China’s digital yuan goes to school with student card that gives parents control over spending

The e-CNY is now available to students at Hainan Luxun High School through a palm-sized device that gives parents control over spending and phone calls

The device expands the digital yuan’s use to children on the southern island ahead of further expansion to new cities expected this year

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With the launch of a new device for students at a high school in Sanya, Hainan, parents can use the e-CNY app to set spending limits for their children. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:30pm, 25 May 2022

China’s rapidly expanding sovereign digital currency has arrived in school in the form of a palm-sized device that allows parents to track the location and purchase records of their kids.

The new e-CNY “card”, which is effectively a small mobile phone, is being made available to students at Hainan Luxun High School in the city of Sanya, in China’s southernmost province. The device lets students make payments at designated stores and make calls with select numbers. Location tracking is enabled through GPS, according to state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

Parents can place limits on the device using the e-CNY app, China’s official digital currency wallet that became widely available to the public in January. The app lets parents top-up their children’s e-wallets and access their consumption records using a special SIM card.

Parents can also choose which phone numbers can reach the device, which was co-developed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and telecoms companies. In addition to the numbers of three trusted family members, parents can add up to 20 other numbers for incoming calls to the device to help children “avoid the harassment of unknown calls”.

With smartphones banned by the education ministry at primary and middle schools, the project at Hainan Luxun High School, which covers grades one to 12, aims to satisfy the needs for parents and students to communicate and “address the issues of students’ daily consumption and commuting safety”, CCTV reported.

China became the first major economy to begin exploring its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2014, an effort that ramped up in 2019. The e-CNY is now being trialled in many cities across China, but there is no official timetable for a national launch.

Current trials remain active in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xian. Other cities such as Shenzhen and Suzhou have been involved with promoting the e-CNY since late 2019.

China’s digital yuan goes to school with student card that gives parents control over spending

The e-CNY is now available to students at Hainan Luxun High School through a palm-sized device that gives parents control over spending and phone calls The device expands the digital yuan’s use to children on the southern island ahead of further expansion to new cities expected this year

The e-CNY is now available to students at Hainan Luxun High School through a palm-sized device that gives parents control over spending and phone calls

The device expands the digital yuan’s use to children on the southern island ahead of further expansion to new cities expected this year