Chinese law does not have clear and specific regulations on e-sports hotels, and there are still disputes over the identification of the nature of the venue. The existing supervision methods cannot effectively plug loopholes, neglect social protection and network protection for minors, and there are potential safety hazards. In practice, procuratorial organs in some places actively explored and promoted the joint efforts of relevant functional departments——
Manage the barbaric e-sports hotels
A narrow bunk bed, two large curved-screen computers, and two professional ergonomic gaming chairs... In this small hotel room, no matter it is a variety of high-end computer configurations, gaming equipment, or The large game posters posted on the walls all show that this hotel is a bit "different" - because the computer configuration here is comparable to that of Internet cafes, and the environment is more comfortable than Internet cafes. Most of the customers who come to the hotel come for high-end computer configurations. For those who play games, this is the so-called "e-sports hotel".
In recent years, e-sports hotels, as a new format that has developed rapidly, have been favored by young people, especially minors. However, under the "barbaric growth", it also brings some problems that need to be regulated.
According to Article 21 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Business Sites of Internet Access Services", operating units of business sites for Internet access services shall not accept minors to enter.
So, is the nature of the e-sports hotel a hotel or an Internet service business place?
Can Internet access services be provided to minors?
Which regulatory blind spots exist?
And how should it be regulated?
The e-sports hotel that grows savagely
"E-sports hotels refer to new hotels that rely on e-sports games and provide customers with e-sports venues and equipment as well as e-sports-related services." Lin Jie, prosecutor of the Procuratorate of Wuxing District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, told reporters that the composition of e-sports hotels is diverse It can be divided into three categories: specialized e-sports hotels, general e-sports hotels and e-sports homestays.
It is particularly worth mentioning that there are e-sports homestays in the form of online room appointments.
On November 26, 2018, the Public Security Bureau of Zhejiang Province issued Article 3 of the "Registration Measures for Online Reservation of Residential Housing Information (Trial)": "Online reservation of housing refers to the provision of Internet channels to publish housing, book and complete transactions. Houses for living and other places for living.” Strictly speaking, it is not a hotel, but only has the functions of accommodation similar to hotels.
Compared with e-sports hotels, online room bookings are more like "small workshops".
"After our visits, we found that many e-sports hotels exist in the form of online room reservations. There is no front desk, lack of corresponding permits, and they are not included in the management system of public security organs. Minors frequently come and go." Lin Jie said. The price of e-sports rooms in the form of online booking rooms is relatively low, but it is still slightly more expensive than Internet cafes. It is not a small burden for minors who have no source of income and often go in and out, and it is very easy to induce minors to commit crimes.
So, can minors stay in e-sports hotels?
The "Fangyuan" reporter contacted the front desks of several e-sports hotels. Some hotels clearly stipulate that minors are not allowed to stay alone, and some hotels say that minors can stay, but they need to get in touch with their parents, such as calling the parents on the spot to confirm.
There is also a front desk receptionist who said that the room can accommodate more than one person, but the computer usage fee needs to be paid according to the number of people.
As for whether underage men and women can stay or live together, as long as both parties are willing, the hotel will normally accept it.
Illegal acceptance of minors poses safety hazards
"Combined with case-handling practice and existing data, it is estimated that the proportion of minors staying in e-sports hotels is not less than 5%, and the proportion of e-sports rooms in the form of online booking rooms may be higher due to loose management and cheap prices." Lin Lin Jie told reporters that in practice, some minor e-sports enthusiasts are attracted by a variety of marketing methods, and situations of "going to see" and "playing a few games after school" often occur, and many minors often stay out at night because of this.
Compared with ordinary hotel users, e-sports hotel users have a high repurchase rate, long stay time, and a tendency to become "addicted". This phenomenon is more obvious among minors.
Ding Xiawei, prosecutor of the Wucheng District Procuratorate in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, told reporters that the occupancy rate of minors in e-sports hotels is very high, especially during summer vacations and weekends, and because some minors entered the hotel as visitors without real-name registration , The number of minors who actually entered the e-sports hotel was much higher than the registered number.
E-sports hotels provide Internet services to attract minors or even minors under the age of 16 to stay in, causing minors to evade laws and regulations to surf the Internet in violation of regulations, which may lead to risk problems such as minors’ addiction to the Internet, staying out at night, skipping classes and dropping out of school, etc. It may even lead to crimes involving minors.
Qiu Kai, a policeman from the Jiangnan Branch of the Jinhua Public Security Bureau, also told reporters that many police cases involving minors in the area under the jurisdiction of the police station came from e-sports hotels, bars, online dating places and other gathering places. There are many cases, and some minors moved in for money, and even stole the computer graphics card in the gaming room.
"In some minor theft cases, it was because e-sports hotels illegally accepted minors to stay. At the same time, minors staying in e-sports hotels, especially if there is a mixed room of men and women, are more likely to lead to sexual assault, etc. The incident happened." Lin Jie said.
Lin Jie once handled a minor sexual assault case.
One day at the end of 2021, Zhang, a minor, was playing games in an e-sports room in Huzhou.
The room was booked online by an adult friend through an app booking software.
Zhang proposed to play games in the hotel, but his friend said that he would not be staying in the room tonight, and told Zhang the password of the reserved room code lock.
Later, Zhang played games in the room until late at night.
During the period, Zhang chatted with an underage girl Xiaowei (pseudonym) through WeChat, and learned that the girl had drunk with her friend, and offered to pick her up.
Later, Zhang went to the place where Xiaowei was, and took Xiaowei into the room.
While Xiao was not drunk, he sexually assaulted him.
In addition to illegal crimes, e-sports hotels also have various hygiene and food safety issues.
"During the investigation, we found that some e-sports hotels sell food without a food business license, including expired and three-no foods, and some e-sports hotels do not have a food business license, and their operations are not standardized. The minor residents are The main consumers of these foods." Lin Jie told reporters.
E-sports hotels have regulatory blind spots
"Is an e-sports hotel an Internet cafe or a hotel? If an e-sports hotel is defined as an Internet service business place, an Internet culture business license must be obtained, and minors are strictly prohibited from staying; if an e-sports hotel is defined as a place of accommodation, Operators can accept minors to enter after fulfilling their inspection and reporting obligations," said Chen Yan, prosecutor of the Chengyang District Procuratorate in Qingdao City, Shandong Province.
At present, my country's laws do not have clear and specific regulations on e-sports hotels, and there are still disputes over the identification of the nature of the venue. The existing supervision methods cannot effectively plug loopholes, neglect social protection and network protection for minors, and there are potential safety hazards.
"In fact, e-sports hotels, as a new type of business, do not have clear laws and detailed regulations, resulting in unclear rights and responsibilities of relevant functional departments, lack of guidelines, and failure to take effective measures to supervise them." Lin Xiaoli, a lawyer at Jiangsu Xintianlun Law Firm He told reporters that e-sports hotels have complicated attributes, diversified categories, and wide-ranging fields, involving e-sports, hotels, online room reservations and many other industries, and involving many departments such as public security, education, culture, and market supervision. There is a lack of information co-construction and sharing, and a joint governance force has not yet been formed.
Lin Xiaoli also said that within the industry association, there is a lack of restrictive measures for the e-sports services provided by e-sports hotels and the impact they bring, such as what kind of hotels can set up e-sports rooms, what is the maximum allocation ratio of each e-sports room, and the number of minors There is a lack of industry norms in terms of whether people can stay in e-sports rooms, whether to implement real-name authentication on the Internet, etc., and also lacks the necessary internal inspection and punishment measures in the industry, which leads to mixed good and bad e-sports hotels, frequent safety accidents, and some practitioners have a fluke mentality. Playing around the edges of laws and industry norms, privately accepting minors to live alone and surf the Internet.
"The main problem caused by the lack of constraints is the incomplete check-in information." Lin Jie said that truthful and detailed registration of hotel guests' relevant information is the obligation of hotel operators, and it can also effectively prevent safety risks and ensure normal operations.
However, after investigation, it was found that some e-sports hotels have problems such as one person registering for multiple occupancy, incomplete visitor registration, and non-registration of minors.
"Some minors once revealed to us that some e-sports hotels are online booking rooms, and there is no front desk. You can check in by contacting the boss on WeChat to get the room number and password. Register, and don't tell the boss." Lin Jie said.
For example, Xiao Wei was taken to an e-sports hotel by a criminal suspect to rape him after he was drunk. Neither of them checked in. Enter yourself.
There are also many minors who engage in prostitution activities in e-sports hotels, and they can directly enter and exit without check-in or visitor registration.
"After our visits, we found that many e-sports hotels have not installed the hotel accommodation online registration system. For example, some e-sports hotels rely on paper registration, some e-sports hotels have no front desk, and have not installed the hotel accommodation online registration system, resulting in minors There are no restrictions on access. At the same time, all e-sports hotels have not taken measures to limit the continuous online time of users. Minors who continue to surf the Internet for a long time may seriously damage their physical and mental health." Ding Xiawei said that these e-sports hotels not only allow unidentified Adults stay in the e-sports room and provide cigarettes and drinks. It seems that the service is thoughtful, but in fact it infringes on the legitimate interests of minors, but the minors themselves are unaware.
The procuratorate instituted the country's first civil public interest lawsuit for an e-sports hotel
The most fundamental and effective way to regulate the e-sports hotel industry is to strengthen legislation, formulate industry norms in line with the characteristics of the e-sports hotel industry, and bring them into the track of rule of law and standardization.
The nature of e-sports hotels is related to the direction of legislation and the division of actual supervision responsibilities, which is the primary problem to be solved.
At the same time, formulate and improve local regulations on the management of e-sports hotels, especially online room reservations, and further clarify and detail the access conditions, safety requirements, room type settings, computer ratios, online identity verification, and time limits for e-sports hotels. change.
In addition to the regulatory authorities, the procuratorate is also making a difference in regulating the development of e-sports hotels.
The procuratorate of Suqian City, Jiangsu Province once handled the first civil public interest litigation case of an e-sports hotel in the country (this newspaper reported on page 5 on December 8, 2022).
In April 2021, the Sucheng District Procuratorate of Suqian City discovered that some students often went to the e-sports hotel to surf the Internet overnight during the performance of their duties.
After the investigation, it was found that e-sports hotels provide the same Internet service as Internet cafes, and are favored by minors.
An e-sports hotel named Xinli (pseudonym) had 387 records of minors surfing the Internet in just three months.
On January 12, 2022, the Sucheng District Procuratorate opened a case for investigation of the e-sports hotel's illegal admission of minors and provision of Internet services that harmed social and public interests and performed the announcement procedure.
On March 2, the case was transferred to the Suqian City Procuratorate.
On March 22, the Suqian City Procuratorate brought the case to the Suqian Intermediate Court, requesting that Xinli Hotel prohibit the provision of Internet access services to minors, and publicly apologize in the national media.
On May 12, the Suqian City Intermediate Court held a public hearing on the case.
The case was pronounced in court, and all the claims of the procuratorate were supported by the court.
Not only that, but the procuratorial organ also promotes its normative development by sending procuratorial suggestions and holding hearings.
On March 30, 2022, the Procuratorate of Chengyang District, Qingdao City, Shandong Province, took the "Measures for the Administration of Public Security in the Hotel Industry" as an entry point, and issued a pre-litigation suggestion to the public security agency responsible for the management of public security in the hotel industry, suggesting that the involved telegrams should be dealt with in accordance with the law. Competing Hotels conducted investigations and carried out special rectification activities to conduct a comprehensive investigation of unlicensed operations, operations beyond the scope, reception of minors without asking, not recording the status of guardians, and providing Internet services to minors in violation of regulations.
After receiving the procuratorial suggestion, the public security organ imposed administrative penalties on the four e-sports hotels involved, and cooperated with relevant departments to carry out special inspection activities on the e-sports hotels in the jurisdiction, and carried out legal education for the employees of the e-sports hotel, and the involved e-sports hotels Hotel information is pushed to market supervision, cultural law enforcement and other departments for joint management.
At the same time, the Chengyang District Procuratorate also adopted the innovative method of "case-closure evaluation hearing" to evaluate the effectiveness of the procuratorial recommendations issued in the early stage as an entry point, inviting public security organs, cultural law enforcement departments, representatives of the e-sports association, and lawyers to jointly supervise the e-sports hotel. Issues are discussed.
All parties reached a consensus: implement the "hotel + Internet cafe" co-management model for e-sports hotels to supervise, and work together to eliminate blind spots in supervision.
Another example is that the Wucheng District Procuratorate of Jinhua City discovered in the performance of its legal supervision duties that the Wucheng District Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau of Jinhua City lacked supervision over the illegal provision of Internet services to minors by e-sports hotels, resulting in the unspecified majority of minors. interests are violated.
On December 1, 2022, the court sent a procuratorial suggestion to the Wucheng District Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau.
After the procuratorial suggestion was issued, the Wucheng District Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau attached great importance to it, conducted a survey of e-sports venues, carried out publicity on e-sports venue regulations, and organized special rectification of e-sports venues. At present, relevant issues have been rectified and implemented.
(Procuratorial Daily Liu Ya)