Ultimately, it falls to content providers to determine what constitutes healthy and appropriate online viewing for adolescents. How, then, can internet companies leverage their technological strengths to fulfill social responsibilities and cultivate a wholesome online environment for youth?
Tencent: No More Sneaking Late-Night Gaming
To address minors impersonating adults to play games late at night,on July 5, Tencent Games enhanced its existing facial recognition verification system by launching the Midnight Patrol feature. This function targets accounts registered to adults that exceed a certain nighttime gaming duration, subjecting them to intensive facial screening. Any account that refuses or fails facial verification will be treated as belonging to a minor, placed under Tencent's anti-addiction monitoring system, and disconnected.
Under the combined impact of measures including the Midnight Patrol, by June, an average of 5.8 million accounts triggered facial recognition verification during login daily, while 28,000 accounts faced verification during payment. Among these, 91.4% of accounts failing login verification were placed under anti-addiction supervision, and 87% of accounts attempting payment were blocked from recharging.
Additionally, the Tencent Growth Guardian platform introduced a Guardian Lock feature to prevent children from secretly modifying protection settings using their parents' phones. Once activated, this lock requires facial recognition verification for every adjustment to the protection plan, ensuring only the parent can make changes and preventing children from bypassing parental controls.
To further strengthen protections, Tencent will gradually roll out its "Double Reduction, Double Crackdown, Triple Initiative" measures across all games. "Double Reduction" refers to reducing both playtime and in-game spending: non-holiday playtime for minors is cut from 1.5 hours to 1 hour, and holiday playtime from 3 hours to 2 hours; minors under 12 are prohibited from making in-game purchases.
The "Double Crackdown" initiative tackles identity fraud by upgrading midnight patrols to round-the-clock monitoring, requiring re-verification of all suspicious accounts. It also combats user logins via accelerators and the buying/selling of adult accounts through certain third-party platforms.
The third initiative calls for the entire industry to further strengthen anti-addiction systems to control minors' total gaming time; deepen research on age-appropriate game ratings and implementation mechanisms; and discuss the feasibility of a comprehensive ban on elementary school students under 12 accessing games.
Kuaishou Enforces Mandatory Logout with No Exceptions
In March 2019, under guidance from the Cyberspace Administration of China, Kuaishou upgraded its parental control mode to a comprehensive Youth Mode.
Once activated, minors cannot initiate live streams, browse local content pages, or perform actions like tipping, recharging, or withdrawing funds. Enabling or disabling Youth Mode requires entering a pre-set independent password.Additionally, after 40 minutes of cumulative daily usage, a prompt appears forcing logout; reactivation requires guardian password entry. Kuaishou is inaccessible between 10 PM and 6 AM, with access only possible via guardian password.
In November 2020, Kuaishou launched its Minor Protection Toolkit, featuring four functions: Youth Mode, Online Classroom, Protecting the Young Initiative, and Kuaishou Customer Service.In December 2020, these tools were upgraded to include two additional features: reporting violations related to minors and refunds for minors. Currently, Kuaishou's Youth Mode has been iterated to version 3.0. Its content pool categories have been gradually expanded, and its recommendation algorithm has been continuously optimized and upgraded. Existing features include: - Isolation of top-up and tipping functions - Disabling live streaming permissions - Disabling the local city page - Enabling privacy settings - Time lock functionality - Password protection activation - Usage time restrictions - Curated content pool TikTok defaults to enabling the time lock feature.
Douyin Enables Time Lock by Default
To safeguard youth development, Douyin has upgraded its minor protection measures. Users under 14 with real-name verification will automatically enter Youth Mode after notification, with this policy rolling out since July. For verified users aged 14–18, Douyin provides enhanced safety protections in content recommendations, social interactions, and search—such as prohibiting display of personal information beyond profile pictures and nicknames to strangers.
Within Youth Mode, the system defaults to enabling a time lock. After 40 minutes of daily browsing, a password is required to continue usage. Additionally, youth are prohibited from using Douyin between 10 PM and 6 AM daily. Features like local trending searches are disabled, and youth cannot access private messaging, live streaming, or perform actions such as recharging, tipping, or withdrawing funds.All videos in Youth Mode are curated by the platform. Parents can set their child's age to receive age-appropriate recommendations featuring educational content with light entertainment elements, such as: - Knowledge-based content like nature science, drawing/crafts, and classical Chinese poetry; - Subject-based educational videos covering language learning, math logic, and English literacy; - Educational animations and documentaries that blend learning with entertainment.
To enhance learning, videos in Douyin's Youth Mode feature collection linking and playlist pages, enabling systematic exploration of topics of interest. For curious, self-directed learners, discovery tools and safe search functions are also available.
Curated Content from Bilibili
Upon entering Youth Mode, users will view content curated by Bilibili's Youth Mode team. This includes a selection of educational and entertaining premium content spanning fields like fun science, music and art, humanities and geography, as well as high-quality animations and documentaries.
Within Youth Mode, daily browsing time is capped at 40 minutes cumulatively, and the app becomes inaccessible from 10 PM to 6 AM daily. Features like live streaming tips are disabled in this mode.
Additionally, Bilibili has partnered with the Communist Youth League of China and other organizations to establish a Youth Rights Protection Center. This initiative enhances filtering, reporting, and penalties for harmful content while providing specialized legal and psychological support for young users. The platform has also launched the Youth Firewall Project to strengthen identity verification.