Promulgated by: Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
Document No.: Not yet assigned (draft for public consultation).
Released for public comment April 3, 2026. Comment period closed May 6, 2026. Effective date left blank in the draft text.
Chapter 1. General Provisions
Article 1. These Measures are formulated in order to promote the healthy development and standardized application of digital virtual human information services and safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations, in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services, the Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace, the Regulation on Network Data Security Management, and other laws and administrative regulations.
Article 2. These Measures apply to the provision of Internet information services to the public within the territory of the People’s Republic of China through digital virtual humans (hereinafter “digital virtual human services”). Where laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise, such provisions shall prevail.
Article 3. The national cyberspace administration department is responsible for the overall coordination of the governance of digital virtual human services nationwide and related supervision and administration work. The telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, health, market regulation, financial regulation, radio and television, press and publication, film, and copyright departments and other relevant departments under the State Council are responsible for the supervision and administration of digital virtual human services in accordance with their respective duties.
Local cyberspace administration departments are responsible for the overall coordination of the governance of digital virtual human services within their administrative regions and related supervision and administration work. Local telecommunications, public security, culture and tourism, health, market regulation, financial regulation, radio and television, press and publication, film, and copyright departments and other relevant departments are responsible for the supervision and administration of digital virtual human services within their administrative regions in accordance with their respective duties.
Article 4. The provision and use of digital virtual human services shall uphold core socialist values, comply with laws and administrative regulations, safeguard national security and the public interest, respect social morality and ethics, and foster a sound online ecosystem.
Article 5. The application and adoption of digital virtual human services across various fields is encouraged, promoting demonstration applications on the premise that intelligence is used for good and kept safe and controllable, and improving the ecosystem of digital virtual human services. The State supports research, development, and innovation in digital virtual human technology and collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutions, supports the establishment and improvement of a technical standards system for digital virtual human technology, and supports active participation in international rule-making and exchange and cooperation.
Article 6. Relevant industry associations are encouraged to strengthen industry self-discipline, establish and improve group standards, industry codes of conduct, and self-regulatory administrative systems, and urge and guide relevant entities to formulate and improve service norms, strengthen their primary responsibility, and accept public oversight.
Chapter 2. Protection of Rights and Interests
Article 7. Any organization or individual that uses a natural person’s sensitive personal information for modeling, likeness generation, scenario construction, or other such activities shall comply with laws and administrative regulations and satisfy the following requirements:
(1) obtain the natural person’s separate consent, and truthfully, accurately, and completely inform the person — in a prominent manner and in clear, easily understandable language — of the purpose and necessity of the processing, its impact on personal rights and interests, and other matters required by laws and administrative regulations; where the personal information of a minor under the age of 14 is used, the separate consent of the minor’s parents or other guardian shall be obtained. This does not apply where laws or administrative regulations provide otherwise.
(2) after the natural person withdraws consent, eliminate the effects by deleting the relevant personal information and by other means, and shall not retain the personal information in any form or use it for any other purpose, except as otherwise provided by laws or administrative regulations. Unless the parties have agreed otherwise, the digital virtual human shall also be deregistered.
(3) respect the lawful rights and interests of others, and shall not infringe upon another person’s right of portrait, right of reputation, right of honor, right of privacy, or personal information rights and interests. Where the personal information of a deceased person is used to carry out relevant activities, the deceased’s close relatives may, for their own lawful and legitimate interests, exercise the corresponding rights over the deceased’s relevant personal information in accordance with law, except where the deceased made other arrangements prior to death.
Article 8. Any organization or individual providing or using digital virtual human services shall not infringe upon another person’s personality rights by way of vilification, defacement, or other such means, and shall not provide a digital virtual human service sufficient to identify a specific natural person without that person’s consent. This includes, but is not limited to:
(1) using another person’s pen name, stage name, online alias, translated name, style name, given name, or an abbreviation of such name that carries a degree of social recognition; and
(2) using a likeness or voice that is highly similar to that of a specific natural person.
Article 9. Any organization or individual providing or using digital virtual human services shall respect intellectual property rights and business ethics. Where another person’s literary, artistic, photographic, musical, audiovisual, or other works or products are used to create a digital virtual human, and in the course of any entity’s use of a digital virtual human, the lawful intellectual property rights of others shall not be infringed.
Article 10. Inducing minors to become addicted to digital virtual human services is prohibited. No digital virtual human service may be provided to minors that offers virtual intimate relationships such as virtual family members or virtual partners, induces excessive consumption, induces religious belief, or otherwise contains information that may trigger or induce minors to imitate unsafe conduct, engage in conduct that violates social morality, develop extreme emotions, or form bad habits, or that may otherwise affect the physical or mental health of minors.
Chapter 3. Service Standards
Article 11. Any organization or individual providing or using digital virtual human services shall comply with laws and administrative regulations, respect social morality and ethics, and shall not engage in the following activities:
(1) generating or disseminating content that endangers national security, honor, and interests; incites subversion of state power or overthrow of the socialist system; incites separatism or undermines national unity; promotes terrorism, extremism, or historical nihilism; violates core socialist values or public order and good morals; engages in illegal religious activities; promotes ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination; provokes hostility between groups; disseminates obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, or incitement to crime; spreads rumors; or insults or defames others or infringes upon their lawful rights and interests;
(2) incorporating content that damages the national image into a digital virtual human’s likeness design, clothing and insignia, activity scenarios, personality preferences, or the like;
(3) distorting or vilifying the image of martyrs and other such figures, or fabricating or altering the deeds and spirit of martyrs, or using the image of martyrs and other such figures for commercial purposes;
(4) engaging in false advertising of goods or services, malicious inducement of consumption, telecom fraud, or other unlawful activities;
(5) using a digital virtual human to circumvent facial recognition, voice recognition, or other identity authentication mechanisms when laws or administrative regulations require the provision of authentic identity information;
(6) infringing upon the personal information or the freedom to independently choose an occupation, or other lawful rights and interests, of the real person behind a human-driven digital virtual human;
(7) registering or trading Internet accounts in violation of regulations; or
(8) other conduct that violates laws or administrative regulations.
Article 12. Any organization or individual providing or using digital virtual human services shall take measures to consciously guard against and resist activities that generate or disseminate content involving sexual suggestion or sexual provocation, that display bloodiness, horror, or cruelty, or that incite discrimination on the basis of group identity or geographic origin, or other content that has an adverse impact on the online ecosystem.
Article 13. From the commencement of a digital virtual human service, the digital virtual human service provider, the service user, and any service provider offering network information content dissemination services shall continuously display, throughout the digital virtual human’s display area, a prominent notice bearing the words “digital human” (数字人), and shall comply with the relevant State provisions on the labeling of AI-generated and composed content.
Article 14. Digital virtual human service providers and service users shall, in accordance with laws and administrative regulations, carry out data processing activities within a specific purpose and scope, use data with a lawful source, implement data security protection responsibilities, and adopt corresponding technical measures and other necessary measures to safeguard the security of data storage and transmission and to prevent data leakage or improper use.
Article 15. Digital virtual human service providers and service users shall establish mechanisms for security risk monitoring, early warning, and emergency response, and for anti-addiction reminders, in respect of digital virtual human services, and shall establish and improve a content-orientation management system. They shall be equipped with technical capabilities and staffing commensurate with the scale of their operations, employ a combination of artificial intelligence, big data, and other technical means together with manual review to strengthen the identification, monitoring, and early warning of risks in digital virtual human services, and shall record and retain log information.
Where a digital virtual human service is found to have been used to engage in unlawful activities, the provider shall promptly adopt measures such as dynamic identity verification, warnings, function restrictions, or termination of service; where a major risk is found to exist, the provider shall immediately suspend or terminate the digital virtual human service, deregister the digital virtual human, and eliminate the effects.
Article 16. A digital virtual human service provider shall enter into a service agreement with the technical-support party and the service user that clearly specifies the safeguarding of content security and the rights and obligations relating to the collection, use, and storage of data, among other matters.
Article 17. A service provider offering network information content dissemination services shall establish and improve a content-orientation management system and be equipped with technical capabilities and staffing commensurate with the scale of its operations; it shall fulfill its content security management responsibilities, optimize its content review and account management mechanisms, strengthen its management of information published by its users, promptly dispose of unlawful and undesirable information, and retain log information.
Article 18. Where a digital virtual human service is used to provide AI anthropomorphic interaction services, and a user chooses to cancel a specific feature of the service or to exit the service, the provider shall not deceive or excessively induce the user to continue using the service.
Providers are encouraged to adopt necessary measures to actively intervene and provide professional assistance where a user exhibits a tendency toward suicide, self-harm, or other conduct that threatens life or health.
Article 19. Where a digital virtual human service is used in government services, public administration, judicial activities, or other such fields, the principles of legality, reasonableness, propriety, and necessity shall be observed, a mechanism for human oversight and review shall be put in place, and users shall have the right to choose to accept or decline the digital virtual human service.
Chapter 4. Oversight and Legal Liability
Article 20. Digital virtual human service providers and service providers offering network information content dissemination services shall establish mechanisms for user appeals and for public complaints and reports concerning digital virtual humans, set up convenient channels for appeals, complaints, and reports, and promptly process and respond with the results.
Article 21. A digital virtual human service provider possessing public-opinion properties or the capacity for social mobilization shall complete algorithm filing, and filing for changes and deregistration, in accordance with the Provisions on the Administration of Algorithmic Recommendation Services for Internet Information Services.
A digital virtual human technical-support party shall complete filing, and filing for changes and deregistration, by reference to the preceding paragraph.
Article 22. Where a digital virtual human service provider provides an Internet information service possessing public-opinion properties or the capacity for social mobilization, it shall carry out a security assessment in accordance with relevant State provisions.
Article 23. Cyberspace administration departments and relevant competent authorities shall carry out supervision and inspection of digital virtual human services in accordance with their duties. Digital virtual human service providers, technical-support parties, service users, and service providers offering network information content dissemination services shall cooperate in accordance with law and provide necessary support and assistance.
Article 24. Violations of these Measures shall, where laws or administrative regulations provide for penalties, be punished in accordance with those provisions, together with civil liability assumed in accordance with law. Where laws or administrative regulations do not so provide, the relevant department shall, in accordance with its duties, issue a warning or public criticism and order rectification within a specified period; where the violator refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the department shall order the cessation of the relevant service and may impose a fine of not less than RMB 10,000 and not more than RMB 100,000; where the violation endangers the life, health, or safety of citizens and causes harmful consequences, a fine of not less than RMB 100,000 and not more than RMB 200,000 shall be imposed.
Chapter 5. Supplementary Provisions
Article 25. For the purposes of these Measures, the following terms have the meanings set out below:
“Digital virtual human” means a virtual digital likeness that exists in the non-physical world, that is produced using computer graphics, digital image processing, artificial intelligence, or other such technologies, that is driven by a real person or by computation, that simulates human appearance, and that possesses characteristics such as voice, behavior, interactive capability, or personality.
“Human-driven digital virtual human” means a virtual digital likeness that maps a real person’s facial expressions, movements, and voice in real time through motion-capture technology.
“Digital virtual human service provider” means an organization or individual that provides a digital virtual human service.
“Digital virtual human technical-support party” means an organization or individual that provides technical support for a digital virtual human service.
“Digital virtual human service user” means an organization or individual that uses a digital virtual human to produce, reproduce, or publish information.
Article 26. Where the State has other provisions on the conduct of activities involving digital virtual human services in fields such as healthcare, finance, press and publication, and film, such provisions shall be complied with as well.
Article 27. These Measures shall come into force as of [date left blank] 2026.