A legislative consultation in Changning District, Shanghai, showed public suggestions feeding into national rules on minors and the internet. Participants called for clear standards that address large differences in needs by age group and mismatches in content, and for a prohibition on offering minors addictive features such as infinite scrolling and automatic continuous play.

The meeting addressed the State Council Provisions on Ensuring the Healthy and Safe Use of the Internet by Minors (draft for comments), recently opened for public comment. Hongqiao Subdistrict, also known as the Gubei Civic Center, in Changning is one of eight network-legislation contact points established by the Cyberspace Administration of China. It brought together platform representatives, experts and local residents. From 2025 onward, the administration has collected more than 4,000 opinions and suggestions on key network legislation through these points.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized coordinating legislation, enforcement, judicial work and public legal education in the network field. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan proposes improving regulations on internet content management and online platform governance, severely cracking down on illegal and criminal acts online, and tackling online rumors, cyberbullying and similar problems in order to create a clean and upright online environment.

These activities are presented as a practice of whole-process people’s democracy and as continued progress in China’s network rule of law. In the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, cyberspace authorities and related departments have continued to improve network legal norms, strengthen enforcement in priority fields, increase judicial protection of netizens’ lawful rights and interests, and build a broad system of network legal education.

Legislation has followed digital development into new areas of risk. On July 29, a draft law against cyberbullying, prepared by the Cyberspace Administration of China together with relevant departments, was released for public comment. It would be the country’s first specialized anti-cyberbullying law. Under the draft, network service providers should establish functions to prevent cyberbullying, and users harmed by it would have the right to notify providers to delete content, block it or disconnect links.

Further rules have been issued in quick succession. In April, five departments published interim measures on the management of artificial-intelligence anthropomorphic interactive services. In June, three departments published measures on network data security risk assessment. In July, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security published provisions on simplified personal-information protection measures for small personal-information processors. The instruments target artificial-intelligence governance, livestream e-commerce and personal-information protection.

Implementation has been tested in specific cases. A short video that circulated recently claimed that consecutive days of heavy rain had flooded a toll station and a blueberry base in a certain city and drew wide attention. Authorities found that the creator had used artificial intelligence to invent the disaster in order to attract traffic and followers, and that the false information seriously interfered with local flood prevention and relief. Cyberspace departments ordered platforms to dispose of the violating accounts in accordance with law and agreements, and the public security organs imposed an administrative penalty on the video’s maker.

Broader enforcement has continued through regular Qinglang special campaigns covering the rectification of disorder in artificial-intelligence applications, governance of malicious hype about enterprises, rectification of problems in online entertainment group broadcasts, and protection of minors online. Three departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a 2026 series of special actions on personal-information protection, and two departments focused on cleaning up online information related to financial black-and-gray industries.

Courts have added guidance for newer disputes. On August 3 the Supreme People’s Court released a set of typical cases on issues such as how responsibility is determined in quality disputes over goods sold by livestreaming, and whether an anchor’s practice of criticizing one product while praising another is a reasonable evaluation or commercial defamation. The cases cover livestream e-commerce, compliant platform operation and the maintenance of fair market competition, and are intended to clarify boundaries for businesses. Since the start of the year, adjudication rules involving artificial intelligence have been further refined, and digital-intelligent trials have been improved in an effort to uphold fairness and justice online.

Legal education has been carried out alongside these measures. In March in Chengdu, Sichuan, bamboo-clapper performances and short plays turned rules on preventing telecom and online fraud and on protecting personal information into plain language. The performance was part of the launch of the 2026 E Fa Tongxing national theme campaign on network rule of law. Guided jointly by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Justice and the national office for public legal education, the campaign runs from March to November and has been held in Sichuan, Jiangxi, Ningxia and Liaoning. Related reports have received more than 8 billion clicks across the internet. Youth activities known as Rule of Law Button and the continued release of outstanding national publicity cases have used the network both to explain the law and to explain network law itself.

A relevant official of the Cyberspace Administration of China said that guaranteeing high-quality economic and social development requires network rule-of-law construction to seize the initiative and plan ahead, and that meeting the public’s hopes for a sound online ecology requires responding to concerns and acting proactively. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the official said, overall coordination, organizational leadership, planning guidance and mechanism building should be strengthened so that the overall effectiveness of network rule-of-law work keeps rising.

Original article: https://www.peopleapp.com/column/30053536248-500007780750