The measure aims to prevent children and teenagers from becoming addicted to the device. Find out more!
Cell phone addiction, known as Nomophobia, has increasingly affected people, who cannot stop themselves from checking their device's notifications or checking social media all the time.
This constant use of cell phones has affected not only adults, but also children and teenagers, who are having access to smartphones at an increasingly early age, whether to watch, play games, or access social networks. The problem is that this excessive use, in addition to generating dependence, can also cause problems in the child's development and hinder their school performance.
Because of this, a new law aims to limit the amount of time children and teenagers spend using cell phones, in order to avoid future problems. Learn all the details about this law and see how it should work!
New law
Because of the overuse of smartphones by children and teenagers, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced a new legislative proposal that will limit the amount of time that this group spends using cell phones in the country.
With this measure, the objective is to reduce the time that young people spend on cell phones and prevent them from develop addictions on social networks and applications, and also implement parental controls, so that only certain types of content are accessed by younger children. The document also indicates the times at which access can be allowed, depending on the age of the child or adolescent.
The text will still go through a public consultation stage, to hear the opinion of the population, who will be able to contribute with criticisms and suggestions about the measure. There is still no forecast for when the legislation will be approved, but the current text should be ready next month, in September.
Proposed schedules
According to the text, minors under 18 will only be able to access the internet on their cell phones from 6 am to 10 pm, with a maximum daily usage time for this audience, depending on the age group. Therefore, the times would be as follows:
– Children under 8 years old – 40 minutes per day
– Between 8 and 15 years old – 1 hour per day
– From 16 to 17 years old – 2 hours per day
Another measure included in the proposal is related to the content accessed. Thus, devices used by young people between the ages of 12 and 16 can only show news and educational content. Children under the age of 3 can only access music and audio content.
Companies may be harmed
The country's tech giants have yet to comment on the matter, but it is possible that they will oppose the proposal, since many generate revenue thanks to access and consumption by underage audiences. Companies such as ByteDance, which owns from TikTok limited the time children could use the app per day in 2021.
In fact, for this time control to work, manufacturers will need to think of some way to identify the user to know that they are a child, either when registering an account or through some mechanism that restricts age.
Debates
This type of debate about cell phone use by children and teenagers is not exclusive to China. Other countries are discussing the issue and have even passed laws to limit minors' access to social networks.
The Netherlands, for example, will prohibit the use of devices in the classroom from next year, in an attempt to reduce distractions among young people during class. Other European countries are also looking to invest in the measure soon.
