Policy aims at protecting youth online

China has recently issued a new guideline focusing on improving the internet civilization and enhancing the protection of young people in cyberspace.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, jointly issued the document in September, asking authorities to strengthen ideological guidance, cultural fostering, moral construction, codes of conduct, ecological governance and the development of cyberspace society.

It called for enhancing the behavioral code in cyberspace, fostering internet ethics and rules of conduct in line with socialist core values.

The guideline encouraged all regions and departments to create and publicize internet civilization standards in accordance with their characteristics, regulate language in cyberspace and incorporate the requirements of internet civilization construction into the norms of internet industry management.

The protection of minors was highlighted in the guideline, which stated that the government, schools, families and society will work together to educate youth so that they can use the internet properly and be well-prepared for risks online. Authorities will also step up their crackdown on cyberbullying and better protect minors' rights and interests, according to the guideline.

In addition, efforts were urged to boost young people's internet literacy by improving an education mechanism that combines efforts from the government, school, family and society.

Relevant authorities should also carefully create cultural content that will attract young people and improve the working mechanism that helps prevent young people from becoming addicted to the internet, it said.

He Junke, first secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, said the lives of today's youth are deeply intertwined with the internet, and that as youth are the direct beneficiaries of cyberspace civilization, they should be active participants in its development.

"Young people's internet awareness is at a critical period, so we need to shoulder more responsibilities and help guide them to use the internet properly," he said at the first China Internet Civilization Conference that was held last month in Beijing.

"Most of the internet problems that affect young people are caused by practical issues, and the governance of cyberspace is characterized by diversity.

Therefore, we need to better care for the youth by helping them tackle practical difficulties, and authorities should cooperate closely to form a joint governance system for the internet civilization," he said.

According to a research report on internet use by minors in China last year, which was issued by the China Internet Network Information Center and the Central Committee of the CYLC in July, the number of underage internet users in China reached 183 million, and the internet penetration rate among minors was about 95 percent. Furthermore, roughly 83 percent of underage users owned devices that they could use to access the internet.

Among minors online, about 90 percent of them used the internet to study, and nearly 63 percent used it to play games online, according to the report.

Also, 27 percent of them believed they had experienced a security breach of some kind in the past six months, including ID or password theft, online fraud and the disclosure of personal information.

Zhang Hui, deputy secretary-general of the China Federation of Internet Societies, said that the internet has been deeply integrated into various socioeconomic fields and has become an important platform for the people, especially youth, to obtain information, learn knowledge, exchange ideas or enjoy entertainment.

"In recent years, relevant departments have taken effective measures to strengthen the protection of young people in cyberspace and improve laws and regulations, and they have achieved positive results in promoting safe internet access for young people," Zhang said.

"Meanwhile, we should also acknowledge that the dissemination of unhealthy information through the internet still exists, and the phenomenon of personal information leaks, violent content and cyberbullying also occur from time to time, which infringe on the rights and interests of young people and have a negative impact on their health," he said.

Zhang added that social organizations are responsible for protecting minors online as efforts to do so are becoming increasingly complex. Besides policy guidance and government supervision, the online sector also needs to play a role in such efforts, he said.

Endeavors to protect minors in cyberspace will never end, he said. Prevention is always more important than treatment after problems emerge, and the fostering of young people's internet civilization literacy requires cooperation between the government, schools, enterprises and society.

Ji Weimin, a professor at the School of Media at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it is important that young people participate in the development of the internet civilization, and therefore, society should improve the construction of network infrastructure so that the youth can better benefit.

"Authorities should strike a balance between development, protection and governance to create a clean, healthy cyber environment," Ji said. "We should also actively use the internet and intelligent platforms to spread socialist core values and encourage minors to play a vital role in building a digital civilization."