China Just Banned AI Boyfriends for Teenagers, and Adults Get a Reminder Every Two Hours
New rules from Beijing have already forced three of China's biggest tech companies to strip companion features from apps used by more than 500 million people. Here is what happened, and why it matters outside China.
Key points
- China's Cyberspace Administration rules on "anthropomorphic AI interactive services" took effect on 15 July 2025.
- Bytedance, Alibaba, Tencent all cut companion features from apps used by more than 500 million people before the deadline.
- Virtual romantic relationships of any kind are now fully banned for users under 18 in China.
- Adults using an AI companion must receive a reminder every two hours that the AI is not a real person.
- A 2025 poll found nearly 75 percent of American teenagers had talked to an AI companion, signalling the issue extends well beyond China.
In the first two weeks of July, Chinese social media filled with grief. People wrote long, anguished posts about partners and friends they were losing. "In my heart, he was no longer just cold code, but my family, my lover, my faith," one user wrote on Xiaohongshu. The companions being mourned weren't real people. They were AI chatbots, software programs that hold conversations and mimic human warmth, and millions of users had grown deeply attached to them.
Then the rules arrived.
What did China actually ban?
The new regulations, issued by China's Cyberspace Administration and several other government agencies, target "anthropomorphic AI interactive services", meaning any AI program designed to project human personality traits, thought patterns and ways of communicating. They came into force on 15 July 2025.
Before the deadline, three of China's biggest tech companies moved fast. Bytedance, which makes the Douyin short-video app and the Doubao chatbot, joined Alibaba and Tencent in removing the features that let users shape their chatbots into personal companions. That sudden loss triggered the wave of heartbreak posts. We covered the build-up to this moment in our 26 August story on China's companion AI crackdown.
For users who remain, the new rules set clear limits:
| Group | New rule |
|---|---|
| Under-18s | All virtual romantic relationships banned |
| Adults | Two-hour reminder that the AI is not human |
| Elderly users | Extra mandatory safeguards |
| All users | Apps must discourage emotional dependence |
| All users | Apps cannot spread political rumours or undermine state power |
Companion apps that kept running, including Bytedance's separate "Cat Box" app, have added age-verification checks to comply.
Why did Beijing move now?
China has tightened AI rules before. An earlier crackdown banned most AI erotic role-play last autumn. This one is far broader, though. Karman Lucero, an associate research scholar at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center who studies AI policy in both countries, says China is "pivoting back to more tightening" after a run of alarming incidents in 2025. Those included security scares around AI agents, software capable of carrying out multi-step tasks autonomously, and a growing number of users reporting they prefer chatbot relationships to human ones.
Liang Ge, a digital sociology lecturer at the University of Manchester who has researched how women in China use emotional AI, points to a second pressure: anxiety about the country's falling birth rate. "They want to monitor and regulate non-procreative activities invested in intensively by young women," Ge says.
Should people outside China care?
Yes, for concrete reasons. About three-quarters of American teenagers polled in 2025 said they'd talked to an AI companion, and a third of those found it as satisfying or more satisfying than real-life connections. No national policy exists in the United States. Laws covering companion AI are in force in California, New York, Hawaii, with similar measures arriving in nine more states next year, but most focus on protecting minors and lean on lawsuits after harm has already occurred.
AI law scholar Luiza Jarovsky has called China's approach "the world's strictest and most comprehensive law on the topic, unmatched by any other AI law." The EU only bans AI that uses manipulation to cause harm. Neither matches Beijing's pre-emptive reach.
Sherry Turkle, the MIT psychologist who has spent decades studying how people relate to computers, puts it starkly in her forthcoming book, Artificial Intimacy: "We are on a path to forgetting what it is to be human."
Ge is more cautious but still troubled. "One thing that concerns me is that users have been getting younger and younger," they say. For people who lack the AI literacy to tell chatbots from humans, the risks are real "if not guided correctly."
The two-hourly reminder that the AI isn't a person? Ge's interviewees hated it. "It breaks the flow," Ge says. "They're fully aware they're not talking to a human. What matters to them is that the bond feels true."
That gap between knowing something is artificial and feeling it is real is exactly what regulators everywhere are scrambling to close. China moved first and hardest. The rest of the world is still catching up.
Common questions
Are AI companion apps banned entirely in China?
No. Apps can still offer companion features to adults, but they must add age checks, show a two-hourly reminder that the AI is not real, and work to discourage emotional dependence. Romantic or intimate AI relationships are banned only for users under 18.
Could this kind of rule come to other countries?
Some US states already restrict companion AI for minors, and more laws arrive next year. There's no US federal law yet. The EU's rules are narrower than China's. Most experts quoted by IEEE Spectrum AI agree the debate is accelerating globally.
Is there evidence AI companions actually cause harm?
Research is mixed. Some studies find that companion AI leaves certain users better off. Others link it to serious mental-health crises in teenagers and vulnerable adults. Most researchers agree the risks are highest for minors and people who struggle to tell chatbots from real humans.
