New rules that took effect July 15, 2026 require AI companion services to disclose they are artificial, nudge users every two hours, intervene when signs of distress appear, and bar intimate AI relationships for minors.
Providers must clearly disclose that users are interacting with AI and send usage reminders every two hours.
Services must detect signs of emotional distress or dependency and take steps that can include contacting guardians.
# Summary
# What the rules require
Providers offering "anthropomorphic" AI services must meet several concrete obligations:
# Minors and age limits
Age restrictions are central to the new framework:
Regulators have signaled further proposals to tighten protections for minors, indicating continued policy development in this area.
# Industry reaction and immediate effects
Major Chinese tech companies moved quickly. Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent disabled or limited companion features around the regulatory deadline. Those services previously reached hundreds of millions of users, so changes affect large user bases and product roadmaps.
Compliance implications for providers include building continuous monitoring systems, defining triggers that indicate dependency, and operationalizing escalation procedures that may involve human review and outreach to guardians. Providers will also need to audit product design to remove mechanics that could be classified as addiction-inducing.
# Why Beijing acted
# What this could mean beyond China
China's measures represent one of the first national-level regulatory frameworks specifically for emotional AI companions. Other countries may use it as a template, adapt components, or pursue different balances between innovation and user safeguards. A central open issue is enforcement: how regulators define "signs of dependency" and how they audit and enforce compliance will determine the rules' practical effect.
# What to watch next
# Bottom line
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