China drafts ban on AI virtual intimacy services for minors
The rules are still a draft, but they explicitly target minor-facing AI companion and virtual intimacy services; platforms should watch the final text.
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On September 18, China's Cyberspace Administration published draft rules titled "Ensuring minors' safe and healthy use of the internet" that would ban platforms from offering "virtual intimacy services" and "virtual relatives or companions" to users under 18.
The draft would also require minors' mode for online games, social sites and AI services that "could affect the cognition of" users under 16, and restrict stranger social networking except for those over 16 living on their own wages.
These are draft rules, not law in force; penalties and enforcement arrangements are not described in the reporting, and the text is read via the South China Morning Post, so the final scope depends on the regulator's published version.