# China Bans AI Companion Services for Minors > Source: > Published: 2026-07-07 17:13:43+00:00 Practitioners building consumer conversational agents should treat personified, emotionally interactive features as a fresh regulatory risk in China, with immediate product and data-retention implications. Reported facts: China's new rules, titled the **Interim Measures for the Administration of Artificial Intelligence Anthropomorphic Interaction Services**, take effect on **July 15, 2026**, and prohibit AI services that provide sustained emotional interaction or virtual companions for minors, according to the Chinese government notice reported by Xinhua/english.gov.cn and coverage in SCMP. Major platforms are already responding: SCMP and Caixin report that **ByteDance** informed users its Doubao agent feature will go offline on **July 15** and that **Alibaba** will disable persona-based agent features (with some agent functions removed earlier on **July 10**), while reporting by Caixin notes safety-assessment requirements for providers with more than **1 million** users. Several outlets including Nikkei, Global Times, and The Next Web describe similar shutdowns across other Chinese apps ahead of the deadline.