After two months of piloting the so-called ‘Youth Mode’ on Kuaishou, Douyin, and Huoshan, China’s internet regulator announced that other short-video sharing and video streaming platforms will have to join this scheme intended to shield youngsters from social media addiction and harmful content.
In addition to the apps that participated in the pilot, Youth Mode features are now on 14 other short-video sharing platforms – including Xigua Video, Bilibili, and Meipai – and four major video streaming sites, namely WeTV, Iqiyi, Youku and PPTV, according to a notice from the Internet regulator the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
With Youth Mode on, you can only access the platform for a certain amount of time and watch videos from a limited content pool that consists mostly of patriotic films and TV dramas, music, calligraphy, drawing, and other educational clips.
Kuaishou, Douyin and Huoshan launched a Youth Mode feature on their platforms earlier this year, locking out underage users after bedtime and restricting daily use time to 40 minutes
The next step, CAC said, is to include live-streaming platforms into its anti-addiction scheme for youngsters.