Chinese youth to have smartphone, internet use curbed

Chinese children and teens will be cut off from accessing the internet at night and have their smartphone use curbed under new rules unveiled Wednesday aimed at fighting internet addiction.

Under the restrictions, set to come into force on September 2 following a public consultation, anyone under the age of 18 will be cut off from accessing the internet with a mobile device between 10 pm and 6 am.

A tiered system for managing smartphone usage time will also be imposed, spanning a maximum of 40 minutes a day for those under the age of eight to two hours for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The new rules -- proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) -- are some of the most stringent in the world.

Parents will be able to bypass them if they wish, however.

The CAC said the rules would "improve the positive role of the internet, create a favourable network environment, prevent and intervene in minors' internet addiction problems, and guide minors to form good internet use habits".