To dispel the addiction to online games is to build a beautiful offline childhood
□ Our reporter Xu Weilun
On the one hand, the number of online game users in my country has reached 500 million, and the player population is increasingly showing a trend of younger age.
On the other hand, it is the consensus of all sectors of society to prevent minors from indulging in online games. Only standardized, moderate, and controllable can it prevent them from "playing" the precious growth stage of children.
In response to this, the National Press and Publication Administration recently issued the "Notice on Further Strict Management and Effective Prevention of Minors’ Addiction to Online Games" (hereinafter referred to as the new "Notice"), clarifying that all online game companies are only allowed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and On statutory holidays, one hour of service is provided to minors from 20 to 21:00 every day, and game services are not allowed in any form for users who have not registered and logged in with their real names.
However, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found in an interview recently that minors still use adult accounts to play online games, and some small operators are difficult to identify account users effectively due to technical and financial constraints.
So, what harm will be brought about by indulging in online games?
What are the highlights of the new regulations?
In what areas should the whole society continue to make efforts?
Regarding these hot spots of social concern, the judges of the People's Court of Fengtai District in Beijing interpreted them from a judicial perspective.
There are still businesses "helping" children bypass supervision
“When I play a game, I forget about it. I can’t hear him calling his name.” Mr. Sun from Beijing City told reporters that this year’s first-year daughter of junior high school spent more than 3 hours playing games every day during summer vacation. “It’s not just her. Many of her classmates are already short-sighted."
In fact, there are not a few parents who worry about their children indulging in online games like Mr. Sun.
The "Research Report on the Internet Usage of Minors in China in 2020" recently released by the Ministry of Youth Rights Protection of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, China Internet Network Information Center and other institutions shows that 62.5% of the minors currently using the Internet will often play online. Games, the proportion of playing mobile games is 56.4%.
Indulging in online games will not only cause vision loss, but also one of the incentives for teenagers to be deceived and even commit crimes.
According to Zhang Mozhu, assistant judge of Fengtai Court, such cases are increasing year by year. Some criminals take advantage of minors’ weak judgment ability and use methods such as fabricating false recharge rewards to trick minors, causing children "Equipment was not available but was defrauded." Some older children spend money like dirt on the Internet, dominate the king, and then bring the violence in the game into reality, robbing the surrounding area by violent interception, intimidation with a knife, and beating with a stick. Students’ money is used for online games.
Some children even play games in Internet cafes day and night because they are addicted to online games, and eventually die of sudden illness.
"In real life, minors are immersed in online games and find it difficult to extricate themselves. It also happens that they spend large sums of money on gaming equipment without their parents' knowledge." Zhang Mozhu said, minors lost money, lost their way to loss. Life may be caused by loss of control in online games. Behind this is the uneven content of the game, the failure of online game companies to implement anti-addiction review obligations, the illegal entry of minors in Internet cafes, and the failure of parents or schools to perform guardianship or protection duties. "It is not difficult to see that preventing children from indulging in online games requires concerted efforts from all sectors of society."
However, some unscrupulous businesses are still trying to "help" children bypass the fruits of all parties' efforts.
The reporter's investigation found that there are a large number of online game "rental account" shops on major e-commerce platforms and second-hand trading websites, and there are even apps for "rental account" in mobile application stores.
Minors “renting accounts” on these platforms do not need to verify their age, and can jump directly into the game through “on account devices” and apps provided by sellers. Some merchants also claim that the real-name authentication procedure will not be triggered during the whole process.
Tencent Games recently responded to related matters, saying that account renting and selling seriously undermine the real-name system of games and the protection mechanism for minors. Up to now, Tencent has sued or sent letters to more than 20 account trading platforms and multiple e-commerce platforms requesting to stop the relevant service.
New regulations are introduced to resolve regulatory technical problems
"In order to prevent minors from indulging in online games more effectively, the pace of legislation and the introduction of new policies in our country is also accelerating." said Li Rui, deputy chief of the Fangzhuang Court of Fengtai Court. In the Law on the Protection of People, a chapter on network protection was added to comprehensively regulate the protection of minors in the Internet world through 17 articles.
For example, according to the newly revised non-guaranteed law, it is forbidden to insert online game links in the learning app and not to push commercial advertisements.
For another example, parents of minors should improve their adaptability to the Internet, and learn to use minors’ online protection apps or mini programs to set up a youth mode, etc.
On August 30 this year, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the “Notice on Further Strict Management and Effective Prevention of Minors’ Addiction to Online Games” and the “Notice on Preventing Minors’ Addiction to Online Games” issued in 2019 (hereinafter referred to as The original regulations) have been improved and refined with the times.
"The original regulations also have restrictions on game time, but the service hours of different game companies and even the different games of the same game company are independent. Minors can play a game for the specified time before changing to another game. According to Zhang Mozhu, the new "Notice" further restricts the time period for providing online game services to minors on the basis of the original regulations, and requires online game companies to significantly reduce the time for providing online games to minors. All online game companies only One hour of service can be provided to minors from 20 to 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. Minors are not allowed to provide online game services at other times. The time for minors to provide services is uniformly fixed in one time period, which ingeniously resolves the technical problem that the previous'anti-addiction information' cannot communicate."
In addition, the new "Notice" clarified that it is not allowed to provide game services to users who have not registered and logged in with real names in any form (including tourist experience mode).
"This also means that the new regulations cancel the possibility of online game companies attracting player traffic through the tourist experience model, and minors can no longer experience different games by changing terminals." Li Rui said that in terms of industry supervision, the new "Notice" The scope of the supervision and inspection of the online game industry by the management department has been specified, including but not limited to the length of online game service hours, real-name registration and login, and standardized payment, and emphasized the key supervision of the implementation of anti-addiction measures. .
In the field of social co-governance, the new "Notice" once again emphasizes the strengthening of family, school, and society's joint management of minors' addiction to online games, and emphasizes that all parties should strive to create a good environment that is conducive to the healthy growth of minors .
Supervision and co-governance need to be more detailed and more realistic to keep pace with the times
When it comes to the issue of where all parties should focus their efforts, Li Rui believes that the supervision of online game companies by the regulatory authorities should be implemented. In addition to the implementation of the anti-addiction system, the operating status of the game market is also an object of attention. .
"Game player traffic is the focus of online game companies. Therefore, in the online game industry, there is a situation of unfair competition. Some companies use technical means to crack the anti-addiction system installed in well-known online games to divert players. , The purpose of attracting to your own platform.” Li Rui suggested that the management department should pay attention to the current situation of the online game industry in real time, keep up with the development of the industry, and avoid lagging in supervision behavior.
“The focus of supervision should not only be on online game publishing platforms. Internet platforms that are not online game publishing can also provide game-related services.” Zhang Mozhu said that it is not uncommon for minors to rent accounts and buy accounts through relevant platforms. There is a risk of being deceived.
"Some people have proposed to crack the phenomenon of renting accounts through face recognition and regular verification. However, at the level of technical implementation, the application of face recognition technology is difficult for small online game companies. Therefore, management departments still need to innovate methods and provide appropriate assistance or assistance. support".
"Online games can actually be positive and educational, integrating knowledge, education, originality, skill, and fun." In Zhang Mozhu's view, the content orientation and mainstream values of online games should be It is a parallel relationship. For example, she said that the concept of games such as "Daguai Upgrade" should be the courage and perseverance to persevere in climbing in real life, rather than the transfer of selfish desires such as bullying the weak and violent pressure to reality. The Fengtai Court suggested that in daily life, parents and teachers can teach their children the knowledge and skills of learning and making good use of the Internet to help children resist the bad temptations of the Internet and absorb the beneficial nutrients of the Internet. Judges such as Li Rui and Zhang Mozhu believe that a positive network environment and a moderate gaming experience are the basis for avoiding addiction to online games, while a rich variety of on-campus and after-school activities, and a comfortable and warm campus and living environment are the real way to dispel the addiction to online games. .