China To Require Anti-Addiction Parental Controls For Short Video Apps

The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, also known as the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has required anti-addiction parental controls for short video apps. A series of companies from Tencent to ByteDance will have to add parental controls to their apps next month.

Technode reported that the internet watchdog in China has tested the system on some certain applications such as Douyin or TikTok by ByteDance, Kuaishou by Tencent, or Vigo Video by Huoshan. In addition, a “youth mode” will be added to the feature to limit how much time per day children are allowed to use the app. With the feature, they can’t also recharge their accounts without the consent of their parents.

Also according to the report, the order is a part of the plans given by Chinese authorities, which aim to monitor how much time children are spending on smartphones. These apps like TikTok or Kuaishou have shown their strong attraction to most users, especially to children in rural areas.

The Chinese authorities don’t just want to manage the short video apps but also attack a lot of gaming apps. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG Mobile is one of those. The popular game has been scanned by the Chinese government. Tencent Games is applying some new measures, for example, a digital lock system that allows preventing players of PUBG Mobile who are under the age limit. Besides, the facial recognition technology has been added to monitor and detect players’ real age on some games such as Honour of Kings.

Tencent Games and ByteDance have been strictly scanned in India. In addition, both PUBG Mobile and TikTok are facing a ban in the potential market. The two big tech companies including Apple and Google have been required to remove Douyin (TikTok) out of their platforms.