The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's top Internet regulator, recently published a guideline on the protection of children's personal information online. The guideline, to be implemented on October 1, is China's first legislation on minors' protection in cyberspace.

As a generation growing up in the age of the Internet, minors leave a large volume of information online when playing video games or wearing smart watches. This information amounts to a huge volume of data which can be used by transgressors to seek profits.

Leakage of children's information is not uncommon. On one hand, children often lack awareness due to their age, and even if their awareness improves, they may not be able to prevent data breaches as they are something even adults cannot avoid.

On the other hand, relevant laws and regulations have not been fully developed. There are no special laws and regulations for children's personal information protection online.

The new guideline stipulates that guardians should be informed of collection and use of children's personal information in a clear manner and that the information can be collected and used only with guardians' consent. The guideline also requires Internet operators to formulate their own rules on children's personal information protection, and designate special staff to deal with data protection matters.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in www.huanqiu.com on September 18)