Rest Reminder Provided After 30 Minutes of Use
Stock Price Plummets on Weibo Following Policy Announcement
The Chinese government announced plans to introduce guidelines limiting smartphone use for teenagers to a maximum of 2 hours per day. Following this, technology stocks related to Chinese online platforms such as Tencent and Weibo experienced a sharp decline.
On the 2nd (local time), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released a draft policy to restrict the use of smart devices by minors and decided to collect related feedback for one month. This aims to prevent smartphone addiction among teenagers and reduce their exposure to inappropriate content.
The CAC included in the policy the implementation of a "minor mode" on mobile devices such as smartphones to limit usage time. According to this, teenagers aged 16 to 18 can use devices for up to 2 hours per day, while those under 8 years old are limited to less than 40 minutes.
Additionally, service use will be unavailable from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and users will receive notifications to take breaks if they use the device for more than 30 minutes.
Following the regulatory news, Chinese tech stocks fell sharply on the Hong Kong stock exchange and others. Tencent, which operates the Chinese mobile messenger WeChat, dropped more than 3%, and Weibo, the Chinese blogging service, fell over 5%.
Other stocks such as e-commerce company Alibaba and video-sharing platform Bilibili also declined, confirming that the regulation is having a significant impact on the tech industry.
Meanwhile, reactions among Chinese residents to the smart device restriction policy are somewhat mixed.
A, a mother of two, expressed a positive response in an interview with CNN, saying, "Many children cannot control themselves when they see something they like, so the device usage restriction feature will help protect their eyesight," and added, "It also makes it easier for parents to manage."
However, some pointed out that if teenagers find ways to disable the minor mode, this policy will be ineffective.
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