Briefing: Weibo blocks underage users and plans for a kid version

Weibo Deregisters Users Under 14 – Yicai Global

What happened: China’s Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo will suspend the registration of users less than 14 years old in the new version it’s going to launch on November 1. Users under 18 made up around 19% of the company’s total of 376 million monthly active users, according to data released by the company. The firm is planning to develop a kid’s version for the social media platform.

Why it’s important: Protecting children from inappropriate contents online present many challenges for parents. A lot of Chinese tech giant companies have been criticized for their failures to manage teen contents. ByteDance’s popular short video apps have seen teen problems, while other video streaming sites such as Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video Weibo draw criticisms earlier this year for rampant violent or racy contents target at kids. Weibo is one of the first companies to make moves.