TLDR; Below is the English-translated version of China’s Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace (未成年人网络保护条例, State Council Order No. 766), promulgated October 16, 2023 and in effect since January 1, 2024.
If your product, app, or platform can be reached by users under 18 in mainland China, these Regulations are the first State Council–level rules dedicated entirely to protecting them online, setting concrete duties across cyber-literacy education, content standards, the handling of minors’ personal information, and anti-addiction controls. They build on the Cybersecurity Law, the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), and the Law on the Protection of Minors, and work alongside sector rules such as the Algorithm Recommendation Provisions, the Mobile App Information Services Provisions, and the earlier Notice on Preventing Minors from Addiction to Online Games — the compliance picture every international business should confirm with counsel before serving minors in China.
Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace (Promulgated October 16, 2023 by Order No. 766 of the State Council; effective January 1, 2024)
Chapter I — General Provisions
Article 1. These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors,” the “Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China,” the “Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China,” and other laws, in order to foster a network environment conducive to the physical and mental health of minors and to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of minors.
Article 2. Work on the protection of minors in cyberspace shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, be guided by the core socialist values, uphold the principle of being in the best interests of minors, adapt to the patterns and characteristics of the physical and mental development of minors and of cyberspace, and implement co-governance by society.
Article 3. The national cyberspace administration department is responsible for the overall coordination of work on the protection of minors in cyberspace, and shall carry out such work in accordance with its duties.
The national press and publication department, the film department, and the relevant departments of the State Council for education, telecommunications, public security, civil affairs, culture and tourism, health, market regulation, radio and television, and the like, shall carry out work on the protection of minors in cyberspace in accordance with their respective duties.
Local people’s governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments shall carry out work on the protection of minors in cyberspace in accordance with their respective duties.
Article 4. The Communist Youth League, women’s federations, trade unions, disabled persons’ federations, working committees for the care of the next generation, youth federations, student federations, the Young Pioneers, and other people’s organizations, relevant social organizations, and community-level self-governing mass organizations shall assist the relevant departments in carrying out work on the protection of minors in cyberspace and shall safeguard the lawful rights and interests of minors.
Article 5. Schools and families shall educate and guide minors to take part in activities beneficial to their physical and mental health, to use the network in a scientific, civilized, safe, and reasonable manner, and shall prevent and intervene against minors’ addiction to the internet.
Article 6. Network product and service providers, personal information processors, and the manufacturers and sellers of smart terminal products shall comply with laws, administrative regulations, and relevant State provisions, respect social morality, observe commercial ethics, act in good faith, perform their obligations for the protection of minors in cyberspace, and bear social responsibility.
Article 7. Network product and service providers, personal information processors, and the manufacturers and sellers of smart terminal products shall accept the supervision of the government and society, cooperate with the relevant departments in lawfully conducting supervision and inspection involving the protection of minors in cyberspace, establish convenient, reasonable, and effective channels for complaints and reports, announce the avenues and methods for complaints and reports in a conspicuous manner, and promptly accept and handle complaints and reports from the public.
Article 8. Any organization or individual that discovers a violation of the provisions of these Regulations may file a complaint or report with the relevant departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, film, education, telecommunications, public security, civil affairs, culture and tourism, health, market regulation, radio and television, and the like. The department that receives the complaint or report shall promptly handle it in accordance with the law; where the matter does not fall within that department’s duties, it shall promptly transfer it to the department empowered to handle it.
Article 9. Network-related industry organizations shall strengthen industry self-discipline, formulate industry norms relating to the protection of minors in cyberspace, guide their members in performing their obligations for the protection of minors in cyberspace, and strengthen the network protection of minors.
Article 10. The news media shall, through news reports, special columns (programs), public-interest advertisements, and other means, publicize the laws and regulations, policies and measures, typical cases, and relevant knowledge concerning the protection of minors in cyberspace, exercise public-opinion supervision over acts that infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of minors, and guide the whole of society to jointly participate in the protection of minors in cyberspace.
Article 11. The State encourages and supports the strengthening of scientific research and the cultivation of talent in the field of the protection of minors in cyberspace, and the conduct of international exchange and cooperation.
Article 12. Organizations and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to work on the protection of minors in cyberspace shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.
Chapter II — Promotion of Cyber Literacy
Article 13. The education department of the State Council shall incorporate cyber literacy education into the content of schools’ quality-oriented education, and shall, together with the national cyberspace administration department, formulate indicators for assessing the cyber literacy of minors.
The education departments shall guide and support schools in carrying out cyber literacy education for minors, centering on the formation of network moral awareness, the cultivation of the concept of the rule of law online, the building of network-use capabilities, and the protection of personal and property safety, so as to foster among minors a sense of network security, civilized literacy, behavioral habits, and protective skills.
Article 14. People’s governments at or above the county level shall engage in scientific planning and reasonable arrangement, promote the balanced and coordinated development of public-interest internet-access services, strengthen the construction of public cultural facilities that provide public-interest internet-access services, and improve the conditions for minors to access the internet.
Local people’s governments at or above the county level shall, by means such as providing primary and secondary schools with instructional teachers who possess the corresponding professional capabilities, government procurement of services, or encouraging primary and secondary schools to procure the relevant services on their own, provide students with high-quality cyber literacy education courses.
Article 15. Where schools, communities, libraries, cultural centers, youth palaces, and other such venues provide internet-access service facilities for minors, they shall, by means such as arranging professional personnel and recruiting volunteers, and by installing software for the protection of minors in cyberspace or adopting other technical measures for safety protection, provide minors with guidance on internet access and a safe and healthy internet-access environment.
Article 16. Schools shall incorporate the improvement of students’ cyber literacy and other such content into their education and teaching activities, make reasonable use of the network to carry out teaching activities, establish and improve management systems for students’ internet access during their time at school, regulate and manage in accordance with the law the smart terminal products that minor students bring into school, help students develop good internet-use habits, cultivate students’ awareness of network security and of the rule of law online, and enhance students’ ability to obtain, analyze, and judge network information.
Article 17. The guardians of minors shall strengthen the building of family virtue, family education, and family tradition, improve their own cyber literacy, regulate their own conduct in using the network, and strengthen the education, demonstration, guidance, and supervision of minors’ network-use conduct.
Article 18. The State encourages and supports the research and development, production, and use of network protection software, smart terminal products, and network technologies, products, and services such as minors’ modes and minors’ zones that are specifically aimed at serving minors and that conform to the patterns and characteristics of the physical and mental health development of minors, as well as the strengthening of the construction and renovation of a barrier-free network environment, so as to help minors broaden their horizons, cultivate their character, and improve their qualities.
Article 19. Software for the protection of minors in cyberspace and smart terminal products designed specifically for use by minors shall have such functions as effectively identifying unlawful information and information that may affect the physical or mental health of minors, protecting minors’ personal information rights and interests, preventing minors’ addiction to the internet, and facilitating guardians’ performance of their guardianship duties.
The national cyberspace administration department shall, together with the relevant departments of the State Council and according to the needs of work on the protection of minors in cyberspace, specify the relevant technical standards or requirements for software for the protection of minors in cyberspace and for smart terminal products designed specifically for use by minors, and shall guide and supervise network-related industry organizations in assessing, in accordance with the relevant technical standards and requirements, the effectiveness of the use of such software and such smart terminal products.
Manufacturers of smart terminal products shall install software for the protection of minors in cyberspace before the products leave the factory, or shall inform users of the installation channels and methods in a conspicuous manner. Sellers of smart terminal products shall, before selling the products, inform users in a conspicuous manner of the status of installation of software for the protection of minors in cyberspace and of the installation channels and methods.
The guardians of minors shall make reasonable use of, and guide minors in using, network protection software, smart terminal products, and the like, so as to create a good family environment for network use.
Article 20. Network platform service providers with a huge number of minor users or with significant influence over the minor population shall perform the following obligations:
(1) In the design, research and development, operation, and other stages of the network platform services, fully taking into account the characteristics of the physical and mental health development of minors, and regularly conducting impact assessments for the protection of minors in cyberspace;
(2) Providing a minors’ mode or a minors’ zone and the like, to facilitate minors’ access to products or services within the platform that are beneficial to their physical and mental health;
(3) Establishing and improving, in accordance with State provisions, a compliance system for the protection of minors in cyberspace, and setting up an independent body composed mainly of external members to supervise the protection of minors in cyberspace;
(4) Following the principles of openness, fairness, and impartiality, formulating dedicated platform rules that clarify the obligations of the providers of products or services within the platform for the protection of minors in cyberspace, and indicating in a conspicuous manner the network protection rights that minor users enjoy in accordance with the law and the avenues of remedy for network harms suffered;
(5) Ceasing to provide services to providers of products or services within the platform that, in violation of laws or administrative regulations, seriously harm the physical or mental health of minors or infringe upon other lawful rights and interests of minors;
(6) Releasing a dedicated social responsibility report on the protection of minors in cyberspace each year, and accepting the supervision of society.
The specific measures for identifying the network platform service providers referred to in the preceding paragraph that have a huge number of minor users or significant influence over the minor population shall be separately formulated by the national cyberspace administration department together with the relevant departments.
Chapter III — Regulation of Network Information Content
Article 21. The State encourages and supports the production, reproduction, publication, and dissemination of network information that promotes the core socialist values and advanced socialist culture, revolutionary culture, and the fine traditional culture of China, that forges a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, that cultivates in minors a love of country and home and good moral character, and that guides minors to develop good living and behavioral habits, so as to create a clean and bright cyberspace and a sound network ecology conducive to the healthy growth of minors.
Article 22. No organization or individual may produce, reproduce, publish, or disseminate network information that contains content harmful to the physical or mental health of minors, such as content that propagates obscenity, pornography, violence, cults, superstition, or gambling, that induces self-harm or suicide, or that promotes terrorism, separatism, or extremism.
No organization or individual may produce, reproduce, publish, disseminate, or possess obscene or pornographic network information concerning minors.
Article 23. Where network products and services contain information that may affect the physical or mental health of minors — such as information that may trigger or induce minors to imitate unsafe conduct, to engage in conduct that violates social morality, to develop extreme emotions, or to form bad habits — the organizations and individuals that produce, reproduce, publish, or disseminate such information shall give a conspicuous warning before the information is displayed.
The national cyberspace administration department shall, together with the national press and publication department, the film department, and the departments of the State Council for education, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, radio and television, and the like, determine, on the basis of the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the specific types, scope, criteria for judgment, and warning methods for information that may affect the physical or mental health of minors.
Article 24. No organization or individual may, in network products and services specifically aimed at serving minors, produce, reproduce, publish, or disseminate the information that may affect the physical or mental health of minors as provided for in the first paragraph of Article 23 of these Regulations.
Network product and service providers may not present the information that may affect the physical or mental health of minors as provided for in the first paragraph of Article 23 of these Regulations in key areas that are in conspicuous positions of the product or service and that readily draw users’ attention, such as the first screen of the homepage, pop-up windows, and trending-search lists.
Network product and service providers may not conduct commercial marketing toward minors by means of automated decision-making.
Article 25. No organization or individual may send or push to minors, or lure or compel minors into accessing, network information containing content that harms or may affect the physical or mental health of minors.
Article 26. No organization or individual may, through the network and in the form of text, images, audio, video, or the like, commit cyberbullying acts against minors, such as insult, defamation, threats, or malicious damage to their image.
Network product and service providers shall establish and improve mechanisms for the early warning and prevention, identification and monitoring, and disposal of cyberbullying acts; set up functions and channels that make it convenient for minors and their guardians to preserve records of cyberbullying suffered and to exercise the right to notification; and provide cyberbullying-information protection options that make it convenient for minors to set up the blocking of unfamiliar users, the scope of visibility of information they themselves publish, the prohibition of reposting or commenting on information they themselves publish, and the prohibition of sending information to themselves, among others.
Network product and service providers shall establish and improve a feature database of cyberbullying information, optimize the relevant algorithmic models, and strengthen the identification and monitoring of cyberbullying information by combining technical means such as artificial intelligence and big data with manual review.
Article 27. No organization or individual may, through the network and in the form of text, images, audio, video, or the like, organize, abet, coerce, lure, deceive, or assist minors into committing unlawful or criminal acts.
Article 28. Providers of online-education network products and services aimed at serving minors shall, in accordance with laws, administrative regulations, and relevant State provisions, provide corresponding products and services based on the physical and mental development characteristics and cognitive abilities of minors at different age stages.
Article 29. Network product and service providers shall strengthen the management of information published by users, and take effective measures to prevent the production, reproduction, publication, or dissemination of information in violation of Article 22, Article 24, Article 25, the first paragraph of Article 26, and Article 27 of these Regulations. Upon discovering information that violates the provisions of the foregoing articles, they shall immediately cease transmitting the relevant information, take disposal measures such as deletion, blocking, and disconnection of links to prevent the information from spreading, preserve the relevant records, report to the cyberspace administration, public security, and other departments, and take disposal measures against the users who produced, reproduced, published, or disseminated the aforesaid information, such as warnings, restriction of functions, suspension of services, and closure of accounts.
Where network product and service providers discover that a user has published or disseminated the information provided for in the first paragraph of Article 23 of these Regulations without a conspicuous warning, they shall give a warning or notify the user to give one; where no warning is given, they may not transmit the information.
Article 30. Where the national cyberspace administration, press and publication, and film departments, and the departments of the State Council for education, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, radio and television, and the like, discover information in violation of Article 22, Article 24, Article 25, the first paragraph of Article 26, and Article 27 of these Regulations, or discover that the information provided for in the first paragraph of Article 23 of these Regulations has not been given a conspicuous warning, they shall require the network product and service providers to handle the matter in accordance with Article 29 of these Regulations; with respect to such information originating from abroad, they shall, in accordance with the law, notify the relevant institutions to take technical measures and other necessary measures to block its dissemination.
Chapter IV — Network Protection of Personal Information
Article 31. Where a network service provider provides minors with services such as information publishing or instant messaging, it shall, in accordance with the law, require the minor or the minor’s guardian to provide the minor’s true identity information. Where the minor or the minor’s guardian does not provide the minor’s true identity information, the network service provider may not provide the relevant services to the minor.
Network live-streaming service providers shall establish a mechanism for the dynamic verification of the true identity information of network live-streaming publishers, and may not provide network live-streaming publishing services to minor users who do not meet the circumstances prescribed by law.
Article 32. Personal information processors shall strictly comply with the provisions of the national cyberspace administration department and the relevant departments on the scope of personal information necessary for network products and services; may not compel minors or their guardians to consent to the processing of non-essential personal information; and may not refuse to allow minors to use their basic-function services on the ground that the minor or the minor’s guardian does not consent to the processing of the minor’s non-essential personal information or withdraws such consent.
Article 33. The guardians of minors shall educate and guide minors to enhance their awareness and ability to protect personal information, to grasp the scope of personal information, and to understand the security risks to personal information; shall guide minors in exercising their rights to consult, copy, correct, supplement, and delete, and other such rights, in personal information processing activities; and shall protect minors’ personal information rights and interests.
Article 34. Where a minor or the minor’s guardian lawfully requests to consult, copy, correct, supplement, or delete the minor’s personal information, the personal information processor shall comply with the following provisions:
(1) Providing convenient methods and avenues to support the minor or the minor’s guardian in consulting the categories and quantity of the minor’s personal information and the like, and not placing restrictions on the reasonable requests of the minor or the minor’s guardian;
(2) Providing convenient functions to support the minor or the minor’s guardian in copying, correcting, supplementing, or deleting the minor’s personal information, and not setting unreasonable conditions;
(3) Promptly accepting and handling applications by the minor or the minor’s guardian to consult, copy, correct, supplement, or delete the minor’s personal information; where a request by the minor or the minor’s guardian to exercise their rights is refused, the applicant shall be notified in writing and the reasons shall be explained.
With respect to a request lawfully made by a minor or the minor’s guardian to transfer the minor’s personal information, where the conditions prescribed by the national cyberspace administration department are met, the personal information processor shall provide a means of transfer.
Article 35. Where a leak, tampering, or loss of minors’ personal information occurs or may occur, the personal information processor shall immediately activate its emergency response plan for personal information security incidents, take remedial measures, promptly report to the cyberspace administration and other departments, and, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, inform the affected minors and their guardians of the circumstances of the incident by means such as email, letter, telephone, or information push.
Where it is difficult for the personal information processor to notify each person individually, it shall adopt a reasonable and effective method to promptly release the relevant warning information, except where laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise.
Article 36. Personal information processors shall, on the principle of minimum authorization for their staff, strictly set information access permissions and control the scope of persons who have knowledge of minors’ personal information. Where a staff member accesses minors’ personal information, it shall be subject to the approval of the relevant responsible person or a management person authorized by that person, the access shall be recorded, and technical measures shall be taken to avoid the unlawful processing of minors’ personal information.
Article 37. Personal information processors shall, on their own or by entrusting a professional institution, conduct a compliance audit each year of their compliance with laws and administrative regulations in processing minors’ personal information, and shall promptly report the results of the audit to the cyberspace administration and other departments.
Article 38. Where a network service provider discovers private information of a minor, or discovers that personal information published by a minor through the network involves private information, it shall promptly give a warning and take necessary protective measures such as ceasing transmission, so as to prevent the information from spreading.
Where a network service provider, through a minor’s private information, discovers that the minor may be subjected to harm, it shall immediately take necessary measures to preserve the relevant records and report to the public security organ.
Chapter V — Prevention and Control of Internet Addiction
Article 39. The prevention of, and intervention against, minors’ addiction to the internet shall comply with laws, administrative regulations, and relevant State provisions.
The departments for education, health, market regulation, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, exercise supervision and administration over institutions engaged in activities to prevent and intervene against minors’ addiction to the internet.
Article 40. Schools shall strengthen the guidance and training of teachers to enhance teachers’ ability to identify at an early stage, and to intervene against, minor students’ addiction to the internet. For minor students who show a tendency toward addiction to the internet, the school shall promptly inform their guardians and jointly educate and guide the minor students, helping them restore a normal study and daily life.
Article 41. The guardians of minors shall guide minors in the safe and reasonable use of the network, pay attention to minors’ internet-use situation and their related physiological condition, psychological condition, and behavioral habits, guard against minors’ exposure to network information that harms or may affect their physical or mental health, reasonably arrange the time minors spend using the network, and prevent and intervene against minors’ addiction to the internet.
Article 42. Network product and service providers shall establish and improve an anti-addiction system, may not provide minors with products or services that induce their addiction, shall promptly modify content, functions, and rules that may cause minors’ addiction, and shall announce their anti-addiction work to society each year and accept the supervision of society.
Article 43. Providers of network services such as online games, network live streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking shall, in light of the characteristics of the use of their services by minors at different age stages, adhere to the principles of integration, friendliness, practicality, and effectiveness, set up a minors’ mode, provide corresponding services with respect to the time periods, duration, functions, and content of use in accordance with the relevant provisions and standards of the State, and provide, in a prominent and convenient manner, functions such as time management, permission management, and consumption management for guardians to perform their guardianship duties.
Article 44. Providers of network services such as online games, network live streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking shall take measures to reasonably limit the amount of a single payment and the cumulative amount of payments in a single day by minors at different age stages when using their services, and may not provide minors with paid services that are incompatible with their capacity for civil conduct.
Article 45. Providers of network services such as online games, network live streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking shall take measures to guard against and resist undesirable value tendencies such as the supremacy of traffic; may not set up network communities, groups, or topics themed on fan-support fundraising, vote-boosting to top charts, or inflating view counts and manipulating comments; may not induce minors to participate in network activities such as fan-support fundraising, vote-boosting to top charts, or inflating view counts and manipulating comments; and shall prevent and stop their users from inducing minors to engage in the aforesaid conduct.
Article 46. Network game service providers shall verify the true identity information of minor users by necessary means such as the unified electronic identity authentication system for minors’ online games.
Network product and service providers may not provide minors with services for the rental or sale of game accounts.
Article 47. Network game service providers shall establish and improve game rules for preventing minors’ addiction to the internet, so as to avoid minors’ exposure to game content or game functions that may affect their physical or mental health.
Network game service providers shall implement age-appropriateness warning requirements; shall, based on the physical and mental development characteristics and cognitive abilities of minors at different age stages, classify game products by assessing such factors as the type, content, and functions of the game products; shall specify the age stage of minor users for which a game product is suitable; and shall give a conspicuous warning at locations such as the download, registration, and login interfaces for users.
Article 48. The departments for press and publication, education, health, culture and tourism, radio and television, cyberspace administration, and the like shall regularly carry out publicity and education on preventing minors’ addiction to the internet, supervise and inspect network product and service providers’ performance of their obligations to prevent minors’ addiction to the internet, and guide families, schools, and social organizations to cooperate with one another and adopt scientific and reasonable methods to prevent and intervene against minors’ addiction to the internet.
The national press and publication department shall take the lead in organizing and carrying out work on the prevention and control of minors’ addiction to online games, and shall, together with the relevant departments, formulate administrative provisions on the time periods, duration, spending caps, and the like for the provision of online game services to minors.
The departments for health, education, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, guide the relevant medical and health institutions, institutions of higher education, and the like in conducting basic research, as well as applied research on screening and assessment, diagnosis, prevention, intervention, and the like, concerning the mental disorders and psychological and behavioral problems caused by minors’ addiction to the internet.
Article 49. Any organization or individual is strictly prohibited from intervening against minors’ addiction to the internet by means that harm the physical or mental health of minors, such as abuse or coercion, or from infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of minors.
Chapter VI — Legal Liability
Article 50. Where local people’s governments at all levels and the relevant departments at or above the county level violate the provisions of these Regulations by failing to perform their duties for the protection of minors in cyberspace, their superior organ shall order corrections; where they refuse to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the leading persons who bear responsibility and the directly responsible persons shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law.
Article 51. Where schools, communities, libraries, cultural centers, youth palaces, and the like violate the provisions of these Regulations by failing to perform their duties for the protection of minors in cyberspace, the departments for education, culture and tourism, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections; where they refuse to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the leading persons who bear responsibility and the directly responsible persons shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law.
Article 52. Where the guardian of a minor fails to perform the guardianship duties provided for in these Regulations or infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of the minor, the residents’ committee or villagers’ committee of the minor’s place of residence, the women’s federation, the guardian’s work unit, primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, and other units that have close contact with minors shall, in accordance with the law, provide criticism and education, dissuasion and prevention, urge the guardian to accept family-education guidance, and the like.
Article 53. Where there is a violation of Article 7, the third paragraph of Article 19, or the second paragraph of Article 38 of these Regulations, the departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, film, education, telecommunications, public security, civil affairs, culture and tourism, market regulation, radio and television, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections; where the party refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan and not more than 500,000 yuan shall be imposed, and a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan and not more than 100,000 yuan shall be imposed on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons.
Article 54. Where there is a violation of the first paragraph of Article 20 of these Regulations, the departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, radio and television, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections, give a warning, and confiscate the unlawful gains; where the party refuses to make corrections, a fine of not more than 1 million yuan shall additionally be imposed, and a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan and not more than 100,000 yuan shall be imposed on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons.
Where there is a violation of items (1) and (5) of the first paragraph of Article 20 of these Regulations and the circumstances are serious, the departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, radio and television, and the like at or above the provincial level shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections, confiscate the unlawful gains, and additionally impose a fine of not more than 50 million yuan or not more than 5 percent of the prior year’s turnover, and may order the suspension of the relevant business or suspension of business for rectification, or notify the relevant department to revoke the relevant business permit or revoke the business license in accordance with the law; a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan and not more than 1 million yuan shall be imposed on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons, and it may be decided to prohibit them from serving, for a certain period, as a director, supervisor, senior manager, or person in charge of the protection of minors of the relevant enterprise.
Article 55. Where there is a violation of Article 24 or Article 25 of these Regulations, the departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, film, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, market regulation, radio and television, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections within a time limit, give a warning, confiscate the unlawful gains, and may additionally impose a fine of not more than 100,000 yuan; where the party refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, they shall order the suspension of the relevant business, the suspension of production and business, or the revocation of the relevant business permit or business license, and where the unlawful gains amount to 1 million yuan or more, additionally impose a fine of not less than 1 time and not more than 10 times the unlawful gains, or, where there are no unlawful gains or the unlawful gains are less than 1 million yuan, additionally impose a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan and not more than 1 million yuan.
Article 56. Where there is a violation of the second and third paragraphs of Article 26, Article 28, the first paragraph of Article 29, the second paragraph of Article 31, Article 36, the first paragraph of Article 38, Articles 42 through 45, the second paragraph of Article 46, or Article 47 of these Regulations, the departments for cyberspace administration, press and publication, film, education, telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, radio and television, and the like shall, in accordance with their respective duties, order corrections, give a warning, and confiscate the unlawful gains; where the unlawful gains amount to 1 million yuan or more, additionally impose a fine of not less than 1 time and not more than 10 times the unlawful gains; where there are no unlawful gains or the unlawful gains are less than 1 million yuan, additionally impose a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan and not more than 1 million yuan; and impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan and not more than 100,000 yuan on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons; where the party refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, they may additionally order the suspension of the relevant business, suspension of business for rectification, closure of the website, or revocation of the relevant business permit or business license.
Article 57. Where a network product and service provider, in violation of the provisions of these Regulations, is subject to the penalty of closure of its website or revocation of the relevant business permit or business license, it may not reapply for the relevant permit within 5 years, and its directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons may not engage in the same kind of network product and service business within 5 years.
Article 58. Where a violation of the provisions of these Regulations infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of a minor and causes harm to the minor, civil liability shall be borne in accordance with the law; where it constitutes an act in violation of public security administration, a public security administration penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the law; where it constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.
Chapter VII — Supplementary Provisions
Article 59. “Smart terminal products” as referred to in these Regulations means network terminal products such as mobile phones and computers that can connect to a network, have an operating system, and allow users to install application software on their own.
Article 60. These Regulations shall take effect on January 1, 2024.
Closing
The original document was published in Chinese by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China; we translated it into English, which is what you read above. This translation is provided for quick comprehension only and should be used at your own discretion and risk — always confirm the current requirements with qualified legal counsel.
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