Short video hits, don’t let your children "follow the waves" dangerously

  Xu Ridan Liu Tingting Guo Lulu

  The 14-year-old girl’s early love and childbirth, the net’s youngest second-born mother, and other video information are popular on live broadcasts; the 11-year-old girl spends 2 million yuan to reward online anchors; the platform neglects protection or illegally obtains and uses minors’ personal information... Attacks, such incidents involving minors are frequently reported in the newspapers, and the issue of online protection of minors has attracted much attention.

  In the era of short video, how to strengthen the protection of minors' personal information?

How to create a clear audio-visual environment for minors?

How to achieve multiple co-governance?

Recently, a representative of the National People’s Congress and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference stated in an interview that my country’s law has gradually improved the protection of minors. The protection measures for minors need to be improved. It is recommended to further consolidate platform responsibilities to avoid allowing minors who lack self-defense capabilities to "dangerously chase the waves" in the tide of the Internet.

Locking information "safety lock"

  It is recommended to advance special legislation, increase the crackdown on violations of the personal information of minors, standardize the behavior of information processors, and strengthen industry self-discipline.

Pay attention to enhancing the awareness and ability of minors and their guardians to protect personal information, strengthen publicity and education of laws and regulations, and guide minors and their guardians to accurately grasp the scope of personal information protection.

  Internet use by minors is becoming more and more popular.

In May 2020, the "Research Report on National Minor Internet Usage in 2019" jointly released by the Ministry of Youth Rights Protection of the Communist Youth League Central Committee and China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) showed that the number of underage Internet users in China reached 175 million in 2019. The adult Internet penetration rate has reached 93.1%.

Among minor netizens, 74.0% have their own Internet devices, and 63.6% of them have Internet mobile phones.

While enjoying the convenience of Internet access, minors also face the dilemma of excessive collection and illegal use of personal information.

  As a representative of the National People’s Congress from the front line of education, Yang Qin, deputy principal of the Health School of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei Province, said that the current young people are a generation that grows up with the Internet. The Internet has penetrated into all aspects of their study, life and communication. It can be seen that the well-developed Internet and overwhelming information provide more and more ways for children to acquire knowledge, and it is more convenient and efficient to accept new things.

However, the mixture of good and bad information on the Internet sometimes has an adverse effect on the growth of minors.

It is especially necessary to purify the network environment and create a relatively clear network space for minors.

  At the end of March this year, the "Nandu Minor Network Protection Research Center" released the "Short Video Live App Youth Protection Evaluation Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which evaluated 20 short video live apps.

It is mentioned that the apps tested all have special chapters on the protection of minors, but only 5 apps inform in detail how to collect, use, store, and share the personal information of minors in the form of independent files.

Less than 30% of the apps promised that “no personal information of minors will be used for marketing without the individual consent of the guardian”, but none of the apps specifically target the biometric information of minors, such as facial recognition, voiceprint recognition, etc. Make a protective commitment separately.

  "The times are developing rapidly, and adults are overwhelmed, let alone minors? Some of the'erosion' is hard to prevent, such as using minors to earn traffic and setting up marketing content with minors as consumer groups. We must not let ourselves be lacking. Minors with defensive capabilities are dangerously chasing waves in the tide of the Internet.” Fang Yan, deputy to the National People’s Congress, vice chairman of the Shaanxi Lawyers Association, and director of Beijing Jincheng Tongda (Xi’an) Law Firm, said frankly, looking at the overall situation. , The degree of social protection of minors’ online protection is gradually increasing. Chapter V of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors has made special provisions on issues involving minors’ online access. However, some platforms have not provided detailed protection for minors. The mechanism is not yet in place.

  The reporter noticed that in response to a well-known short video company's negligence in protection or illegal acquisition and use of personal information of minors, the procuratorate of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province filed a civil public interest lawsuit, and the Hangzhou Internet Court issued a mediation statement and closed the case.

The procuratorial organs filed appeals to stop the infringement, apologize, eliminate the impact, and compensate for the loss in the case. The short video company has no objections, and promptly rectifies the existing problems in a comprehensive manner.

It is reported that this is the country's first civil public interest lawsuit for the protection of minors on the Internet.

  Fang Yan also paid attention to this procuratorial public interest litigation case.

"This case is not only a typical case of public interest litigation, but also a typical case of juvenile protection. The combination of the two effects has a warning effect on the use or arbitrary use or consumption of juvenile information." She suggested that special legislation should be promoted. Intensify the crackdown on violations of the personal information of minors, standardize the behavior of information processors, and strengthen industry self-discipline.

At the same time, pay attention to improving the awareness and ability of minors and their guardians to protect personal information, strengthen publicity and education of laws and regulations, and guide minors and their guardians to accurately grasp the scope of personal information protection.

  The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that information processors shall follow the principles of lawfulness, fairness and necessity when handling personal information of minors via the Internet.

To process the personal information of minors under the age of fourteen, the consent of the minor’s parents or other guardians shall be obtained.

Zheng Ning, director and associate professor of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, added that the current face recognition technology is immature, and the platform should be more cautious in the collection of biological information and adopt better alternative measures to protect the information of minors.

  "It is necessary to strengthen law enforcement and severely crack down on neglect of protection or illegal acquisition and use of personal information of minors in accordance with the law." According to Wang Xuekun, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Party Secretary and Director of the China Youth Research Center, the key is to have laws. All violations of the law must be followed, and network service providers are forced to abide by the principles and rules for handling the personal information of minors as stipulated by the law, and earnestly perform their obligations to protect the personal information of minors.

Strictly check the content of "not suitable for children"

  Timely screen out the private information of minors and prompt promptly. It is recommended to improve the legislation, clearly define the scope of the private information of minors and the timeliness requirements for screening and prompting, and urge Internet service providers to fulfill their legal obligations from both legal and technical aspects.

  Regarding the review of the content of videos involving minors, the "Report" mentioned that when some short video platform users upload videos that contain child nudity, the App can be successfully released without any prompts.

Seventy percent of apps have no specific reporting mechanism for minors, and some platforms share the same mechanism with adults for the proof mechanism for minors, and generally promise to provide feedback within 15 days.

  The Law on the Protection of Minors, which will be implemented on June 1 this year, clearly stipulates that when network service providers discover that minors are publishing private information on the Internet, they should promptly remind them and take necessary protective measures.

  "The difficulty of supervision lies in the fast uploading, dissemination, and deletion of online information, which can spread virally indefinitely." Fang Yan told reporters that in the case of users' weak legal awareness and lax review of the platform, the privacy of minors is Violation is easy.

Once the information is uploaded, it can be publicly disseminated indefinitely, downloaded and stored permanently, and some of it will cause irreversible damage to the victim and his family.

The publisher can be deleted at will after the fact, but network evidence collection needs to be timely and effective, which also makes the fixation of evidence and the determination of evidence in litigation more difficult.

  Based on this, it is particularly necessary to compact the platform responsibility.

Fang Yan suggested that the homepage of the platform should be scrolled to set up slogans and warnings for the privacy protection of minors, and at the same time improve the accountability mechanism, set up a special team responsible for the protection of minors’ privacy, and pursue the accountability of minors’ infringements. personal.

It is necessary to expand the scope of accountability subjects who can initiate a lawsuit when the privacy of a minor is violated, unblock the passage of the plaintiff to file a case in the court, and quickly and effectively protect the minor.

  Wang Xuekun also emphasized that it is the responsibility and obligation of network service providers to screen the private information of minors and prompt promptly. It is recommended that legislation be improved to clearly define the scope of private information of minors and the timeliness requirements for screening and prompting. Two aspects urge network service providers to fulfill their legal obligations.

  The youth protection mode is to weave a dense "protection net" through technical means to prevent minors from indulging in games and the Internet, including time locks, prohibition of live broadcasts and recharges, restrictions on content, etc.

However, in practice, the mode of youth protection on some platforms is mere formality.

  The "Report" shows that 85% of the apps tested have a youth protection mode to choose from. Except for one app, the rest have time lock restrictions or disabled periods.

However, the time lock and other functions in the youth protection mode can be easily "bypassed", and the number of apps that can be lifted by entering the password is as high as 15 types.

After choosing the youth mode, the content pool has only a few videos, and the update is slow, and there are even platforms that do not have any functions to use. This makes minors "detour" in order to obtain more content.

  Yang Qin pays special attention to the implementation of the youth model in the App.

"A good model cannot be in vain." Combining with the case of minors who are addicted to online games and causing tragedies, Yang Qin suggested further regulating and restricting the operation of online games, setting thresholds for minors' online game entrance, and severely cracking down on the violation of youths. Wrongful acts of rights.

  “It is necessary for the platform to increase technical input, control the total time spent online by teenagers, allow guardians to remotely control, and increase the difficulty of passwords to prevent easy cracking, and avoid reinstalling after uninstalling to bypass the defects of youth mode.” Zheng Ning also suggested that supervision Institutions should urge platforms to perform their responsibilities through administrative guidance, issuing standards, and law enforcement inspections. Industry associations should actively formulate autonomous norms, assess the platform's adoption of the youth model, and punish violations of laws and regulations through credit supervision and other methods.

Strengthen the live broadcast "firewall"

  To solve the problem of minor rewards, it is necessary to form a consensus and system for co-governance, strengthen the supervision and management of the webcast platform, and explore the establishment of the maximum limit for single rewards and the maximum limit for single bank account rewards, which can prevent netizens from using it. Rewarding for benefit transfer can also prevent minors from losing family property due to high rewards.

  "After minors reward the anchor with a huge amount, can the relevant money be recovered?" This topic has sparked public opinion on the Internet.

  "In the protection of minors related to short video live broadcasts, the more concentrated content is rewards and top-up content. The cases we have accepted involving minor online transaction disputes are concentrated here." said Liu Gengchao, a judge of the Beijing Internet Court In real life, if minors go to the store to spend huge sums of money, under normal circumstances, the store owner will think about the problem of "this is a child", and with the development and progress of information technology, without guardian supervision, Minors make high-value online rewards, but they cannot "find" the responsible person.

  For this reason, in the midst of controversy, some platforms have explored prohibiting minors from live recharge and rewards.

The "Report" mentioned that among the 20 short video live broadcast apps that participated in the evaluation, 17 of them turned off the live broadcast activation and rewards and recharge functions in the youth protection mode. Minors often choose the normal mode to watch short videos and live broadcasts. Half of the tested apps encourage and lure users to give tips.

Although some live broadcast platforms have reminders that minors are prohibited from recharging consumption on the recharge page, they actually pop up a window prompting "The anchor poked you" while watching the live broadcast, and attaches a recharge box to induce consumption.

  "If you don't make up your mind to do this, the protection will be difficult to put in place." Liu Gengchao believes that the technology, services, and content of short video live broadcast apps are all provided by companies, and companies should take on more subjects in the protection of minors online. responsibility.

  In response to disputes caused by minors giving rewards, the Supreme Law promulgated the "Guiding Opinions on Properly Trial of Civil Cases Involving the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic (2)" clearly stated that persons with limited capacity for civil conduct do not have the consent of their guardians. The people's court shall support the payment of funds that are not suitable for their age and intelligence when participating in online paid games or "rewarding" on online live broadcast platforms, and the guardian requests the network service provider to return the funds.

  In this regard, Fang Yan said that minors are prone to impulsive consumption and excessive consumption due to their immaturity and lack of risk awareness.

Granting the guardian the right to revoke, on the one hand, it can protect minors, and on the other hand, it helps to urge businesses to assume the necessary reminder obligations for minors’ consumption.

  The Civil Code clearly stipulates that civil juristic acts that are purely profitable by persons with limited capacity for civil conduct or civil juristic acts appropriate to their age, intelligence, and mental health are valid; other civil juristic acts performed are subject to the consent or ratification of the legal agent effective.

"Although the law has relevant regulations, in practice, it may still be difficult to produce evidence. It is recommended that the court issue a cooperative investigation order requiring merchants to cooperate, requiring merchants to provide personal information and account information for the account that the reward funds are credited to, so that the victim can recover the loss. Fang Yan added.

  Wang Xuekun also bluntly stated that in disputes involving minors recharging rewards, due to the "who advocates, who presents evidence" civil case proof rule, the prominent problem encountered when minors’ guardians request refunds on the webcast platform is proof. Difficult, sometimes it is difficult to get support for litigation claims.

  In Wang Xuekun's view, to solve the problem of juvenile rewards, it is necessary to form a consensus and system of co-governance, and to solve the problem systematically.

It is necessary to strengthen the supervision and management of the webcasting platform, and explore the establishment of the maximum limit of single rewards and the maximum limit of single bank account rewards, which can prevent netizens from using rewards for profit transfer, and prevent minors from paying high amounts. Reward for the loss of family property.

It is necessary to strengthen education on online consumption of minors, and schools and guardians of minors must educate minors on fraud prevention and impulse consumption.