□ Our reporter Zhou Xiaopeng
□ Newspaper correspondent Hu Jingxin
"Teacher, do you think the exam is like drawing a blind box? You never know how many marks you will get this time!"
Hearing what the students in the class said to him, Guo Zhiqi, a representative of the Renqiu City People's Congress in Hebei Province and a teacher at the second village teaching point in the city's Majiawu School District, smiled slightly, and after thinking about it carefully, he realized that it was wrong: learning depends on hard work and dedication, and test scores Relying on strength rather than luck, how can it be like drawing a blind box?
"For immature minors, especially young children, blind boxes filled with a large number of 'three noes' products will not only affect their physical health, but also this consumption habit will lead them to form incorrect values. It is very dangerous." Guo Zhiqi began to think more deeply about the harm that blind boxes bring to minors.
Not long ago, Guo Zhiqi participated in the public hearing of the public interest litigation "Regulating the Blind Box Market to Protect the Rights of Minors" held by the Renqiu City People's Procuratorate.
She was delighted to see that the local procuratorate gave full play to its public interest litigation function, urged relevant administrative units to perform their duties in accordance with the law, further standardized the blind box market, and protected the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
There are many chaos in the blind box sales market
Due to its randomness and fun, blind boxes have been sought after by young consumers, especially minors, in recent years.
Under the trend of "blind boxes for all things", producers and sellers have seized the psychology of consumers' pursuit of excitement and surprise, and launched blind boxes and blind bags containing various small commodities such as food, stationery, dolls, etc. to the market.
Guo Zhiqi found in his teaching work that many students in the class began to indulge in blind draw boxes, which is not uncommon among local minors. They repeatedly bought blind boxes just to draw them. The so-called "surprise limited edition" enjoys the curiosity and excitement in the process of opening the blind box.
It is understood that the main reason that makes minors keen to buy blind boxes is not only the surprise of blind box products, but also the social needs of classmates and friends.
Some minors will start to buy blind boxes out of discussions and exchanges among classmates, and will become the envy of classmates because of the "hidden" and "hot" products, thus gaining a sense of psychological achievement and satisfaction.
Therefore, compared to adults, minors are more addicted to buying blind boxes.
Whether it is out of game psychology or social needs, minors basically ignore the value of the products in the blind box, and they pay more attention to the psychological pleasant experience rather than the actual value of the blind box products.
After visiting and investigating, Guo Zhiqi found that most of the blind boxes being sold in the local market are "three-no" products without the manufacturer's logo or manufacturer's code, as well as imitating regular brands or stealing animation elements, star portraits, etc. Fake and shoddy products that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.
Such products are often overpriced and of poor quality, and some toys with poor quality products may even cause physical harm to minors.
The Renqiu City Procuratorate also took note of this situation.
Since March this year, the hospital, together with the market supervision and management department, has conducted an investigation and evidence collection on stationery stores and some supermarkets around primary and secondary schools in Renqiu City, and found that there are "three noes" products in the local blind box sales market, illegal publicity, inflated prices, and misleading consumption. Such marketing chaos violates consumers' right to know, especially the legitimate rights and interests of underage consumers.
Public Procuratorial Hearings Strengthen Collaborative Co-governance
Is the quality of the goods in the blind box qualified?
Is there an exaggerated publicity for the blind box?
What impact will the repeated purchase of blind boxes have on the psychology of minors?
The hearing held by the Renqiu City Procuratorate invited deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and people's supervisors as hearing officers, and relevant responsible persons from the Standing Committee of the Renqiu Municipal People's Congress, the Municipal Youth League Committee, the Municipal Education and Sports Bureau, and the Municipal Market Supervision Administration. and some primary and secondary school staff to participate.
As a representative of the Municipal People's Congress and an educator, Guo Zhiqi was invited to participate in the hearing.
At the hearing, the case undertaker displayed various blind box photos taken by the procuratorial organs around the campus, cultural and creative stores in the commercial center, etc., focusing on the illegal propaganda, inferior quality and high price, "three noes" found during the investigation and evidence collection process. "Blind box of the product, pointing out the problems of the blind box, and passing some of the blind boxes on the spot, so that the hearing officers can experience the blind boxes at close range, and feel the importance and urgency of regulating the blind box market to protect the rights and interests of minors. .
During the hearing, the parties conducted in-depth discussions in turn and asked questions to the procuratorial organ and relevant functional departments.
In the end, the hearing officers unanimously supported the procuratorial organ's suggestion, and fully affirmed the procuratorial organ's active exploration of giving full play to the function of public interest litigation and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
The Renqiu City Procuratorate will formulate and issue procuratorial recommendations to relevant administrative organs and law enforcement departments in accordance with the law, and urge all administrative units to perform their duties in accordance with the law.
Everyone expressed their opinions and put forward corresponding suggestions and opinions on regulating the blind box market, which made Guo Zhiqi deeply touched.
She said after the meeting that the hearing strengthened the coordination and co-governance of supervisory departments, schools, and society, and helped to form a joint effort to protect minors.
As a front-line teacher in the education system who is in direct contact with students and parents, she plans to design a course that teaches children how to consume correctly, and guides students to develop correct consumption habits.
"Renqiu Procuratorate will continue to implement the supervision concept of 'win-win, multi-win, and win-win', promote 'all control' with 'I manage', never let the blind box become a 'blind area' of the rule of law, and earnestly safeguard national interests and social public interests, protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors, and boost the efficiency of social governance." said Li Wenying, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chief Procurator of the Renqiu City Procuratorate.
Issue guidelines and norms to strengthen judicial protection
Some products in blind boxes for minors are unqualified products without factory name, factory address, production date, etc.; some are cash blind boxes with gambling nature; some have knives, handcuffs, etc. that are prohibited from being sold to minors violent toys...
To this end, Renqiu Procuratorate reminded that blind boxes are uncertain, and must be consumed rationally according to their actual needs, and do not blindly follow the trend.
When purchasing, please pay attention to check the important information such as the manufacturer, factory address, etc., and avoid purchasing "three-no" products.
When the rights and interests are damaged, it is necessary to report to the regulatory authorities in a timely manner.
Compared with the gorgeous packaging of some blind boxes to cover up the inferior goods inside, it is easy to cause damage to the physical health of minors, and the consumption of blind boxes is more likely to cause adverse effects on the psychology of minors.
Due to the immature self-control and discrimination of minors, indulging in blind boxes is easy to develop bad consumption concepts and values, and even breed criminal behavior.
At the hearing held by the Renqiu City People's Procuratorate, some teachers said that repeated blind box consumption makes it easy for students who are not yet mature to have the wrong life of "life is like opening a blind box, it depends not on hard work but luck". Views and values; several hearing panelists pointed out that after minors buy blind boxes, they often put the contents on hold or even discard them for a while, which is not only wasteful and induces excessive consumption, but also encourages the habit of comparison; an elementary school principal introduced, A student in our school went on the road of theft because he was addicted to blind box consumption...
"Blind box, which is full of unknown and uncertain consumption, greatly satisfies the curiosity and short-term refreshment of minors. When children are addicted to such consumption, their psychology will be close to 'gambling', not Believing in the value of hard work will greatly affect their personal ability and behavioral habits." Guo Zhiqi said.
In January 2022, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision formulated and issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activities Compliance Guidelines", which was the first in the country to draw a red line for the blind box industry, which particularly emphasized the protection mechanism for minors, requiring blind box operators not to submit For minors under the age of 8 to sell blind box products to minors over the age of 8, the consent of the guardian should be obtained through different methods such as online and offline.
Many experts believe that parents and schools should educate the adverse effects of blind boxes on minors, administrative departments should strengthen supervision, and judicial protection should follow suit.
All localities can learn from Shanghai's experience to introduce local guidelines and norms for blind boxes, and based on the experience of various regions, introduce national legislation for the blind box economy, so that the blind box economy can develop soundly on the track of the rule of law.