No sex toys, medicines, or spy devices allowed on China’s live-streaming platforms as Beijing tightens grip

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday released draft regulations for the live-streaming industry, declaring that items such as sex toys, medicines, spy devices and foreign newspapers can no longer be sold in these sessions, as Beijing tightens its scrutiny of the fast-growing e-commerce sector.

Meanwhile, teenagers under 16 will no longer be allowed to live-stream and live-streamers should use Mandarin during their sessions, according to the draft rules. Live-streamers are not allowed to delete, conceal negative comments, or produce fake reviews to cheat or mislead consumers, the document said.

China also wants to build a credit system for live-streamers, merchants, and agencies based on their e-commerce sales records. The credit information will be shared across platforms and regulators, according to draft rules drawn up by the China National Institute of Standardisation (CNIS) at the request of the Ministry of Commerce.

Under the draft rules, platforms need to clearly display their privacy policies and mention the personal information they collect, how they obtain that information, how they keep it private and how they will use that information.

The full list of items banned from live-streaming e-commerce include a range of goods deemed socially harmful, such as test-cheating kits and sex aids.

The rules, which are open to public feedback until September 2, are just the latest set of actions that Beijing is taking to tighten regulation of the sector and the wider internet.