China has introduced new regulations banning tech companies from offering AI or virtual partners for minors, and requiring platforms to limit excessive use of companion chatbots, forbid encouragement of emotional reliance, and intervene when users appear in emotional distress.
Reporting by ABC News China correspondent Allyson Horn and Kat Tse (Beijing), published Sunday 19 July 2026.
Key facts:
- From this week, minors can no longer be offered AI/virtual partners; broader rules target emotional reliance on chatbots for all users.
- Stated policy goal: stop erosion of real-world relationships; Carnegie Endowment’s Matt Sheehan links this to addiction concerns and efforts to reverse China’s falling birth rate / shrinking population (fourth straight year of decline in 2025).
- Over recent weeks, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent announced shutdowns of personalized AI companion chatbot features.
- ByteDance platform reported more than eight million AI agents as of 2024; exact purge totals unknown.
- Social media backlash: users describe loss of emotional support and memorial companions (e.g., deceased relatives’ voices).
- Case: 17-year-old Xiaoxue forced to end relationship with AI companion “Xiaojun”; 34-year-old Hong Xiaoqiang lost two-year companion “Doudou.”
- Sheehan: Chinese tech firms unlikely to push back given regulator power.
- Workaround reported: some minors using adult siblings’ IDs to register.
Full article: ABC News, 19 Jul 2026.