Objective To systematically review the efficacy and safety of interferon based antiviral therapy for children with hepatitis B. Methods PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, WanFang Data and CNKI databases were searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interferon based antiviral therapy for children with hepatitis B from inception to December 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of 12 studies involving 723 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: follow-up <12 months, the virological response rate (RR=2.82, 95%CI 1.98 to 4.02, P<0.000 01), serum HBeAg clearance rate (RR=3.02, 95%CI 1.95 to 4.67,P<0.000 01) and ALT normalization rate (RR=1.42, 95%CI 1.19 to 1.70,P=0.000 1) were significantly higher in the interferon group than the control group. Follow-up >12 months, the virological response rate (RR=1.75, 95%CI 1.18 to 2.60, P=0.006) and serum HBeAg clearance rate (RR=2.17, 95%CI 1.28 to 3.65, P=0.004) were also significantly higher in the interferon group. Severe adverse effects were not reported in included studies. Conclusion Current evidence shows that higher virological response is found in HBV infected children with interferon treatment. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are needed to verify above conclusion.