Ministry of Health and Welfare's Child and Adolescent Law Amendment: A single clause referencing the "Great Firewall" sparks panic, with Legislators Shen Boyang and others urgently intervening

The draft amendment to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “Children and Juveniles Welfare and Rights Protection Act” includes terms such as “age-appropriate identification,” triggering public panic about a “cyber Great Wall” tied to internet real-name registration and restrictions on creative freedom. In response, lawmakers Shen Boyang and Tsai Yi-yu have, together with relevant organizations, urgently stepped in to negotiate.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare previews amendments to the Act on strengthening online content protection in Article 59

Recently, Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare has previewed a draft amendment to the “Act on the Welfare and Rights Protection of Children and Adolescents.” Among them, Article 59 draws attention: because it involves wording such as “age verification” and “restriction of website access,” and lacks clear definitions, the public is worried whether Taiwan will follow the United Kingdom and China in building an internet Great Wall.

According to the draft, Article 59 is mainly intended to prevent children and adolescents from accessing internet content that could harm their physical and mental development. It also stipulates that the communications and broadcasting competent authority shall convene the competent authorities of the various other matters involved, and commission civil society organizations to establish content protection institutions.

The draft further requires that internet platform providers, application service providers, and content providers must establish self-regulatory mechanisms, and adopt age-appropriate identification or other feasible necessary protective measures. When online content is determined to be harmful to the physical and mental development of children and adolescents, the competent authority may notify operators to remove it in advance or restrict children’s and adolescents’ browsing. If necessary, it may also directly notify internet access service providers to carry out measures to restrict access.

The Act amendment sparks panic over internet real-name registration and possible site blocks

Once the draft text of Article 59 was previewed, it immediately triggered backlash online.

Many people worry that the term “age-appropriate identification” could in the future lead relevant institutions to formulate internet real-name registration policies—believing that in order to protect some children and adolescents, everyone would be forced to prove their age online, which would instead infringe on the privacy rights of the general public. If, in the future, relevant units require online platforms to forcibly upload identity documents for verification, it could also bring risks of personal information leakage.

In addition, the draft Act grants the competent authority power to restrict internet access, which has also caused panic among many creators and netizens. Some netizens criticized that this is tantamount to building an internet Great Wall and may crush Taiwan’s democratic freedom and the online environment.

Some netizens emphasized that, after excluding obscene remarks involving illegal content, sexual and violent creations found in ordinary film and television, games, and comics still constitute high-value speech protected by the Constitution. If the review powers granted by the draft could be expanded excessively, it could threaten overall freedom of creation.

Image source: Public Policy Online Participation Platform; the Children and Adolescents Act amendment draft triggers panic over internet real-name registration and site blocking, prompting a large number of people to leave comments in backlash

Multiple lawmakers urgently step in; the Ministry of Health and Welfare promises to re-examine

Amid external concerns, the Taipei City Animation Planning Workers Union and the ACGN Creative Rights Promotion Association held a joint meeting with lawmakers Tsai Yi-yu, Shen Boyang, and Huang Jie, together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, on April 30, and reached multiple conclusions.

Lawmaker Shen Boyang stated that the meeting first confirmed that the approach to online tiered management for artistic creation would remain unchanged—meaning that virtual characters are not covered by the Children and Adolescents Act.

Regarding wording in the draft such as establishing self-regulatory mechanisms, age-appropriate identification standards, and restricting access—which is not precise enough and could easily raise practical concerns—lawmakers have also asked the relevant ministries to take it back for re-examination, to ensure that the legal framework has consistency and clarity.

Image source: Shen Boyang’s Threads post; the Children and Adolescents Act amendment draft causes panic, and lawmakers such as Shen Boyang have already held meetings with the Ministry of Health and Welfare

Lawmaker Tsai Yi-yu suggested that when amending the law, the Ministry of Health and Welfare must choose words precisely and cautiously, to respect the diversity of “second-dimensional” (2D) creation, and also to confirm that the amendment content will not exceed the original protection consensus.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s representatives also promised that they will revise wording with doubts, and after the public preview period ends, hold multiple public hearings to broadly gather opinions from all sectors before releasing the official draft.

Image source: Tsai Yi-yu’s Facebook post; the Children and Adolescents Act amendment draft triggers panic, and Tsai Yi-yu says the Ministry of Health and Welfare should listen to public opinions more

From the iWIN incident to the Children and Adolescents Act, the public closely guards online and creative freedom

The controversy surrounding the amendment to the Children and Adolescents Act has once again brought to mind the iWIN incident that stirred up the anime community at the beginning of 2024.

At the time, the internet content protection institution iWIN notified operators to take down anime and game content involving juvenile virtual characters, which sparked fans’ panic that virtual creations were being subject to excessive review.

After multi-party coordination at the time, a set of handling principles was established. Virtual “second-dimensional” creations that are not realistic and do not infringe on personal legal interests were distinguished from real child sexual exploitation and AI-generated realistic pornographic images, successfully defusing the dispute.

Image source: Huang Jie’s Threads; the iWIN incident once shocked Taiwan’s anime community; ultimately, multiple parties coordinated and agreed on handling principles

However, the push for the 2026 amendment draft of the Children and Adolescents Act once again heightened public sensitivity to online regulation.

People don’t want the Digital Intermediary Law to come back

There are growing concerns about whether Taiwan is following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom’s “Online Safety Bill.”

After the law took effect in 2023, because of strict age verification mechanisms, many unintended consequences emerged—for example, adult users download VPNs in large quantities to bypass restrictions and protect privacy, and some internet platforms remove lawful content excessively to avoid penalties, and even directly withdraw from the UK market.

In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia has even adopted mandatory measures by directly banning minors from using social platforms; however, a《BBC》investigation found that local teenagers can still bypass the restrictions through simple methods. Spain is also planning to implement youth bans, which prompted Telegram founder Pavel Durov to criticize: “This country uses the pretext of protecting children and adolescents to surveil the people.”

• Related report: Spain plans to ban social media use for minors under 16! TG founder criticizes: This is surveillance, not protection

Past international cases have deepened Taiwanese netizens’ concerns. They are even more worried that the Digital Intermediary Law—once met with strong backlash a few years ago and ultimately stopped—may return under the pretext of protecting children and adolescents.

Therefore, how to strike a balance between implementing protection for children and adolescents and upholding the public’s privacy and creative freedom will be a major test facing the government.