China has moved far beyond the United States in restricting teenage access to mobile devices and the internet, implementing a major crackdown while the U.S. debates the trade-off between protecting minors and respecting free speech.
The latest Chinese internet curbs came Wednesday when the Cyberspace Administration of China released new guidelines limiting teenagers' smartphone access. The new rules bar minors from accessing the internet on their mobile devices from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. They also limit mobile device use to only two hours per day for users between the ages of 16 and 18.
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"To strengthen protection of minors, in past years, the CAC has continued to push the construction of an internet model for youths, expanded its reach, improved its functions, and enriched age-appropriate content," the agency said in the regulations. "They've had a positive impact in lessening youth internet addiction and curbing the impact of undesirable information."
The bans will most directly affect the Chinese TikTok clone Douyin and the country's "everything app" WeChat, which are the two most popular apps in China, according to Bloomberg.
The CAC noted that providers would be held responsible for any enforcement, although it did not list specifics for the penalties. The apps must undergo periodic checks and assessments to ensure they abide by the CAC's rules. They would also have to provide access to relevant data on request.
China has embraced extreme efforts to try and regulate teenage access online for mental health and productivity reasons, arguing that the technology is a "social ill" that harms health and productivity. The government has imposed severe regulations on online gaming for teenagers, only allowing them to play for a maximum of three hours on the weekends.
Douyin implemented restrictions in 2021 that made it so teenage users can only use the Chinese TikTok clone for 40 minutes a day. The app doesn't work for children aged 14 or younger between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. It also implemented five-second pauses between videos and prioritized educational content in the algorithms.
In the U.S., meanwhile, the past few years have seen an explosion of interest in regulating social media and mobile device use by minors because of a growing sense that they harm young people's mental health and well-being.
TikTok is at the center of the controversy because it has become the top social media app among minors, and children and teenage users spend an average of more than 90 minutes a day on the app, according to a survey produced last year by parental control software maker Qustodio.
"TikTok is built like an indoctrination machine, and its user base is comprised of one of the most impressionable and vulnerable populations: children," Sen. James Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter this week to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan.
The anti-social media activist Tristan Harris compared Douyin, with its guardrails, to spinach versus the opium of TikTok.
More generally, officials and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have argued that the use of smartphones and the internet have led to alienation, loneliness, and other social problems among young people. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy claimed the technology creates a "profound risk" for teenage mental health and bad habit development. Several members of Congress, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), have alleged that the technology is causing a surge in suicide and mental health problems among underage users. Younger users have also reported seeing adult content as early as 12, according to a January survey from Common Sense Media.
Critics have said the dangers to minors have been blown out of proportion and that children and teenagers gain more from easy access to social media platforms than they stand to lose. Some civil liberties groups, along with some tech groups, have also argued that limitations on apps and platforms could infringe on free speech rights and also introduce major logistical obstacles to using the internet.
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Lawmakers have been taking steps toward various forms of rules and bans for social media geared at teenagers. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) earlier this year proposed the creation of a minimum age for social media use in February 2023. A Senate committee also approved Blackburn and Sen. Richard Blumenthal's (D-CT) Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to take steps to prevent a defined set of harms to minors as well as implement controls for users that allow parents to limit screen time, restrict addictive features, and determine who gets access to their teenager's user profile.
The Louisiana state legislature unanimously passed legislation in July that would ban teenagers 16 or younger from creating new social media accounts on platforms. Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) signed legislation in March that requires teenagers to have a parent's consent before they are allowed to make a social media account. Montana's governor also signed into law the first state TikTok ban in May.