Beijing court sees sharp rise in youth cyber disputes

A court in Beijing has reported a sharp rise in cyber-related cases involving minors, with disputes increasingly centered on online bullying, personal information leaks, gaming top-ups and tipping livestreamers.

The Beijing Internet Court released data on Thursday showing that online disputes involving minors jumped from 50 in 2021 to 997 in 2025, an increase of nearly 20 times, with an average annual growth rate of 111.3 percent.

"These figures show that young people are spending more time online, are more willing to use judicial means to protect their rights, and have a growing need for legal protection," said Jiang Ying, president of the court.

According to Jiang, most cases involving minors fall into two categories: disputes over online service contracts and online torts. A large number involve refund requests after children spent money on games or tipped livestreamers. Others concern harm to a child's reputation, image or privacy, including cyberbullying and personal data leaks.

Online spending remains the leading category of disputes, with some cases involving substantial sums. Jiang cited one case involving livestream tipping worth more than 6.5 million yuan ($958,698), and another involving game purchases exceeding 640,000 yuan. She also noted that some minors spent tens of thousands of dollars within weeks on lucky draw mini-games or "blind box" purchases.

"The high number of these cases not only shows that some parents are not supervising their children adequately, but also reveals problems in how some online platforms implement anti-addiction tools, spending limits and content reviews," Jiang said.

She added that in some school-related conflicts, teenagers have used the internet to escalate disputes. "They post insulting or false information on social media groups or websites, share private pictures of others, or even use artificial intelligence tools to create fake photos and chat histories, causing real physical and mental harm," she said.

"What is even more worrying," she added, "is that some of this harmful content spreads very quickly after being shared and discussed online. It can attract significant public attention and comments, turning into cyberbullying that causes lasting harm to a young person's dignity and mental health."

Jiang said these issues highlight the need to strengthen public education on online conduct and the law. She called for coordinated efforts across society to raise legal awareness and ensure effective implementation of special protections for minors.