While the rest of China was celebrating International Children’s Day with cake and ice cream, the Law on Protection of Minors was being revised to better address a number of outstanding issues facing children under the age of 18.
The new revisions that were added to the original 1991 law will apply to both local and foreign youth and were implemented to protect their physical and mental health, as well as their rights and interests. The amendments aim to “promote the comprehensive development of minors’ moral, intellectual, physical, and artistic labor [and]cultivate ideal, ethical, educated, and disciplined socialist builders and successors.”
Thus, beginning Jun 1, 2021, “online game service providers are not allowed to provide online game services to minors from 10pm to 8am the next day.” Furthermore, online businesses are not allowed to engage underage users with “addictive” products and services. And in seeking to establish “a unified electronic identity authentication system for minors in online games… online game service providers shall require minors to register and go in to online games with their real identity information.”
The legislative changes also include a number of provisions directed at parents. For instance, parents are encouraged to “improve their internet literacy, regulate their own use of the internet, and strengthen the guidance and supervision of minors’ use of the internet” so as to “effectively prevent minors from indulging in the internet.”
Another provision of the new law requires parents to “adopt child safety seats and educate minors to abide by traffic rules.” Incidentally, this isn’t the first time child safety seat laws have been introduced. Rather, it seems to be a second attempt at enforcing rules first drafted in 2013. However, like in the past, the car seat regulation is vaguely worded as it doesn’t state age, height, or weight specifications of the child.
“I hope this latest law will make it more common for parents with babies to use car seats. I have a Doona stroller that collapses into a car seat. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to argue with a Didi driver because they’ve asked me to put the stroller in the trunk and just hold my baby because they don’t want the wheels to get their car seat dirty.” says one Beijing mom. “It’s gotten to the point where my mother-in-law and I have a routine when that happens. We’d spend the entire car ride passive-aggressively discussing how irresponsible it is for adults not to put their babies in car seats and who would actually be legally responsible should we get into a car accident and the baby gets hurt because she wasn’t in a car seat.”
Beyond the scope of parenting, “schools and kindergartens should carry out propaganda and education activities such as diligence and thrift, opposing waste, cherishing food and civilized diet, to help minors establish a sense of shame in waste and pride in saving, and develop a civilized, healthy and green lifestyle,” states another provision in the new mandate. Similarly, educational institutions must report cases of severe bullying, sexual abuse, or harassment to the authorities promptly.
The updated provisions also forbid teens from purchasing alcohol, tobacco, and lottery tickets, while denying them entry into commercial entertainment venues such as bars and “internet services business venues.”
READ MORE: WATCH | What Drinks Contain Alcohol and Can Kids Buy it Unsupervised?
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