§ LAW · MINORS PROTECTION LAW
Law on the Protection of Minors.
中华人民共和国未成年人保护法
Adopted September 4, 1991; comprehensively revised December 29, 2006 and
October 17, 2020 (the latter adding the “Network Protection” chapter);
amended October 26, 2012. The current text took effect June 1, 2021.
DCC has not reproduced the full text. Key provisions cited in DCC briefs:
- Article 39 — schools must establish a student-bullying
prevention-and-control system, train staff and students, immediately stop
bullying, involve parents of both sides in determination and handling, and
report serious incidents to public security and education authorities.
- Article 64 — the state, society, schools, and families shall conduct
internet-literacy education for minors.
- Article 70 — schools shall use the internet reasonably in teaching;
minor students may not bring smartphones and other smart terminals into
class without school permission, and devices brought to school are subject
to unified management.
- Article 71 — a school that discovers a minor student addicted to the
internet shall promptly inform the parents or other guardians and jointly
educate and guide the student.
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§ 01 · MINORS
On September 18, 2026, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released the draft State Council Provisions on Ensuring Minors' Healthy and Safe Use of the Internet for public comment. Comments closed October 17, 2026. DCC has translated the 25 articles, the notice, and the CAC's Explanation in full. Against the 2024 Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace, the draft adds five things. It bans online social networking with strangers for minors (except self-supporting 16- and 17-year-olds), and extends the virtual-intimacy ban from AI companions to all network services. It makes minors' mode the only way to serve under-16s with audio and video, live-streaming, games, social networking, and AI services that may affect minors' cognition. It turns minor-user identification into a stand-alone duty, with methods that include one-time facial verification and behavioral recognition. It reaches smart terminal manufacturers and app distribution platforms. And it creates a minors' mode filing system: providers that offer a minors' mode file with the provincial cyberspace administration, while platforms identified as having a very large number of minor users and a significant impact on minors file with the national cyberspace administration through the provincial office and report on their minors' mode. Fines reach 10 times illegal gains or RMB 1 million. The effective date is blank, but the year reads 2026.
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§ 02 · MINORS-PROTECTION
Minors' online protection is usually framed as a job for parents and platforms. Three model cases — a Guangzhou Internet Court judgment on defamation in a parent–school WeChat group, a Supreme People's Procuratorate case where procuratorial recommendations pushed a school to build bullying-control systems after a privacy video spread, and a Zhejiang case where a predator used an unauthorized school-named 'confession wall' account to reach students — show Chinese courts and procuratorates deliberately pulling schools into the frame. JunHe's education team distills the school's three statutory functions: internet-literacy education (Minors Protection Law Arts. 64 and 70, Online Protection Regulations Art. 16), cyberbullying prevention and response (Minors Protection Law Art. 39; School Protection Provisions Art. 21), and internet-addiction intervention (Minors Protection Law Art. 71; Regulations Art. 40). The liability stack for schools that do nothing: administrative correction orders and sanctions under Regulations Art. 51, plus civil supplementary liability under Civil Code Art. 1201. Four recommendations follow: documented literacy and AI-content-discrimination education, a staffed-up 'rule-of-law vice principal' mechanism, a full discover–stop–report–handle bullying protocol, and compliance with device-management and anti-addiction requirements. With 196 million minor netizens at 97.3% penetration, the authors argue schools are the 'main battlefield' whether they like it or not.