application

These Guidelines stipulate the basic requirements, functional requirements and management requirements to be satisfied by the minor mode of various mobile smart terminals, mobile Internet applications (hereinafter referred to as the “Apps”) and mobile Internet application distribution service platforms (hereinafter referred to as the “App distribution platforms”) and apply to the research and development and application of the minor mode carried out by mobile smart terminal providers, App providers, App distribution platform providers and other relevant subjects.

III. General Specifications

-(I) Tripartite linkage

There shall be linkage among the mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms:

-1. The minor mode shall have the function of automatic switching. After the minor mode is activated for the mobile intelligent terminals with one click, the Apps and App distribution platforms shall automatically switch to the minor mode interface, and after the mobile intelligent terminals exit the minor mode, the Apps and App distribution platforms shall automatically switch to the normal mode interface.

-2. The minor mode shall support unified settings by parents or minor users on multiple mobile intelligent terminals (including multiple mobile intelligent terminals of the same or different types of the same manufacturer) through their accounts. When a user logs in the unified account, the existing configurations of other mobile intelligent terminals under the account are automatically copied to the local devices and enabled.

-3. Mobile intelligent terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall provide necessary interfaces and data sharing, so as to have the functions of anti-addiction reminder for minors, parent supervision and administration etc.

-(II) Easy use

-1. In order to protect minors’ personal information rights and interests, parents are encouraged to activate the minor mode for minors, and the mobile intelligent terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall provide convenient functions and services for management by parents, so as to facilitate parents’ performance of guardianship duties and guide minors to form good internet access habits.

-2. Mobile intelligent terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall follow the principle of benefiting the minors to the largest extent and provide functions such as effectively identifying illegal information and information likely to affect the physical and mental health of minors and preventing minors from becoming addicted to the network, so as to strengthen the protection of minors online.

-3. Mobile intelligent terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall establish convenient, reasonable and effective channels for complaints and whistleblowing under the minor mode and promptly accept and handle complaints and whistleblowing involving minors.

-(III) Principle of age groups

Mobile intelligent terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall, in light of the physical and mental development characteristics of minors at different ages, provide users of different ages with information and services suitable for their physical and mental development by assessing the types, contents, functions and other factors of products. The age-based design shall be divided into the following five age intervals:

-1. under 3 years old;

-2. 3 to 8 years old;

-3. 8 to 12 years old;

-4. 12 to 16 years old; and

-5. 16 to 18 years old.

-IV. Minor Mode Requirements for Mobile Intelligent Terminals

-(I) Basic requirements

-1. Entry of the minor mode

The entry of the minor mode shall be set up under the simplest principle. Users may access the minor mode by at least three means such as power-on reminder, desktop icons and system settings. The mode entry shall be in a fixed position, convenient and easy-to-find, so as to facilitate one-click entering or switching by parents and minor users.

When a user logs in the minor mode for the first time, the mobile intelligent terminal shall provide a variety of methods such as setting birthday, selecting age or age group at the entrance for the user to make choices, and information of multiple minors may be allowed.

Users may select that the minor mode is not required at the first time of power-on or system settings, and the system will no longer give the relevant reminder.

-2. Exit from the minor mode

When exiting from the minor mode, parents are required to verify and consent. Parents may, based on the existing authentication mechanism for the mobile intelligent terminal, choose at their own discretion a password, fingerprint, face or other recognition methods for single or compound verification.

-(II) Management of screen time

-1. The mobile intelligent terminal shall provide differentiated screen time management services for minor users of different ages. When the daily screen time limit expires, the mobile intelligent terminal shall automatically shut down all Apps except for specific necessary Apps and Apps defined by parents for exemption:

-(1) Under the minor mode for users under the age of 8, the mobile intelligent terminal shall support default total use time of not more than 40 minutes and provide parental exemption operation;

-(2) Under the minor mode for users of 8-16, the mobile intelligent terminal shall support default total use time of not more than one hour and provide parental exemption operation;

-(3) Under the minor mode for users of 16-18, the mobile intelligent terminal shall support default total use time of not more than two hours and provide parental exemption operation;

-(4) Under the minor mode, when a minor user continuously uses the mobile intelligent terminal for more than 30 minutes, the mobile intelligent terminal shall issue a rest reminder;

-(5) Under the minor mode, the mobile intelligent terminal is prohibited from providing services to minors from 22: 00 to 6: 00 the next day; and

-(6) The following Apps and services are not subject to the above restrictions on time and duration:

-a. Emergency: products and services used to protect the personal safety of minors, including emergency call services and Apps customized by the mobile intelligent terminal to protect the personal safety of minors;

-b. Education: products and services providing online classes and other education services for minors that have been filed for the record with the relevant competent authorities;

-c. Tools suitable for minors: products and services suitable for the physical and mental development of minors certified by the App distribution platform, such as some image processing, computing and measurement Apps, etc.; and

-d. Apps that may be customized in settings and exempted by parents.

-2. In the minor mode of a mobile intelligent terminal, the screen time management and control function by parents shall at least meet the following requirements:

-(1) setting the total screen time of the entire mobile intelligent terminal;

-(2) setting the time period of use of the entire mobile intelligent terminal, and setting one or more time periods of use as the case may be;

-(3) setting the screen time of the designated Apps; and

-(4) prohibiting minors from modifying the system date and time of the mobile intelligent terminal.

-(III) Requirements of avoiding bypass

-1. A mobile intelligent terminal shall have the bypass prevention function. After entering the minor mode, the mobile intelligent terminal shall exit the minor mode or restore the factory settings only after the verification and confirmation by parents.

-2. The mobile intelligent terminal under the minor mode shall ensure that the icon of the service functions of minor mode is always kept on the top-level page of the desktop, and will not be uninstalled, frozen and hidden, and the process will not be forced to end.

-3. In the minor mode, if it is necessary to activate the developer mode, parents shall verify and confirm the same.

-(IV) Supplementary requirements

-1. Since minors’ physical and psychological development such as vision and hearing have not yet reached maturity, the mobile intelligent terminal is encouraged to use technical means to reduce or eliminate the potential harm that may occur to minors in the process of use of the mobile intelligent terminal.

-2. The mobile intelligent terminal shall provide minor users with services of urgent sending positions and calling the associated parent user terminal.

-3. Smart watches, early learning machines, smart speakers and other smart devices for children as well as wearable devices for virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) that provide services for minors shall comply with the relevant clauses hereof to ensure the safety and controllability of information content and prevent minors’ internet addiction or accessing of information that may affect their physical and mental health.

-4. The teen mode in the existing Apps shall be retained under the normal mode of the mobile intelligent terminal and upgraded and transformed in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Guidelines to provide safety protection for minors using the existing Apps under the normal mode.

-V. Minor Mode Requirements for Mobile Internet Apps

-(I) Basic requirements

In the minor mode, mobile Internet information service providers shall provide age-specific content services for minors and build an exclusive content pool. The age-appropriate contents shall be recommended as follows:

-1. For children under the age of 3: children’s songs, enlightenment education and other parent-child companionship programs are recommended and played via audio;

-2. For children of 3-8: programs of enlightenment education, interest literacy, general education and other programs are recommended;

-3. For children of 8-12: general education, knowledge popularization, life skills and entertainment contents of positive guidance as well as news and information suitable for the cognitive ability of this age group are recommended;

-4. For children of 12-16: general education, subject education, knowledge popularization, life skills and entertainment contents of positive guidance as well as news and information suitable for the cognitive ability of this age group are recommended; and

-5. For children of 16-18: healthy and positive information suitable for the cognitive ability of this age group are recommended.

Mobile Internet information service providers are encouraged to recommend and mark the age-appropriate content in the exclusive content pool for minors according to the requirements for different age groups.

-(II) Content safety requirements

In the minor mode, mobile Internet information service providers shall perform their principal responsibilities to ensure the safety of information content accessed by minors:

-1. In the minor mode, mobile Internet information service providers shall actively carry out the development of the content pool for minors. They shall produce, reproduce, release, disseminate and carry forward the core socialist values and advanced socialist culture, revolutionary culture and excellent traditional Chinese culture, forge the community consciousness of the Chinese nation, cultivate minors’ patriotism and good morality, guide minors to develop good living habits and behavioral habits and other network information and create a clean cyberspace and good network ecology that are conducive to the healthy growth of minors.

-2. Mobile Internet information service providers shall perform their principal responsibilities, and shall not, under the minor mode, provide minor users with any form of relevant products and services that induce them to indulge in or are detrimental to their physical and mental health:

-(1) It is prohibited to produce, reproduce, release or disseminate via the internet the information containing the content that endangers the physical and mental health of minors, and it is prohibited to send the minors the information containing the content that endangers or may affect the physical and mental health of minors;

-(2) It is prohibited to produce, reproduce, release, disseminate or possess pornographic network information relating to minors; it is prohibited to induce or force minors to produce, reproduce, release or disseminate the text, picture, audio or video that may expose their personal privacy; and

-(3) It is prohibited to produce, reproduce, release or disseminate the information that may affect the physical and mental health of minors, such as information that may cause or induce minors to imitate unsafe behaviors, to commit acts in violation of social morality, to have bad emotions and to develop bad habits.

-(III) Requirements for functional restrictions

In the minor mode, mobile Internet information service providers shall restrict minor users from using the products and services that may endanger their physical and mental health:

-1. The providers of network services such as online live-streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking shall set up functions such as time management, authority management and consumption management in response to minors’ use of their services.

-2. The providers of network services such as online live-streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking shall take measures to reasonably restrict the amount of single consumption and the accumulative amount of consumption in a single day by minors in the use of network products and services and shall not provide minors with any paid service that does not accord with their capacity for civil conduct.

-3. In the minor mode, it is prohibited to establish online communities, chat groups, and topics with the themes of fund raising for support, voting and ranking, and posting and deleting online comments, and it is not allowed to use pan-entertainment functions and contents to induce minors to become addicted to the network.

-4. The anti-addiction requirements of online games shall comply with the relevant administrative provisions.

-5. Online education network products and services shall not contain links to online games or push advertisements and other information irrelevant to teaching.

-6. Algorithmic recommendation service providers shall not push to minors the information that may affect their physical and mental health, such as information that may cause minors to imitate unsafe behaviors and acts in violation of social morality, and induce minors to have bad habits, nor shall they induce minors to become addicted to the internet by using algorithmic recommendation services.

-7. App developers are encouraged to develop Apps that adapt to the laws and characteristics of the physical and mental health development of minors in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations and help minors cultivate good network literacy.

-(IV) Social management requirements

-1. Apps shall provide minors and their parents with social management authority, allow them to follow or block specific users and limit the disclosure scope of specific information.

-2. Social Apps shall not, in the minor mode, provide external links for easy network addiction or give minors access to internet information harmful to their physical and mental health.

-3. Apps other than instant messengers shall close the function of private messages from/to strangers in the minor mode.

-VI. Minor Mode Requirements for Mobile Internet App Distribution Service Platforms

-(I) Basic requirements

-1. The App distribution platform shall provide a special area of Apps for minors, so as to facilitate minors in obtaining the products or services within the platform that are conducive to their physical and mental health; and

-2. The App distribution platform shall, in light of the physical and mental characteristics and cognitive levels of minors at different ages, mark the age for recommendation of Apps and provide Apps suitable for minors at different age groups.

-(II) Requirements for building a special area for minors

The App distribution platform shall, as per the relevant management requirements, strengthen the building of a special area for minors:

-1. App providers shall follow the principle of benefiting minors to the most, pay attention to the healthy growth of minors, fulfill various obligations to protect minors online, strictly implement the requirements on the real-name registration and login of accounts for minors, and shall not provide the relevant products and services in any form to minor users that induce their addiction.

-2. Apps that are conducive to the physical and mental health of minors such as education, intelligence enhancement, popular science, reading, music and sports are encouraged to be on the shelves in special area for minors.

-3. Apps that are clearly prohibited by the relevant authorities in light of the characteristics of various age groups shall not be put on the App distribution platform under the minor mode.

-(III) Download security

The App distribution platform shall, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, review and handle the access of various network Apps and services to the minor mode:

-1. It shall specify the age groups of minor users for whom the products are suitable and make prominent prompts in user downloading, registration, login interfaces and other positions.

-2. The App distribution platform shall, in light of the characteristics of minors’ ages, provide differentiated download services for minor users and ensure that parents may review or exempt the downloading and installation of Apps in minor mode:

-(1) Minor users under the age of 12 shall obtain the consent of their parents when downloading or installing Apps in the special area for minors; the parents have certain exemption rights to allow the minors to download Apps other than those designated for minors; and

-(2) Minor users of 12-16 may download and install Apps designated for minors by themselves, and their parents have certain exemption rights to allow the minors to download Apps other than those designated for minors.

-3. It is prohibited to download Apps through the external links, unless reviewed and exempted by parents.

-4. The App distribution platform shall establish relevant whistleblowing mechanism to strengthen users’ supervision over the information content and services in the minor mode. If necessary, relevant Apps shall be removed from the shelves according to relevant management requirements.

VII. Management by Parents

-(I) Basic requirements

In the minor mode, mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall provide parents with management authority to ensure that parents can carry out daily and emergency management for designated minor users to better supervise and guide online behavior of minor users:

-1. The mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall provide parents with management authority in terms of screen time of minors, receipt of information services, downloading and installation of Apps and other aspects, so as to meet the needs of parents for supervision, exemption and review of minor users.

-2. A mobile smart terminal shall provide at least one family number as the parent account to be bound to the minor’s account. Such account can be used by the parent and the minor on the same terminal or different terminals and can be associated with Apps and App distribution platform at the same time.

-(II) Parents’ management of time of use of mobile smart terminal by minors

Mobile smart terminals and Apps shall provide anti-addiction reminders for minors and their parents and allow parents to supervise and guide the time of use of the mobile smart terminals by minors:

-1. The mobile smart terminals shall regularly provide parents with an overview report on the time of use by minor users under the minor mode, the screen time of various Apps and the time spent online, so as to assist parents in supervising minors’ online behaviors.

-2. If the time of use by a minor user exceeds the time limit suggested herein, the minor user may submit an application for exemption to the related parent user.

-(III) Management of the content of information services for minors by parents

Parents may use associated accounts to provide review and exemption functions for the information content in minor mode:

-1. Parents may exempt the information in the non-exclusive content pool and add it in the content pool for designated minors.

-2. Parents are encouraged to mark and give suggestions on the contents in the non-exclusive content pool, so as to provide a basis for the platform to enrich the building of exclusive content pool.

-(IV) Management of minors’ use of Apps by parents

Parents may use associated accounts to review App downloading in minor mode, exempt or prohibit users from downloading and installing certain Apps, including:

-1. granting full authority for exemption for specific Apps, for example, granting the authority for long-term use by minors for auxiliary education Apps.

-2. granting the authority for limited screen time of specific Apps, for example, granting the authority for the use of tool Apps suitable for the physical and mental development of minors within a specific time period as needed.

-3. setting the specific Apps and functions to be always prohibited for use, and the relevant Apps shall not pop up any notification during such period and shall not be accessed for use.

-4. not exempting Apps and services that are expressly prohibited by relevant regulations from being used by minors.

VIII. Management Requirements

-(I) Mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms shall actively cooperate in the supervision and inspection conducted by relevant administrative authorities and provide necessary technical, data and other support and assistance.

-(II) Mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms that provide services to minor users shall regularly carry out assessment of the impact of online protection for minors.

-(III) Mobile smart terminals, Apps and App distribution platforms that provide services to minor users shall establish a necessary emergency response mechanism to ensure that the emergency business for protection of the personal safety of minor users is not shielded.

-(IV) In minor mode, mobile Internet information service providers shall provide services in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and shall not collect user data beyond the scope.

Appendix: Terms and definitions

-(1) Minor mode

For the purpose of these Guidelines, the minor mode refers to the network protection mode that covers mobile smart terminals, mobile Internet Apps and mobile Internet App distribution platforms and is specifically used by minors in line with the laws and characteristics of the physical and mental health development of the minors.

-(2) Mobile smart terminals

Mobile smart terminals refer to the mobile terminal products which have access to the public mobile communication networks, have an operating system, and can install, run and uninstall Apps by users themselves, including smart phones, tablet PCs, smart watches for children, early learning machines and other intelligent terminals and smart wearable devices.

-(3) Mobile Internet Apps

Mobile Internet Apps refer to the software that provides users with services of production, reproduction, release and dissemination of text, pictures, audio, video and other information through Apps.

-(4) Mobile Internet App distribution service platforms

Mobile Internet App distribution service platforms refer to the platforms that provide services of App distribution, downloading, dynamic loading, etc. through the Internet, including App stores, App centers, Internet applet platforms, etc.