(Yicai Global) May 9 -- Hangzhou, the capital of China's Zhejiang province, has issued the country's first set of rules aimed at safeguarding underage models.

The public prosecutor in Hangzhou's Binjiang district issued a document on May 7 setting out the norms for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of child models, according to a statement posted on its official WeChat account today.

The document bans the employment of minors under the age of 10 for advertising purposes. It also states that such models should not work for more than a week at one time or over a month in total. They also should not labor for more than four hours at a stretch, and their modeling activities should not lead them to drop out of school, or use it as an excuse for quitting their studies.

In addition, the document also requires that children are not forced to wear clothes that are unsuitable for their age and breach public order and good morals. Employers should also not push children into anything that is not suitable for their age and is contrary to morality and public order. Furthermore, no physical or mental distress should be caused to minors, including through beatings and verbal rebukes.

A video of a child model being kicked went viral on China's Twitter-like Weibo on April 8. It shows a girl walking with a flower basket in her hand, followed by a pair of adults. Suddenly, the woman moves forward, and smacks the girl with her foot. She staggers and almost falls to the ground. The girl, named 'Niu Niu', is a child model and was making the video for a fashion show.

Despite being just nine seconds long, the clip triggered anger among internet users. The incident took place at a photography base in Hangzhou.

Binjiang district is home to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and the online retail sector is well developed in the area, spurring the growth of many Taobao-related photography bases, as well as attracting clothing retailers, photographers and models for promotional shoots.

These bases mainly provide photo opportunities and charge fees, and have no other relations with the child models and photographers. The number of child models coming here for commercial photo shoots accounts for a certain number of all visitors.