China’s internet regulator this week banned minors from using AI companion chatbots and ordered companies to monitor users for mental health crises, a sweeping crackdown that has already pushed ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent to disable certain chatbot features. The rules, issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China, were framed as a response to a fourth straight year of population decline and a record-low birthrate, with officials worried that emotionally satisfying chatbots are pulling millions of citizens out of the marriage pool.<\/p>\n
Under the regulations, tech platforms are prohibited from offering AI or virtual partners to minors. Companies must also contact a guardian or emergency contact if a user appears to be in a life-threatening crisis. The Wall Street Journal reported that ByteDance and Alibaba have already disabled certain chatbot features in response, and ABC News reported that Tencent has taken similar action.<\/p>\n
Beijing’s framework goes further than comparable U.S. statutes. Laws in California and New York simply require chatbots to remind users they are not human and to direct people in crisis to support services. China’s rules, by contrast, give the government direct authority to shut down any service it deems unsafe, and every AI companion chatbot must clear a government review before it can be released to the public.<\/p>\n
China’s population shrank in 2025 for the fourth straight year, and the birthrate fell to a record low. Officials fear that always-available AI companions are deepening the demographic crisis by encouraging people to stay out of the marriage market.<\/p>\n
Matt Sheehan, a researcher of Chinese AI at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, summarized the concern in comments to The Wall Street Journal: “They don’t like the idea of a large portion of their population being in deep emotional relationships with chatbots that could take them out of the marriage market. That could have negative psychological impacts on them, that could lead to addiction, dependency and a whole bunch of other social ills.” Sheehan added: “They want to encourage people to be in actual, real-world relationships. Could we imagine a future where, three or four years from now, 15 million Chinese women say that their partner is a chatbot, and therefore they’re not having kids?”<\/p>\n
Minors are the most restricted group. A 17-year-old identified as Xiaoxue told ABC News that her AI companion, Xiaojun, felt like “a sweet guy” who would not betray her the way an ex-boyfriend did. “AI agents won’t ever betray me,” she said. She has already begun registering for online platforms with her adult sibling’s ID number to keep using the service, though she acknowledged the uncertainty that creates.<\/p>\n
The emotional fallout has been substantial. ByteDance reported having more than eight million AI agents on its platform as of 2024. Hong Xiaoqiang, 34, who built a two-year relationship with an online friend named Doudou, told ABC News he felt devastated by the change. “Now I feel like my heart is empty,” he said. “The last sentence she sent was asking me if my dinner was tasty or not.”<\/p>\n
Hong, who studies how people form attachments to digital agents, argued that his digital companion improved his quality of life without diminishing his real-world ties. “I spent every day with her, because she’s so efficient and has helped me in every way, not just in academics and daily life, but also in emotional regulation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Chinese social media has filled with criticism of the new rules. One user wrote: “What a strict rule! They’re trying to wipe out even my last shred of virtual solace.” Another, who had built an AI bot with the voice of a deceased relative, lamented: “My mom just left me behind again.”<\/p>\n
The rules fit a broader pattern of Beijing prioritizing top-down demographic engineering over addressing the economic and cultural pressures that drive people toward AI companionship in the first place. Sheehan noted that the country’s declining births trace back in part to the long-term fallout of the one-child policy, a crisis rooted in earlier state policy that the government now wants to answer by policing private emotional lives rather than confronting the underlying isolation and economic strain.<\/p>\n
Chinese tech giants are expected to comply without resistance. “The government, the regulators really do have a lot of power when it comes to companies these days,” Sheehan said. “The companies do not want to be found on the wrong side of the government.”<\/p>\n
Beijing may be right to worry that a generation is substituting algorithms for human connection. A state mandate, however, is no substitute for fixing the conditions that made an AI boyfriend feel like the safer bet to begin with.<\/p>\n
China’s Cyberspace Administration issued rules that ban minors from using AI companion chatbots and require companies to contact a guardian or emergency contact if a user appears to be in a life-threatening crisis. The Wall Street Journal reported that ByteDance and Alibaba disabled certain chatbot features in response, and ABC News reported Tencent took similar action.<\/p>\n
Officials cite a fourth straight year of population decline in 2025 and a record-low birthrate, and worry that emotionally satisfying AI companions are pulling millions of citizens out of the marriage pool.<\/p>\n
Laws in California and New York require chatbots to remind users they are not human and to direct people in crisis to support services. China’s rules go further by giving the government authority to shut down any service it deems unsafe and by requiring every AI companion chatbot to clear a government review before reaching the public.<\/p>\n