A regulation banning minors from acting as news anchors on livestreaming platforms and protections on their use of the internet need to be issued, according to a proposal by the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) during the two sessions, to protect minors from illegal content.
The draft of the regulation is needed since some livestreaming platforms provide vulgar and pornographic information, which affects the values of minors, violates their privacy and causes financial losses due to "irrational" rewards to the network anchors, The Beijing News quoted members of the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from ACYF as saying in a report on Saturday.
Wang Sixin, a media law professor at the Communication University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday that "the ability for minors to control their language is weak."
Under this circumstance, when they do not know how to deal with provocative language, it will be harmful to their physical and mental health, Wang pointed out.
"Minors are at a critical stage in the development of moral habits and their capacity of discern is weak. They might mistakenly believe that the vulgar acts they watch through livestreams can be attractive, profitable and even emulated, which causes a negative impact on their values," delegates from the ACYF were quoted by China National Radio (CNR) as saying.
The number of online users in China reached 425 million as of June 2018, an increase of 2.94 million compared with 2017, and the user utilization rate was 53.0 percent, according to a report on the development of the internet in December 2018.
The percentage of students in elementary, junior and senior high schools who regularly watch live broadcasts reached 6.4 percent, 18.3 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively, another survey quoted by CNR said.
The ACYF proposed that the regulation needs to clarify the criteria for an anchor and strengthen the investigation and punishment of live-streaming platforms for illegal content inspection and supervision.
Facial recognition and big data could be used to identify registered users and a "parental control mode" can be applied to monitor and prevent minors from getting away from parental supervision.
Some young livestreaming users would use their parents' bank cards to reward the anchors, but is difficult to get a refund, media reported.
