The protection of minors on short video platforms is worrying, NPC deputies suggest
Promote special legislation for the protection of minors' information
□ Our reporter Zhao Chenxi
"2 years and a half 50 catties", "3 years old 70 catties", "beyond 100 catties immediately"... On a short video platform, a 3-year-old girl, Peggy, became a "eating and broadcasting" little internet celebrity due to her amazing appetite. The child "maintains" an abnormal weight that is extremely mismatched with age, and Peggy's parents often give their children extra meals.
While gaining traffic, many netizens also expressed doubts, believing that parents are using their children to "eat and broadcast" to make money, while Peggy's parents said that "video is purely for fun."
Today, the account has been banned by the platform.
There are countless examples like this. In the short video era, there is a huge number of underage user groups, and the issue of online protection for minors is also frequently reported in the press.
In order to fully understand the level of protection of minors by short video platforms, the Southern Metropolis Minor Network Protection Research Center recently investigated and released the "Short Video Live App Youth Protection Evaluation Report".
The survey results are not optimistic. None of the 20 apps tested can reach a high level of protection for minors, and 70% of the tested apps have a moderate or low level of protection for minors.
The scope of private information should be clearly defined
In short video platforms, video content involving children tends to be highly praised. Therefore, in addition to the daily funny videos of cute babies, some parents also start to shoot videos such as "training babies" and "pit babies" to earn traffic, and even some videos There will be pictures of children taking a bath and other naked bodies directly.
Article 73 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that when network service providers discover that minors are publishing private information on the Internet, they shall promptly prompt and take necessary protective measures.
However, the results of the evaluation report show that when users upload videos that contain children's nudity, 60% of short video platforms can pass the review and be released smoothly without any prompts.
In addition, the video content of 14 tested apps contained information that was not suitable for display to minors, such as pornography, tobacco and alcohol, and violence, but did not give any notice to minors.
“Access to and watching short videos is the right of minors, but corresponding protection must be done.” Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from "Rules of Law Daily" that minors have not been deeply involved in the world. , It is highly susceptible to the influence of network content. The content of short videos is varied, and there are even some vulgar performances, touching the bottom line of the law and other information, which is not conducive to the healthy growth of minors.
Zhu Wei pointed out that the laissez-faire of the platform will lead to the dissemination of a large number of videos and content of minors on the network platform. Some people may be concerned out of a "fun" mentality, while others may "have ulterior motives" to spy on more information and even induce Occurrence of cases of harming minors.
“Online information uploads, spreads, and deletes quickly, and it can spread virally.” Fang Yan, deputy to the National People’s Congress and vice chairman of the Shaanxi Lawyers Association, believes that in the era of short videos, users’ legal awareness is weak and platform review is lax. Infringement of the privacy of minors is very easy.
She believes that it is particularly important to consolidate the responsibility of the platform, and suggested that the accountability mechanism should be improved, and the accountability of minor infringement incidents should be carried out to individuals.
Wang Xuekun, director of the China Youth Research Center, suggested perfecting legislation, clearly defining the scope of minors’ private information and the timeliness requirements for screening prompts, and urging network service providers to fulfill their legal obligations from both legal and technical aspects.
Fang Yan agrees with this. She believes that minors should be distinguished from adults. Some information may not be important to adults, but for minors, it should be classified as private information.
Therefore, it is necessary to further improve the law to separately and specifically define the private information of minors.
Promote special legislation for information protection
Statistics show that the Internet penetration rate of minors has reached 93.1%. However, while enjoying the convenience of Internet access, minors are also facing the problem of excessive collection of personal information and illegal use of personal information.
Article 72 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that information processors who process the personal information of minors through the Internet shall follow the principles of lawfulness, fairness and necessity.
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.
However, the evaluation report shows that 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."
At present, many short video platforms have not realized the importance of collecting and protecting information on minors.
In March this year, the People's Procuratorate of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, sued a well-known domestic short video company in a civil public interest lawsuit for infringement of children's personal information, which may be a wake-up call for all platforms.
The case report showed that the short video company failed to notify and obtain the effective and express consent of the child guardian in the process of developing and operating the company's App in a conspicuous and clear manner to allow the registration of children's accounts, and collect and store children's personal information.
Without the effective and express consent of the child guardian again, directly push short videos containing children's personal information to users with relevant browsing preferences, and at the same time, no technical measures are taken to protect children's information.
In response to this, the Yuhang District Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit and filed the case for stopping the infringement, apologizing, eliminating the impact, and compensating for losses. The short video company had no objections and promptly carried out comprehensive rectification of the existing problems.
This case is also the country's first civil public interest lawsuit filed by procuratorial organs against "Internet protection of minors" after the implementation of the Civil Code and the revision of the Law on the Protection of Minors.
In recent years, the state has gradually increased the protection of minors’ online personal information.
In August 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the “Regulations on the Online Protection of Children’s Personal Information”, which clarified that the collection and processing of children’s personal information should follow the principle of express consent; "Personal information" is protected, and a special chapter "Network Protection" has been established.
However, Fang Yan believes that the above-mentioned legal norms are still relatively fragmented and are mostly principled and framed. There are problems such as unreasonable age limits for information self-determination of minors, unclear guardian consent mechanisms, and blurred boundaries of information processors' obligations.
Fang Yan suggested advancing special legislation to establish and improve the legal protection system for the personal information of minors in my country through hierarchical age limit standards, verifiable guardian consent mechanisms, and clarification of network operators’ obligations and legal responsibilities.
To induce rewards to form a co-governance
"The 15-year-old bear kid used his parents' hard-earned money to pay 200,000 yuan to the anchor." "Minors spent 1.6 million yuan on live broadcasts." ... In recent years, it is not uncommon for minors to "throw" heavily to reward anchors. .
Regarding the issue of juvenile rewards, relevant departments have also issued judicial interpretations and norms.
In May 2020, the Guiding Opinions (2) of the Supreme People's Court on Properly Trial of Civil Cases Involving the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic issued by the Supreme People's Court stipulated the trial of disputes caused by minors giving rewards or recharges to anchors through webcasting platforms.
If the amount involved in a minor’s rewarding or recharging behavior is not compatible with its behavioral ability, then if the rewarding or recharging behavior is not approved by the parent beforehand without the parent’s consent, it will not be legally effective. The parent can request the anchor or The online platform returns the corresponding money for rewards or top-ups to minors.
In November of the same year, the “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Show Live Broadcast and E-commerce Live Broadcast” issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television clearly required the online show live platform to implement real-name management for network anchors and "rewarding" users, and ban minors The user's tip function.
According to the evaluation report, among the 20 short video live broadcast apps that participated in the evaluation, 17 have disabled live broadcast activation and rewards and recharge functions in the youth protection mode.
However, many minors often choose the normal mode to watch short videos and live broadcasts.
Among them, half of the tested apps encourage and entice users to give tips.
Although some live broadcast platforms have reminders on the recharge page that minors are prohibited from recharging consumption, they will pop up a window to prompt "the anchor poked you" while watching the live broadcast, and attach a recharge box to induce consumption.
Although there is a judicial interpretation of the Supreme Law, in disputes involving minors' recharge and rewards, due to the "who advocates, who presents evidence" civil case proof rule, guardians encounter prominent problems when requesting refunds from the webcasting platform It is difficult to produce evidence, and sometimes it is difficult to support litigation requests.
Fang Yan suggested that the court should issue an investigation order requiring merchants to cooperate, requiring merchants to provide the personal information and account information of the account where the reward funds are credited to the account, so as to facilitate the victims to recover their losses.
Wang Xuekun believes that to solve the problem of juvenile rewards, a consensus and system of co-governance should be formed. The supervision and management of the webcast platform should be strengthened, and the maximum limit of single rewards and the maximum limit of single bank account rewards should be explored. Preventing netizens from using rewards for profit transfer can also avoid minor family property losses caused by high rewards.