A netizen views a performance by two web hosts on Douyin, a Chinese short video platform. Photo: IC

China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) put forward three requirements for domestic online live-streaming programs on Friday, emphasizing the need to strictly prevent negative trends such as celebrity hype and excessive entertainment. It also stressed the importance of promptly prohibiting programs that harm the physical and mental health of minors.

These requirements were put forward in a seminar on the management of online live-streaming programs held by the NRTA on Friday in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province.

The requirements emphasized that the red line for online live-streaming programs is the dissemination of harmful contents related to politics.  

The seminar stressed that program creators should enhance their political awareness, and effectively strengthen their political judgment, understanding, and execution capabilities.

They are required to firmly grasp the correct political direction, public opinion guidance, and value orientation, and resolutely prevent the infiltration and dissemination of harmful contents related to politics in programs.

The requirements stressed that creators must adhere to the bottom line of moral and legal standards. 

The management department for online live-streaming programs should strengthen inspections, random checks, monitoring, safety warnings, and penalties for violations, according to the NRTA.

The management department is required to promptly investigate and address prominent issues that violate public order and morals, are pathological and harmful, and endanger the physical and mental health of minors, according to the requirements.

In the mid-July, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched a special campaign to improve the online environment for minors. More than 4.3 million pieces of illegal and harmful information concerning minors have been cleaned up and intercepted, over 130,000 accounts have been disposed of, and more than 2,000 websites and platforms have been removed, according to CCTV news.

The requirements noted that strict measures should be taken to prevent negative trends such as celebrity worship, hype, and excessive entertainment, and that typical cases should be exposed in a timely manner.

As early as 2021, relevant Chinese authorities had initiated rectifications regarding excessive entertainment in television programs. Broadcasting and television stations of four Chinese provinces exhibited varying degrees of excessive entertainment and content related to celebrity worship and hype, which were required to be resolutely rectified, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The platform institutions should enhance the education and training of top streamers, strengthen the management of their behavior, and implement personnel management mechanisms such as streamer onboarding, classification, education and training, and credit evaluation, according to the NRTA.

Online streamers, talent agencies, and program production organizations should be supervised in order to consciously resist vulgarity, mediocrity, and sycophancy, and never become "slaves" to the market and traffic, according to the requirements.

The meeting also pointed out that creators are encouraged to produce high-quality programs.

Creators are encouraged to focus on major themes and memorable moments, fully leverage the advantages and characteristics of online live-streaming programs, and narrate compelling Chinese stories.

The requirements also said that creators should adhere to a people-centered creative orientation, and continuously innovate in the forms of content that the public enjoys, thereby enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security among the people.

Global Times