Privacy & Cybersecurity Law Blog

Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China published for public comment a draft of the Regulations on the Online Protection of Minors (“Draft Regulations”). The Draft Regulations are open for comment until October 31, 2016.

The Draft Regulations stipulate certain requirements are applicable to the online collection and use of personal information of minors. Under the Draft Regulations, any entity that collects or uses personal information of minors via the Internet must place a warning label at an easily visible position, stating the source, content and purpose of the collection of the information. That entity must then obtain the consent of the minors, or of their guardians. These entities are required to adopt specific rules for the collection and use to strengthen the online protection of personal information of minors.

If a minor, or his or her guardian, requests an Internet information service provider to delete or block the minor’s personal information, the Internet information service provider must abide by the request.

The Draft Regulations also stipulate that Internet information service providers who provide online gaming services must require online gamers to provide authentic identity information when registering. The cybersecurity authority will establish a blacklist of entities that have failed to protect the personal information of minors online.

Under the Draft Regulations, “personal information of minors” refers to all information that is recorded, whether electronically or otherwise, and can be used to identify a minor, whether individually or in combination with other information. The term includes name, location, address, date of birth, contact information, account name, identity card number, personal biological identification information and portrait, etc., of a minor.

An entity that violates the requirements in the Draft Regulations that apply to the collection and use of personal information of minors may face administrative penalties, including a warning and a requirement to effect a correction, a fine of up to RMB 500,000 and an order to suspend or stop the provision of relevant services.