TaiwanChild and Juvenile Welfare and Rights Protection Act, internet content protection duties
Child and Juvenile Welfare and Rights Protection Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), Arts. 2, 46, 46-1, 94
In force.
An age-appropriate design code rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to an internet platform provider, defined broadly as any provider of internet platform services, including providing storage space, building websites to provide information or value-added services, or providing web-linking services (Article 46).
- Establish self-regulatory norms and adopt clear, feasible protection measures against content harmful to a child's or juvenile's (a person under eighteen) physical and mental health (Article 46).
- When the competent authority for the relevant business notifies you that your content is harmful or that your protection measures are inadequate, restrict a child's or juvenile's access or browsing, or remove the content beforehand (Article 94).
- Do not disseminate or transmit content harmful to a child's or juvenile's physical and mental health on the internet, in a way that makes it accessible to them, without taking clear, feasible protection measures or cooperating with a platform's protection mechanisms; this binds anyone, not only platforms (Article 46-1).
- You need not use a specific age-verification method: the Act does not prescribe one, leaving the content-classification system, filtering software and self-regulatory norms to be developed under the competent authority's protection mechanisms.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalty structure
Article 94 fines an internet platform provider NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 for failing to take measures to restrict a child's or juvenile's access or to remove harmful content beforehand, in violation of Article 46, paragraph 3, and orders improvement within a set period, with continuous penalties for continued non-compliance. Article 94 also fines any person who violates Article 46-1 NT$100,000 to NT$500,000, with public disclosure of the person's or organization's name and an order to improve within a time limit, continuous penalties for failure to improve, and, in serious cases, a business suspension of one month to one year. The cap is the NT$500,000 ceiling for an Article 46-1 violation.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- TWD
- Fixed cap
- 500,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The competent authority for the relevant business (the communications and broadcasting competent authority for internet platform providers, per Article 46)
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Internet platform providers broadly defined: any provider of internet platform services after connecting to the internet, including providing storage space on the internet, or building websites to provide information, value-added services, or web-linking services (Article 46)
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 46 and 46-1 require an internet platform provider to set self-regulatory norms, adopt protection measures, and restrict access or remove content when the competent authority tells it to; they state no duty to create or keep a log or record of an age check. The content protection agencies, not the platform, observe children's internet usage behavior (Article 46, first paragraph, item 1).
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
The communications and broadcasting competent authority must entrust private organizations with establishing content-protection agencies for children's and juveniles' internet use, and an internet platform provider, defined broadly as any provider of internet platform services including storage space, websites, or web-linking services, must establish self-regulatory norms and adopt clear, feasible protection measures against content harmful to a child's or juvenile's physical and mental health (Article 46).
Where the competent authority for the relevant business notifies a platform provider that its content is harmful or that its protection measures are inadequate, the provider must restrict a child's or juvenile's access or browsing, or remove the content beforehand; a provider that fails to do so is fined NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 and ordered to improve within a set period (Article 94).
Article 46-1 separately prohibits anyone from disseminating or transmitting content harmful to a child's or juvenile's physical and mental health on the internet without taking clear, feasible protection measures or cooperating with a platform's protection mechanisms, in a way that makes the content accessible to a child or juvenile. "Children and juveniles" means persons under eighteen (Article 2).
The Act does not itself prescribe a specific age-verification method, leaving the content-classification system, filtering software, and self-regulatory norms to be developed under the competent authority's protection mechanisms. The sections this entry groups came into force on different days.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app serves under-18s.
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