China Has Told Parents To Report Their Children To The Police If They Use Telegram Or WhatsApp

Chinese authorities are encouraging parents to check their children’s devices for encrypted messaging services like Telegram, which facilitate the organization of protests. The government noted that the apps have “the ability to erase content immediately after reading, which facilitates the destruction of criminal evidence.”

If they find these apps, parents have been encouraged to take their children to the nearest police station “to find out whether their children had engaged in crime.”

“School and family education should play an important role in deterring juvenile crimes,” stated the police, in a statement to state media.

Telegram, and other encrypted messaging apps, played a crucial role in the organizing of the protests against the country’s zero-Covid policy last year, some of the largest protests recorded in the country since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989.