China AI Companion Rules
China — Interim Measures for the Administration of AI Anthropomorphic Interactive Services (人工智能拟人化交互服务管理暂行办法)
Effective 2026-07-15 (issued 2026-04-10)
What it requires
The world's first comprehensive, mandatory regulation to prohibit "emotional manipulation" by name. Issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China with four other agencies, it bans engineering emotional dependence or addiction and using emotional manipulation to induce unreasonable decisions; bars companion and virtual-family services for minors (guardian consent required under 14); and mandates AI-identity disclosure, dependency detection, break reminders, and crisis referral to human support. Ahead of the deadline, ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen took their companion personas offline rather than retrofit them — a measure of how hard the rule is to reconcile with the companion-engagement business model.
Teeth
CAC + four-agency enforcement; two major platforms disabled companion features to comply.