● There are more and more teenagers who play script killing, and the younger the age, the higher the proportion of liking it.
However, at present, many script killings contain bloody, violent, pornographic, horror and other content, which are not suitable for minors to contact
● The market has spawned "children's script killing" specially aimed at young children, but the source of many children's scripts is unknown.
● It is reasonable for teenagers to choose scripted entertainment activities. It should not be banned across the board, but should be regulated in various aspects such as script review, grading, script content development, market supervision, and industry autonomy.
□ Reporter Sun Tianjiao
"Wow..." The child in front of him burst into tears suddenly, unable to stop, almost collapsed.
This is what happened one day in November this year, when Ms. Bao from Shanghai was playing script killing with her friends.
They played a micro-horror reasoning book called "1:30", because this script requires the number of players in the game to be 6, and Ms. Bao and her party form a temporary team with 3 strangers.
When she walked into the script killing room at the appointed time, she found that the other three were all very young. After asking, she found out that two were high school students, and one was the younger brother of one of them, who was only in elementary school.
After starting to play the script, something ridiculous happened to Ms. Bao—the primary school student insisted on reading the script aloud, and there were a lot of words he didn’t know in the script, so he needed help from the on-site DM (game host) .
Because there are horror elements in the script, there are also staff members pretending to be ghosts and using lighting and sound effects to create an atmosphere. As a result, the elementary school students were scared to tears.
In the end, the game came to a hasty end amidst cries.
It is not uncommon for minors to play script killing.
Statistics show that in 2021, the market size of China's script killing industry will exceed 17 billion yuan.
According to the "Research Report on Youth Immersive Entertainment and Protection of Rights and Interests (2021)" jointly released by the China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association and the China Youth Research Center, over 60% of young people say that they like and like to play immersive games like secret rooms and script killing, and their age The lower the ratio, the higher the like rate.
At the same time, there is a trend of younger age in the script killing industry, and even a "children's script killing" specially aimed at young children has been derived.
It is worth noting that at present, many script killings contain gore, violence, pornography, horror and other content, which are not suitable for minors to contact.
For this reason, relevant departments have issued restrictions on minors' script activities, and local governments have also issued relevant regulations one after another.
A number of experts recently accepted an interview with a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" and pointed out that it is reasonable for teenagers to choose scripted entertainment activities, and minors should not be banned from accessing script killings across the board. Market supervision, industry self-government and other aspects have begun to regulate minors' script activities.
Contains violent horror elements
Affect the physical and mental health of young people
"Actually, I can understand why minors like to play script killing, because it's novel and exciting, but it's really not suitable for those who are too young. First, they can't read well and can't understand it, which affects everyone's experience. Second, it's scary, There are too many elements such as violence, which can easily scare children." Ms. Bao said.
In reality, more and more minors are killed by playing scripts.
"A mediocre female high school student wants to find a friend who can play the book together" "Zhun high school life welcomes everyone to form a group to play script killing"... The reporter searched on multiple social platforms using "script killing" as the keyword and saw There are many such "friending", "grouping" and "sharing" posts, and some bloody, supernatural, and terrifying content have become their "points of interest".
Gao Xin (pseudonym), a 17-year-old high school student in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, has been playing script killing for more than two years. He and several classmates are regular "game partners".
"Our favorite thing to play is the horror book, especially the one with scene design and NPC interaction, which is exciting and interesting." Gao Xin said that most of the current script killing content has homicide and reasoning links, and even serial killers, Plots such as dismembering corpses are often considered the key to ensuring a wonderful plot.
According to Sun Hongyan, director of the Juvenile and Child Research Institute of the China Youth Research Center, a large number of minors choose script killings, which is their new cultural demand and a new form of social entertainment for minors.
However, the emerging entertainment form of script killing is still in a state of barbaric growth, and a large amount of bloody violence and even pornographic content in scripts may have multiple negative effects on minor participants.
"On the one hand, this influence is reflected in the shaping of values. Some notebooks are mixed with elements that are not suitable for minors' values or lifestyles, such as dark marriages, palace fights, split personalities, and smoking, drinking, and drug use. In the immersive experience of the script, minors may not be able to distinguish between virtual reality and reality. On the other hand, minors have poor physical and mental endurance, and the content that is too scary and bloody may cause certain harm to their body and mind, resulting in Insomnia, nightmares, etc." Sun Hongyan said.
Sun Hongyan mentioned that there are still scripts that distort history.
"In some camp battle scripts, players will be divided into different camps to fight, and finally a certain camp wins. This may lead to the winner of a certain war in real history, but in the script, it becomes the loser. The setting of the plot may make minors logically confused and even distort their cognition."
Introduce regulations into regulation
Effective protection has a long way to go
In fact, relevant departments have paid attention to the potential impact of script killing on minors, and have issued targeted regulations to restrict minors from accessing the content, scenes and time of script killing.
In June of this year, five departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Scripted Entertainment Business Sites", which for the first time included new formats of scripted entertainment business sites such as script killing and escape rooms nationwide. Supervision and record management.
It is emphasized that scripts used in scripted entertainment business venues should have age-appropriate reminders and indicate the age range; if the set scenes are not suitable for minors, they should be reminded in a prominent position, and minors must not be allowed to enter.
After the introduction of relevant regulations, what is the effect?
Judging from the online situation, the reporter recently downloaded and reviewed multiple script reasoning apps and found that these apps have set up registration accounts that require identity verification, and are only available to players over the age of 18, and are not open to minors.
On the other hand, there are multiple online script-killing "groups" on social platforms, and as long as you sign up, you will be pulled into the online group chat, and script killing activities will be carried out in the group chat.
The reporter consulted a number of organization personnel who provided online script killings, but none of them asked the applicants about their identity, age and other information.
In addition, on some short video platforms, many bloggers are live broadcasting script killing.
In order to pursue "program effects", some bloggers will involve horror, incorrect three views and even "skimming the ball".
For example, in a live broadcast of a script based on the ancient Three Kingdoms period, the boy who played Zhou Yu married Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao at the same time.
From the perspective of the offline situation, the reporter recently contacted a number of physical script killing shops in Beijing by telephone and the Internet. After consulting with a well-known horror script "Scary" on a forum, I found that all the shops only asked about the number of people and appointments. There is no reminder of the age limit for participants.
After the reporter further asked whether this script was suitable for minors to experience, some stores said that "it is not recommended for people who are too young to play", and some stores said that "all can be played".
In the opinion of the interviewed experts, whether it is the online app that refuses the use of minors across the board, or the implementation of restrictions on minors in other aspects, further regulation is needed.
Sun Hongyan said that from the perspective of respecting the rights of minors in cultural entertainment and the development of the scripted entertainment industry, it is debatable to ban minors across the board.
The right to access scripted entertainment for minors should be respected.
Ma Lihong, senior partner of Beijing Deheheng Law Firm, believes that there are a lot of bad content in the current script killing, which is due to the profit-seeking reasons of the businessmen and the lack of supervision.
If the script killing industry wants to develop soundly, it should assume the necessary social responsibility, that is, take the initiative to undertake the obligation to protect minors, from the content of the script, the plot design of the game, to strengthening the review and management of minors' participation in the game, so that Form a benign interaction among supervision, industry, society, and game players to promote the healthy development of the industry.
According to Kong Ming, secretary-general of the China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association, at present, relevant laws and regulations are in the process of being gradually improved, but practitioners' awareness and ability to protect are at a relatively low level; from a market perspective, according to the characteristics of the scripted entertainment industry The age-appropriate evaluation, age-appropriate reminders, and dedicated personnel for the protection of minors need to be tested in practice, and consumers also need a process of adaptation.
Therefore, there is still a long way to go for the scripted entertainment industry to implement the protection of minors.
Unknown source of children's script
Vigilance turns into alternative education and training
With the continuous development of the script killing market, "children's script killing" targeting at younger age groups came into being.
Children's script killing is usually aimed at children under the age of 12. It claims that parents will lead their children to participate in role-playing experience, entertaining and entertaining. Parents are mostly in the position of bystanders during the game and do not directly participate.
Nowadays, killing children's scripts seems to have become the "outlet" of the industry.
The reporter's inquiry found that in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other cities, many children's script killing shops have been opened, many of which have the same name as the adult script killing shops, and they are derived from the stores.
Not only that, but on multiple social platforms, under the related entries of "Children's Script Killing", there are not only stores promoting and introducing scripts, parents sharing relevant experiences, but also some project promotion posts and entrepreneurial experience posts about Children's Script Killing, which are called children's scripts. Killing is "a veritable blue ocean project with low threshold and high income".
It can be seen from the entrepreneurial posts that many children's script killers have transformed from children's education and training institutions.
He He from Chengdu, Sichuan, and a group of friends opened Saixiaotan Children's Script Play in September this year. Different from the traditional indoor play, what they want to promote is an outdoor play for children that can really play.
He He said that as a parent of a 7.5-year-old boy and a practitioner of children's script killing, she found that children's script killing is an emerging market, and there are indeed many problems under the barbaric development: there is no clear standard in this industry, what is a child? Script killing, so now it seems that as long as it is in the form of children + tasks + games, it can be called "children's script killing".
In terms of scripts, He He introduced that currently there is no official organization or a benchmark distribution agency that specializes in the distribution of children's scripts. Most of the existing children's scripts have unknown sources. The script was changed and put into use.
"These creators have almost no barriers to entry. After someone wrote a few children's scripts, they recruited apprentices on social platforms. How can such quality be guaranteed?"
"There are also scripts that are suspected of teaching and training in disguise, requiring the participating children to recite ancient poems and do Mathematical Olympiad questions. These children's scripts that integrate academic knowledge are actually designed to satisfy the obsession of some parents. It deviates from the original intention of children’s script killing to make children happy and leisure.” He He said that DMs in the children’s script killing industry also lack professional training, some are college students and education and training teachers directly become DMs, and some even have no education, literature, etc. It is difficult to guarantee the healthy experience of children in the entertainment process.
"Children's script killing can be an interesting way or path to convey values, positive energy, humanistic views, and popularize some common sense and knowledge, but we must empathize with their needs from the perspective of children. I sincerely hope that this market can flourish. .” He He said.
According to Ma Lihong's observations, the themes of children's scripts are generally divided into three categories: related to textbook knowledge or based on some textbooks, some are the content of previous teaching and training; logical reasoning, which is generally closer to adult scripts, suitable for ages Older kids; financial and business sandbox games, similar to Monopoly.
"If the content of the script is healthy and the participation process is standardized, it is helpful to inspire children's intelligence and increase their knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out necessary supervision of the industry, such as a script filing and review system, and establish a reporting and investigation mechanism to prevent unhealthy children. output to children who do not have the capacity to discriminate."
Kong Ming told reporters that the industry association has also noticed that some businesses use the name "Children's Script Killing" in their promotion.
"According to our research, 'Children's Script Killing' is currently more of a marketing gimmick, and there are very few such products in the market or organized business activities for children. We are cautious about this part of the market exploration. I also hope that companies with relevant plans must do a good job in market research, abide by policies and regulations, and not blindly try and make mistakes.”
Series of specifications released one after another
Promote the healthy development of the industry
In addition to the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Script Entertainment Business Sites", starting from 2021, Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaoning, Chongqing, Chengdu and other places have successively issued corresponding management policies.
For example, 7 departments including the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio and Tourism jointly formulated the "Measures for Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Script Entertainment Industry (Trial)", which stipulates that the script entertainment business establishments should register with the relevant departments and obtain business licenses, 30 from the date of operation Within a natural day, information such as the address of the business site and the script name, author, brief introduction, and age range of the script used in the site shall be filed.
In March this year, the China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association formally established the Immersive Scripted Entertainment Professional Committee.
Recently, the association issued the "Cultural and Entertainment Content Self-examination Specification" and "Age-appropriate Reminder Guidelines for Scripted Entertainment Activities (Trial)", which clarified the prohibited content, and at the same time, proceeded from the protection of minors' legal rights and physical and mental health, and made scripted entertainment activities age-appropriate. The scope is divided into two stages: "12 years old (inclusive) and above" and "18 years old (inclusive) and above".
In Kong Ming’s view, the scripted entertainment industry has received such attention from the legislature and administrative agencies in the early stages of development, and a series of regulations and policies have been introduced, which will help the healthy development of the industry.
"From the perspective of legislation to protect minors, there is always only 'progressive time'."
Sun Hongyan said that in terms of the norms of the scripted entertainment market, the rights of minors must first be respected, and they refuse to prohibit minors from accessing scripted killings across the board.
Secondly, it is still necessary to continuously strengthen supervision to ensure that the industry is green, healthy and child-friendly.
In terms of age division, it can be considered to be more subdivided; in terms of script review and evaluation, due to the large number of scripts and the variety of types, it is recommended to establish a special review team with multidisciplinary and multi-departmental collaboration.
"The existing age-appropriate reminders are generally relatively simple. In the future, relevant departments should issue special industry standards for script killing stores and scripts, which will include the content of minor protection, and clarify market supervision departments, cultural departments, fire departments and others. Businesses, minors themselves and other parties are responsible for the main body." Sun Hongyan said.
Kong Ming said that the high-quality development of the scripted entertainment industry requires the joint efforts of all sectors of society. It is suggested that practitioners should fully understand and cherish this opportunity, lock in the "high-quality" goal, and unswervingly do a good job in the prescribed actions formulated by the management department to help the industry. Improve compliance capabilities.
At the same time, we also hope that government management departments, the media and all walks of life will supervise the scripted entertainment industry, put forward constructive suggestions and suggestions with an inclusive and prudent attitude, and promote the continuous maturity of new formats.
"As for the industry's mandatory question of protection of minors, I think the whole industry should have a unified understanding, which is to face it positively and protect it scientifically. Scientific age-appropriate evaluation and age-appropriate reminders must be protection measures that meet the requirements of laws and regulations and the actual needs of the market. Practitioners should use practical actions to do these two tasks solidly, in place, and achieve results." Kong Ming said.
Ma Lihong said that these legal norms have laid the institutional foundation for protecting the health of minors participating in script killing games, but the supervision and punishment measures still need to be refined.
At the same time, society and schools should strengthen education and guidance for minors, help them enhance their ability to identify and resist harmful content, strengthen self-management and protection, and enjoy healthy and progressive games.
Comics/Gao Yue