Spending a few yuan to rent a number, children can actually bypass the "ban" against addiction
Tencent: It has asked more than 20 account-renting platforms to stop serving users
Recently, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the "Notice on Further Strict Management and Practically Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games." This is called "the strictest game ban in history" by netizens. All minors can only be allowed on Fridays. , Saturday, Sunday and statutory holidays, play games for 1 hour from 20 to 21 o'clock every day.
However, a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that in order to circumvent the ban, minors circumvented the obvious loopholes in the anti-addiction system-renting, borrowing, and buying accounts, and there was also a "market".
Especially for renting an account, the cost per hour is only a few yuan, and it does not verify whether the renter is an adult. In theory, anyone can "play games for no time limit".
On the evening of the 6th, in response to the problem of minors renting accounts to play games, Tencent stated that account renting and selling seriously undermined the real-name system of games and the protection mechanism for minors. Up to now, Tencent has provided more than 20 account trading platforms and multiple e-commerce platforms. Prosecute or send a letter requesting the suspension of related services.
Tencent has resolutely implemented the latest regulations on anti-addiction for minors on August 30.
"The most stringent game ban in history" requirements
All online game companies can only provide minors with one-hour service from 20 to 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. At other times, they are not allowed to provide online game services to minors in any form; It is not allowed to provide game services to users who have not registered and logged in in any form; online game companies may not provide game services to users who have not registered and logged in in any form (including guest experience mode).
discover
Minors can rent accounts to play online games
Recently, the "Notice on Further Strict Management and Practically Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games" issued by the National Press and Publication Administration was dubbed the "Strict Game Ban in History".
The notice requires strict restrictions on the time to provide online game services to minors. All online game companies can only provide minors with 1 hour of service from 20 to 21:00 every day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays. At other times, it is not allowed to provide online game services to minors in any form; strictly implement the real-name registration and login requirements of online game user accounts, and must not provide game services to users who have not registered and logged in in any form; online game companies must not use any The form (including the tourist experience mode) provides game services to users who have not registered and logged in with their real names.
On the one hand, the mechanism to prevent minors from indulging in online games will be perfected day by day; on the other hand, there are still people who are taking advantage of the mechanism to prevent minors from indulging in online games.
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily found that a large number of game account rental platforms are still active on the Internet, which cost only a few yuan per hour. The number of rental accounts is not restricted by the anti-addiction rules for minors. In theory, there is no time limit for playing games.
The 14-year-old Xiao Hang (pseudonym) is a junior in Laixi, Qingdao. When the anti-addiction policy for minors was relatively loose, his "King of Glory" once reached Xingyao I. It’s so short, and it’s forced to go offline after a while, and there’s no way to get points at all.”
He joked that the tightening of the anti-addiction policy for minors "made an honest child like me stupid with a knife."
The reason why Xiao Hang said "my kind of honest child" is because there is another kind of "unfaithful" child beside him.
At first, Xiao Hang discovered that "some classmates often change accounts, and there are a lot of expensive skins." Upon asking, he found out that all the accounts were rented.
According to Xiao Hang, he knows how to rent an account, and even minors who have participated in renting an account may not be in the minority, including classmates and neighbors’ playmates. “Basically, anyone who plays the king knows that he can rent an account. , I don’t know if I have rented it."
survey
Non-person ID can also be verified
Recently, according to clues provided by Xiaohang, Beijing Youth Daily reporters have found at least more than 30 active game account rental platforms (including websites and APPs) on the Internet, such as renting account, virtual shell renting account, GG renting account, 8868 You can rent accounts of many popular games on these platforms at low prices, including terminal games such as League of Legends, CrossFire, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, CSGO, and popular mobile games such as King Glory, Peace Elite, and Yuanshen.
The prices of accounts on these account rental platforms vary. Taking the mobile game King Glory as an example, prices are generally based on factors such as account rankings, rarity and quantity of skins, and most of them are priced at a few yuan an hour, and some are even low. Up to a few cents an hour.
An unannounced visit by a reporter from the Beiqing Daily also found that although most rent-a-number apps require consumers to fill in real-name authentication before placing an order, reporters can pass the verification using non-personal ID cards without biometric verification.
According to Xiaohang, many of his classmates filled in their parent ID cards, and they all passed successfully without any obstacles to verification.
Not only that, the rent-a-number platform will also find ways to help the lessee avoid the anti-addiction measures of the game platform.
On a rental account platform that claims to have been established for 6 years and has served 50 million users, the owner will be asked to "confirm that the account has been facial recognition when publishing the Tencent mobile game account" when renting out the account to ensure that all tenants do not have to be in the game In the process, the face recognition failed to be forced offline, which inevitably caused some minors to evade the anti-addiction mechanism.
On the evening of the 6th, in response to the problem of minors renting accounts to play games, Tencent responded that account renting and selling seriously undermined the real-name system of games and the protection mechanism for minors. Up to now, Tencent has provided more than 20 account trading platforms and multiple e-commerce companies. The platform filed a lawsuit or sent a letter requesting the suspension of related services.
Tencent has resolutely implemented the latest regulations on anti-addiction for minors on August 30.
analyze
Is anti-addiction technical means the end?
I have to admit that there are always some minors trying to circumvent the anti-addiction mechanism.
In response to this problem, the current solution generally agreed by people in the gaming industry is to apply biometric technology to the online game login verification program.
In fact, in China, Tencent Games has pioneered the application of this technology, and officially launched the "Zero Cruise" function earlier this year, which is based on facial recognition and other biological information verification methods to plug the loopholes in identity fraud.
Statistics show that as of June 2021, an average of 5.8 million accounts have triggered facial recognition verification during the log-in link every day, and more than 90% of those who refuse facial recognition or fail verification are prevented from logging in to their accounts.
Tencent Holdings’ financial report for the second quarter of 2021 also shows that in July 2021, an average of 13.6 million minor accounts were “kicked” by the system every day due to triggering the 1.5-hour game limit; an average of 8.25 million accounts were logged in every day In the link, 49,000 accounts triggered facial recognition verification during the payment link; among them, 92.4% of the accounts in the login link were included in the anti-addiction supervision due to rejection or failure to verify.
Although Tencent has already used this technology in 60 games, many people in the gaming industry have a pessimistic view on the full application of this technology.
A blogger who specializes in game reviews, “Duanzi is so expensive,” revealed that “anti-addiction face recognition requires real-time access to the public security database for verification. Every time face recognition is performed, game manufacturers need to pay. General small game manufacturers It simply cannot afford this cost, and only Tencent has fully integrated this system at present."
Players also generally believe that anti-addiction measures by technical means will not be the end.
Previously, the anti-addiction system in China started in 2007, requiring all online game players to perform identity verification. However, the anti-addiction system at that time was not connected to the public security system. The phenomenon of online identity information leakage was widespread, and ID card generators were everywhere. Therefore, At that time, the anti-addiction system was called the "Machino Line of Defense" by players, which was expensive and useless. After the major game manufacturers tightened the anti-addiction measures, cases of underage players registering games with their parents' ID cards are not uncommon. ; Until some domestic game manufacturers implemented measures such as "curfew", "night cruise", "face recognition", "recognition and positioning", most of the underage players were really effectively supervised, but new problems followed Coming—the industries such as renting, borrowing, and buying accounts took the opportunity to flourish, using disconnected networks to avoid anti-addiction. Online anti-addiction cracking tutorials are widely spread, and online transmissions are sold on some websites that specialize in cracking anti-addiction. The price is only 60 yuan...
Xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told the Beijing Youth Daily that strengthening supervision is only one aspect of preventing minors from indulging in games.
To prevent minors from indulging in online games, it is necessary to play the role of parents (guardians). In summary, there are three main reasons for the minors’ indulging in online games. Restrictions and restrictions; the second is that parents do not play a guardianship role, some parents even use games to dispel the children in order to prevent their children from disturbing themselves; third, the lack of family education, many parents do not pay attention to cultivating children's broad interests, and do not work with their children Physical exercise and outdoor activities lead to a single interest in children, and the only leisure activities besides learning are playing games.
Therefore, after strengthening the supervision of game platforms and increasing the "restraint" and "difficulty" of minors playing games, attention should be paid to the guardianship of parents and the cultivation of parents' interest in their children.
Parents should accompany and guide their children to control time when they use their smartphones, and educate their children to identify bad information on the Internet, so as to cultivate good habits of using smartphones and surfing the Internet.
Further reading
The social account associated with the renting platform faces the risk of password leakage
In addition to the alleged "green light" for minors to prevent addiction, there are still many controversies on the renting platform——
Owner: This is an "insecure" transaction
After recharging nearly 20,000 yuan, Bloom (a pseudonym)'s King of Glory membership level has reached the highest level of V10 in the game. After basically not logging in to this account, Blooming feels "a pity to abandon" and hangs on the rental account platform to rent. A way to make money.
Blooming said, but it is relatively rare for individual customers like him to rent out accounts on the renting platform. “It’s not enough to make a few dollars in a transaction.” Instead, “number traffickers” have mastered it. A large number of account resources can really make money through this business.
Moreover, according to Bloom, most individual customers are unwilling to rent out their idle account resources. “There are not many accounts that can be rented out to come back'all, which is not safe.”
On the one hand, in a transaction that the two parties are unfamiliar with each other, Huaming believes that “if it’s okay to meet high-quality players, the low-quality players will not care about the rented account at all, and will not care about being banned because of cursing or hanging up. , Ban”; and the account owner has no idea who his account is rented to, let alone whether the other party will insult others in the game, open the plug-in, or even hang up and other behaviors that violate the game convention, “there is a problem Most of the account owners can only admit that they are unlucky when they are banned."
On the other hand, a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that when the account is rented, the account owner needs to show the social account password of the associated game account to the lessee in clear code.
Therefore, not only does one's own game account face the risk of password leakage and account theft, but also related social accounts such as QQ and WeChat also face this risk.
"Whether the password will be leaked, it depends on the platform's conscience, can it make people worry about it?" Bloom said helplessly.
A netizen once rented a CSGO account for 2 hours at a price of 6.6 yuan. After payment, you need to download a special sign-in software to log in. After clicking one-click sign-in, a Steam window will automatically pop up on the desktop. Press F9 at this time, and the window will be The account and password will be entered automatically.
"The mouse can't move during the login. Watching the account and password are automatically entered on the screen, it feels like being remotely controlled by someone, very insecure."
Evasion of Liability in Terms of Rental Account Platform
The insecurity of account rental is also reflected in the account rental platform’s evasion of responsibility.
For example, the account rental platform wrote in its platform agreement, “Account lease is risky. It is necessary to be cautious when publishing account lease information. Once the account published by the account owner member is damaged, destroyed or other risk of loss, the platform will respond to this "No responsibility" and "The platform does not bear the responsibility for the risk of account property losses such as account property loss due to other reasons (including but not limited to customer violations and malicious operations) caused by account property loss, account game character decomposition, etc., due to other reasons outside the platform."
Most importantly, account leasing violates the user service agreement of the game platform and is not protected by the game platform.
The user agreements of almost all large, medium and small game platforms in the world, such as Steam, Tencent Games, and NetEase Games, clearly stipulate that the behavior of renting, transferring, and borrowing software services/accounts is prohibited.
Legal disputes behind the renting business
The game renting business has done a good job, but when we look closely, the renting platform is suspected of infringing on the game company’s right to spread information on the Internet.
Tencent sued the renting platform on this ground, including Anhui Daofeng Network Technology Co., Ltd., Bozhou Chiyan Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Caili Technology Co., Ltd. for infringing on the information network dissemination rights of their works.
At present, the case has reached the third trial. As of press time, the case has not yet been sentenced.
Tencent’s attorney Wu Rangjun stated in the third trial that the defendant actively helped and lured online game users to conduct account transactions. Every transaction carried out by the defendant was based on the user’s breach of contract. The defendant’s business activities It was based entirely on the destruction of the business practices and social integrity of the game industry. The defendant’s business activities were of a substantive infringement nature and constituted a direct infringement in this case.
The defendant and an agent argued that although game manufacturers around the world prohibit players from trading game accounts through user agreements, there is no law or regulation that prohibits game account leasing transactions, and not all business practices are consistent. It can deny the emergence of other new formats and models.
However, the plaintiff believes that the game live broadcast also faced a dispute over whether the game manufacturer’s consent was required. At that time, the game live broadcast party used the so-called new business model to defend, but the new business model must also be operated legally under the framework of the law. The objective existence of account leasing cannot be directly deduced as it has natural legitimacy.
This group of articles / our reporter Wen Jing and intern Wang Xiaoran
Coordinator/Yu Meiying