Editor's note
Summer vacation is a good time for children to have fun.
However, some children are addicted to online games, short videos, cards, etc. during the summer vacation and cannot extricate themselves. Parents are very worried about this, and it has become a hot and difficult issue of social concern.
In order to create a safe and healthy summer environment for children, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Council Leading Group Office for the Protection of Minors have recently launched a special campaign of "Clean and Bright 2022 Summer Internet Environment Remediation for Minors". The summer vacation features multiple measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
In order to promote the anti-addiction work of minors in the summer vacation, explore a multi-governance system, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors, the Jingwei version of the rule of law will launch a series of reports on "Caring for Minors and Preventing Addiction in the Summer Vacation" from today, so stay tuned.
□ Zhang Shoukun, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
During the summer vacation this year, Ms. Ma, who lives in Hedong District, Tianjin, encountered an annoying problem: "The child doesn't write homework, he watches short videos at home every day, and he doesn't listen to anything." The child bought a new mobile phone and clearly told the child not to download online games. Unexpectedly, the child became addicted to short videos. He would hold the mobile phone whenever he was free, and sometimes he would not stop playing for 3 hours.
Ms. Ma is very anxious about this: "The content of short videos is varied, and the child has no ability to distinguish, so his academic performance will definitely decline. But the child seems to be addicted to it, and he doesn't listen to any persuasion. As soon as he shuts down his mobile phone, he feels like he wants to be with me." Desperately'." What worries Ms. Ma even more is that some of the Internet language and Internet language that the anchors often say are also learned by the children, some sound very vulgar, and some are just swearing.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently found in an investigation and interview that although many online games are now incorporated into the anti-addiction system, the game time of minors has been compressed and limited, but this has not stopped children from being addicted to electronic products such as mobile phones and tablets. Short videos have become a summer "new choice" for many children.
According to a survey report on the characteristics and protection of short video usage among primary and secondary school students released by the China Youth Research Center, 65.6% of minors have used short videos, and 20% of teenagers "almost always" watch short videos.
Although major platforms have introduced youth models, "there are policies above and countermeasures below", and bypassing technical supervision such as cracking passwords and purchasing accounts is not difficult for children.
Why are minors easily addicted to short videos?
What are the dangers of indulging in short videos?
How to solve this problem?
In this regard, the reporter conducted a first-line investigation.
Minors are easily addicted
Harmful influence on values
"Give me a little attention and take you to unlock more poses so you don't get lost."
"Call me big brother, and I will cover you at school in the future."
"It's not the same time, but the same 'Shushuo' came to do Ollie. Come and ask you a question. Do you know what Ollie is? It's shit!"
...
This is not an outdoor anchor making a joke, but a scene that the reporter saw in a restaurant in Chaoyang District, Beijing recently: the protagonists are not adults, but three six- or seven-year-old children.
The parent of one of the children was sitting across from the child and playing with his mobile phone casually, as if he was no stranger to this kind of thing.
In the face of inquiries, she told reporters that she would occasionally play mobile phones for her children, and spend more time in the summer vacation. The children mainly play educational games and watch short videos, and learned some Internet hotspots from the short videos, "I don't feel that What a big problem, the children are still young, they just want to have fun, and many children around them do the same."
The reporter interviewed many parents in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Anhui and other places and learned that because young people live in an online environment since childhood, learning and life are inseparable from the Internet, and it is easy to access short videos, and many children around them are addicted to it.
With the advent of the summer vacation, the phenomenon of minors who are addicted to short videos and screen swiping has attracted more and more attention.
Why are minors easily addicted to short videos?
Zhang Hong, a resident of Fengtai District in Beijing, told reporters that her children have had a strong desire to explore the world outside the home and school since the third grade of elementary school.
"These short video live broadcast platforms have been swiped too much, and the big data pushes all the things they care about and like. The content is rich, easy and witty, and the timeliness is strong. Many adults can't stop watching short videos, let alone children. ."
On July 18, at the launch meeting of the "Qinglang 2022 Summer Youth Network Environment Remediation" special action jointly organized by the Central Internet Information Office and other departments, the relevant person in charge said: the current functional design of some website platforms is not reasonable enough to protect The lack of a sound mechanism is an important incentive for minors to become addicted to the Internet; some short video platforms have set up functions such as reward feedback, gift collection, and check-in and punch-in, so that minors are deeply trapped and unable to extricate themselves.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, believes that there is another key reason why minors are addicted to short videos, which is that their life, especially the summer life, is too monotonous.
"Among the children who are addicted to short videos, left-behind children in rural areas account for a high proportion. Due to the lack of company in their lives, they are looking for sustenance in the virtual world of short videos. In addition, some children are addicted to short videos due to lack of willpower. "
Minors are addicted to short videos, and the danger is obvious.
"Look at those Internet celebrities, they haven't read any books, they are well-liked, and they earn tens of hundreds of times as much as college graduates. I'm now learning from them to make videos and do live broadcasts. In the future, it will definitely be better than reading books. More." Chen Chen, a middle school student from Suzhou City, Anhui Province, told reporters that many of his classmates thought the same.
According to Cai Hailong, deputy dean of the Education Policy and Law Research Institute of the School of Education of Capital Normal University, excellent short video works can play a positive role in the growth and development of young people as some form of educational resources.
Long-term addiction to short videos will inevitably have adverse effects on the physical and mental health of young people.
"The pan-entertainment tendency in short videos may affect teenagers' identification with mainstream culture and values, and the remarks of some internet celebrity anchors may mislead teenagers' development away from the right direction." Cai Hailong explained, in addition, the current short video The personalized recommendation method commonly used by the platform may also make young people fall into the information cocoon, resulting in narrow vision, paranoia, and conceit, breed social problems of young people, and seriously hinder the normal socialization process of individuals.
In addition, according to public reports, some short videos and live broadcast platforms involve violence, vulgarity, soft pornography, inducement of recharge and rewards, etc., and also seriously infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
Teen mode is easy to avoid
Lack of content and poor usability
In fact, in order to prevent teenagers from being addicted to the Internet, many short video platforms have built-in teenager modes.
In the youth mode, users cannot start and watch the live broadcast, and there is no entry for recharge, reward, etc.; outside the youth mode, the real name must be used to start the broadcast, and minors cannot start the live broadcast. At the same time, if the system detects that the consumer account is suspected of being a minor, it will Immediately pop up the account and ask for real-name authentication. After the user refuses authentication or is authenticated as a minor, the consumption will be intercepted by the system, and the account will not be allowed to recharge in the app.
It is undeniable that the youth model has inhibited the addiction of minors to the Internet to a certain extent, but in reality, there are many ways to bypass the youth model.
According to the survey report "The Characteristics and Protection of Short Video Use by Primary and Secondary School Students", about 30% of the minors think that the content of most short videos is vulgar and that the youth model adopted by short videos is of little use.
The reporter's investigation found that the youth mode of most short video platforms requires parents to take the initiative to open it, or take the initiative to verify that they are minors on the platform, and only enter this mode every time the app is opened.
If you only watch videos, publish short videos, shop, etc. on the short video platform, you generally do not need real-name authentication, unless you are watching live broadcasts, opening live broadcasts, and earning cash withdrawals. Real-name authentication is mandatory.
For Hua Lian, a second-year student in Binzhou City, Shandong Province, the youth model of many short video live broadcast platforms is useless to him.
"My identity information is all purchased online. With it, I can not only register short video apps, but also play online games without restrictions. Sometimes I can't log in to my account. If my grandparents are at home, I can 'borrow' their mobile phones to use them. Verification code to log in. Unless it’s really one-to-one supervision by parents, you can bypass restrictions on playing online games and short videos.” Hua Lian said.
The reporter searched on the e-commerce platform, and there were many online stores that taught how to untie the youth model and crack the anti-addiction system.
In addition, during the investigation, the reporter found that some parents did not know what the teenage model was, or did not try to use it when they knew it.
Some minors also use the identity information of their grandparents to register to circumvent the underage restriction system.
"I have also tried the youth mode before, but after the app is set to this mode, the content I see are very low-level cartoons, including the learning channel, which are all watched by children, and I am 15 years old. Hua Lian said, in the youth mode, should it be more refined, age stratified, and richer in content, so that minors can use and want to watch it.
Some evaluations have found that the youth content pools of many short video platforms are not age-specific. A toddler animation is followed by a college entrance examination knowledge point video, which may also lead to a lack of practicality in the youth mode content pool.
In the "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Rewards and Strengthening the Protection of Minors" released on May 9 this year, it is proposed that to optimize and upgrade the youth model, the website platform should further optimize the product model and content presentation method on the basis of the existing youth model. Continue to increase the supply of live broadcast content suitable for minors.
At present, some short video platforms are also actively acting: in terms of age, different content recommendations are made for teenagers of different ages. After users turn on the youth mode, they can set their own age.
For example, if the age is set to 6 years old, various educational content such as children's animations and home safety songs will be displayed; after the age is set to 9 years old, various children's movies will appear, as well as learning content such as clay tutorials and popular science of historical relics. There are also practical videos on "what to do if you encounter school bullying"; after setting the age to 16, the recommended video content becomes more suitable content such as basketball practical tutorials, board painting skills, and food tutorials.
Use technology to differentiate users
Force open network supervision
How can minors be freed from short video addiction?
In Cai Hailong's view, the current short video platforms generally adopt the "platform + parents" supervision system, which completely entrusts the authority to enable the youth mode and the anti-addiction system to the parents, which largely limits the actual effect of the anti-addiction mechanism. .
"Fundamentally speaking, online protection for young people is a national obligation, and the country's regulatory responsibility should be further strengthened through the innovation of the regulatory system. For example, policies and legislation should be adopted to require short video platforms to implement a universal real-name authentication mechanism, and through human Face recognition technology and other means distinguish minor users from ordinary user groups, and then enforce the online supervision mode for all minors." Cai Hailong said.
To prevent minors from indulging in short videos, it is far from enough to rely on relevant departments to strengthen supervision.
Zhou Xiang, an associate professor at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, said that under the background of the implementation of the Family Education Promotion Law and the Law on the Protection of Minors, schools, families and society need to assume the responsibility of protecting minors from the rational use of the Internet and short videos and preventing addiction. responsibility.
This work is consistent, and anti-addiction is just a technical means. The purpose of using technology and mastering technology is to promote the better development of young people.
"But at the same time, various short video live broadcast apps in the youth mode need to give more humanistic care to teenagers and develop more courses and activities suitable for teenagers' physical and mental health. Social organizations and schools also need to give parents more help and guide them. Communicate more with young people, promote family harmony, and promote home-school cooperation." Zhou said.
In view of the technical loopholes existing in the implementation of the current youth model and anti-addiction system, Cai Hailong suggested that enterprises should actively undertake the social responsibility of youth protection, and further optimize and improve the anti-addiction system through technological upgrades.
"Enterprises should further enhance the ease of use of the youth mode and remind parents to turn on the youth mode in time. Effective measures should be taken to prevent minors from browsing as tourists, logging in with third-party accounts, or evading supervision by uninstalling, reinstalling, and switching accounts. Strengthen the interconnection between different platforms, and control the duration of short videos used by minors as a whole. It is also possible to analyze user behavior through big data, identify suspected minor users, and automatically switch them to youth mode.” Cai Hailong Say.
"In the information age, it is impossible to completely isolate older children in a 'vacuum' without mobile phones or short videos," said Zhang Hong, a parent from Beijing.
She believes that the focus should be on how to guide children. The most important thing is to watch short videos in moderation, and to control the time and content of short videos for children.
"Parents should also swipe less short videos after work. There are many children who watch their parents swiping and swiping, and some parents even throw their mobile phones to their children to play with ease."
Zhao Jun, a parent from Hefei, Anhui, believes that parents should take their children to participate in certain outdoor and social activities from an early age to cultivate their willingness to go out and play.
"In my spare time, I will go out with my child to climb mountains, go to the park, swim, etc., while diverting the child's attention, while cultivating more interests and hobbies that are beneficial to the physical and mental development of the child. If you really let her watch short videos, she will find it boring. "
"If a child has fully developed autonomy, self-discipline and self-discipline, and finds things that interest him to do, he will not be addicted to short videos. Therefore, fundamentally, whether it is parents or teachers, it is necessary to guide children to develop a wide range of interests. Hobbies, learn to arrange time reasonably, and let the Internet become an assistant that is conducive to your healthy growth." Chu Zhaohui said.