Shanghai’s Cyberspace Administration has convened a critical meeting with major online platforms, urging them to proactively address seven key psychological risks faced by minors online. The directive emphasizes strengthening platforms’ primary responsibility in safeguarding the online environment for young users.
Focus on Mental Well-being for Underage Internet Users
On September 30th, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CAC) organized a special guidance session focused on the online protection of minors. The meeting underscored the importance of consolidating the principal responsibilities of website platforms and intensifying efforts in the ongoing special campaign for protecting minors. A key objective was to enhance mental health support and create a comprehensive, safe online space for children and adolescents.
Seventeen prominent platforms, including Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Pinduoduo, Ximalaya, SOUL, Yuewen Group, and miHoYo, were in attendance. The session reviewed typical cases of illegal and harmful information involving minors during the special campaign and outlined further measures to bolster mental health support. Platforms were urged to strictly implement their primary responsibilities and focus on preventing and mitigating seven specific psychological risks.
Seven Key Psychological Risks Identified
The identified risks include:
- Risk of internet addiction: Platforms must prevent issues like disrupted sleep schedules, reduced attention spans, and aversion to schooling.
- Risk of cyberbullying: Measures are needed to prevent long-term psychological trauma in minors.
- Risk of widespread body image anxiety: Caution is advised to prevent the breeding of inferiority complexes among young users.
- Risk of spreading negative and harmful content related to self-harm and suicide: Strict prevention is required to stop minors from imitating such content.
- Risk of excessive online social interaction displacing real-world engagement: Platforms should prevent the weakening of social skills and misinformation through extremist viewpoints.
- New risks from AI-generated content: Vigilance is needed against emotional manipulation through AI-powered deepfakes and virtual personas.
- Risk of spreading unhealthy values: Platforms must prevent the distortion of minors’ value judgments and the induction of behavioral deviations.
Platform Responsibilities and Future Actions
The meeting called for platforms to go beyond simply cleaning up harmful content. They must delve into the root causes of these psychological risks. Key areas for improvement include algorithm regulation, upgrading youth modes, optimizing reporting channels, enhancing the identification and handling of high-risk content, standardizing AI feature applications, strictly controlling problematic marketing, and increasing the supply of high-quality, positive content.
The goal is to shift governance from post-incident xử lý (processing) to proactive, source-level prevention, thereby minimizing the negative impact of the internet on minors’ mental health. The Shanghai CAC announced that it will intensify regular inspections, random checks, and enforcement actions against platforms. In collaboration with relevant departments, platforms with persistent issues will face strict legal penalties.
Furthermore, the Shanghai CAC plans to coordinate multi-party resources to enhance the online literacy of minors, cultivate civilized internet habits, and promote the healthy and safe use of the internet by young people.
