Don't let the "fringe anchor" poison the teenagers

Reporters investigate the proliferation of online marginalization

● Edge rubbing refers to vulgar behavior that attracts attention by revealing clothing and provocative behavior on platforms such as live short videos. Streamers use these fringe behaviors to attract traffic in a soft way, thereby obtaining commercial benefits. Such behavior is not only contrary to public order and good customs, but also suspected of vulgar soft-marketing

● Some live streaming platforms have explicitly prohibited and warned against edge rubbing behavior, but due to the different judgment methods and review modes of each platform, the handling of edge wiping anchors is also different, resulting in the behavior of edge rubbing has not been jointly rectified

● Further improve Internet norms and laws, while consolidating platform responsibilities, strengthening training and education for online anchors, and strengthening guidance for netizens, with a view to forming a joint force of all parties to jointly purify cyberspace

□ reporter Han Dandong

□ Intern of this newspaper Guan Chuyu

"Thank you big brother for the order, then I will dance a big brother's favorite dance now!" In the car sales live broadcast room of a short video platform, a female anchor wore a short black silk skirt and twisted her body to music. In the video of shooting cars, the sexy-dressed female anchor kept coquettish to the camera, and when she hooked the car, the camera focused on her thighs in black stockings...

"Has selling cars started to rub the edges? Can't it be normal? Some netizens said in the comment area.

Rubbing edges, an online term, refers to vulgar behaviors that attract attention by revealing clothing and provocative behavior on platforms such as live short videos. A reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" recently found in an interview that the behavior of rubbing edges has appeared endlessly on the Internet. Some anchors not only attract attention by sending some edge content, but even deliberately label it as "edge wipe" in order to increase video playback.

Experts interviewed by reporters believe that the behavior of rubbing edges not only violates public order and good customs, but also is suspected of vulgar soft pornography marketing, polluting the online environment and poisoning young people, and suggested further improving Internet norms and laws, while compacting platform responsibilities, strengthening training and education for online anchors, and strengthening guidance for netizens, in order to form a joint force of all parties to jointly purify cyberspace.

From a woman to a man with a edge

Rubbing edge drainage is offensive

Not only live broadcast goods, but also the popular live broadcast PK (a new type of live broadcast interaction method, which refers to two anchors PK each other to compare wins and losses based on the level of the amount of tips).

Yang Yang (pseudonym) from Jinan, Shandong Province, is an anchor, and he often sees similar scenes in the process of PK with some female anchors: in order to win the PK, the female anchor writes the name of the big brother on her chest and thighs to attract more tips. This obvious provocation makes it difficult to look at directly.

In live interactions, edge rubbing is even more common. The reporter browsed multiple live broadcast rooms and saw that some female anchors were sitting in front of the camera wearing deep V tops, and the text introduction in the live broadcast room said "beer bombs, flowers to see, sunglasses turn", it turned out that as long as a fan gave a gift, such as "beer", the anchor would pull up the shoulder straps of the bra once... There are also live broadcast rooms with music that makes people blush, which is called an "immersive experience" by the host.

On the Internet, netizens refer to female anchors who have edge rubbing behavior as "edge wiping women". However, the reporter noticed that recently, some male anchors and male bloggers have also joined the ranks of edge rubbing, using edge rubbing as a "password" to attract traffic.

Not long ago, the style of a beverage company's live broadcast room changed from the original sexy and plump female anchor to a male anchor wearing a tight tank top and shorts, these male anchors danced, showed their muscles, and posed to the camera in the current Internet popular songs. This move was called by netizens as "changing the soup without changing the medicine, or the side of the set".

The reporter noticed that these male anchors and male bloggers "invariably" changed into gray-colored sweatpants or leggings, either showing their abs or dancing with their hips. Gradually, wearing gray pants was labeled as a "brushed man". On a short video platform, "gray pants" has been viewed as many as 1624.9 million times.

Many bloggers also use "rubbing edges" as their username or copywriting in order to attract more attention and popularity. In the comment area of these marginalized content, there are many sexually suggestive messages.

It is even more difficult to accept, and even many netizens call it spicy eyes - some male anchors wear female sexy lace underwear and so on for live broadcasting. During the live broadcast, the male anchor not only stood in front of the camera to show his underwear and wear, but also made actions such as shyness, comparing hearts, spinning in circles in place, posing pose, etc. to the camera.

"It's really embarrassing." Under the video, some netizens commented, "It's obviously the clothes worn by girls, but let the boys show them, so I don't know who to buy them for." ”

"It completely upended my definition of men." Ms. Wang, a parent from Jiangsu, said worriedly that once she saw her son in elementary school brushing such a short video, she immediately stepped forward to stop it, she hoped that her child would see healthy, sunny and positive male anchors from the Internet, and did not want her child to be misled by these fringe videos.

Zhang Wei (pseudonym) from Beijing has more than 10 social apps installed on his mobile phone, and he often brushes up on fringe videos and photos in his daily use. "Why push this kind of content to me every day?" Zhang Wei said that perhaps some people like to rub the edges, but I believe that more people must be disgusted, especially now that more and more minors are surfing the Internet, and hope that the relevant departments will take action to purify the network environment.

Fringe videos don't look and feel good

The traffic gains are significant

On social platforms, the number of works that rely on tags to gain popularity is huge. The reporter searched for the "edge" tag on a short video platform and found that it was viewed as many as 60.2 billion times.

Brushing brings huge popularity and traffic revenue to these videos. In the popular works labeled "edge-erasing", the reporter found that not all videos are based on vulgar edge-erasing as the main content. However, compared with similar videos, the traffic of works that use the label "edge" is significantly higher than that of videos that do not label "edge".

Li Wei (pseudonym) of Yantai, Shandong Province, is a loyal user of the short video platform. When posting videos, she found that the traffic to the video was always limited, but if she labeled it "edge", the number of views would obviously go up.

A male dance blogger who has not been on a platform for a long time, wearing women's clothes and dancing in Korean spicy dance in the video, this obvious contrast behavior has brought him a lot of traffic revenue, and a single video can reach 69,1 views.

And under these videos, in addition to comments praising bloggers, there are also a lot of criticism, ironic unfriendly comments. Some netizens said: "Dance is dancing, why dress like this?" ”

There are also comments bluntly: the proliferation of marginal men may cause sexual doubts and differences in self-perception of the audience, deforming their spirit and worldview, resulting in serious consequences. For minors, they are more susceptible to this behavior.

"Edge-rubbing behavior is a means of attracting attention and traffic, so as to satisfy the curiosity of the audience." Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that rubbing edges is not only a problem of content dissemination, but also a problem of values. If governance is not carried out in a timely manner, there will be many people rushing to imitate.

"Following the edge of the woman, the short video of the edge man has also become popular on the online platform. Streamers use these fringe behaviors to attract traffic in a soft way, thereby obtaining commercial benefits. Ma Lihong, a lawyer at Beijing DHH Law Firm, said that the reason for the increasing number of marginal men is to meet the needs of some women to consume male sex, which is essentially the same as shaping traffic male stars in the entertainment industry to attract female fan groups, and then harvesting fan economic dividends.

According to the 2022 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of Internet users in China is 10.67 billion, and the Internet penetration rate is 75.6%. "If an overly tolerant attitude is adopted towards edge rubbing behavior, it will lead to more and more cross-border behaviors, and may even encourage more people to join the ranks of edge rubbing, which is not conducive to establishing good social customs and maintaining a healthy and clean online environment." Ma Lihong said.

She believes that the emergence of this kind of edge behavior reflects that in the era of Internet short video, fast food sales and traffic are still the "password to get rich" in the eyes of some people, resulting in short video participants overly pursuing rapid monetization and short-term interests, attracting attention in "new", "strange" and "special" ways, and even hesitating to test at the edge of the law.

Platform responsibility needs to be compacted

Effectively manage edge scraping

In recent years, relevant departments have frequently taken action to rectify soft pornography information on various online platforms. In February 2021, the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Online Livestreaming, jointly issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China and other seven departments, clearly stipulates that illegal and bad information such as vulgarity and vulgarity, feudal superstition, and "sidelines" should be comprehensively cleaned up.

"At present, although there is no clear definition of edge rubbing in the law, many relevant regulations have already restricted edge rubbing behavior." Zhu Wei said, for example, the "Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem" stipulates that online information content producers must not produce, copy or publish illegal information containing the following content, including spreading obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, terror or instigating crimes. Online information content producers shall employ measures to prevent and resist the production, reproduction, and publication of negative information containing the following content: including content that promotes vulgarity, vulgarity, or kitsch; It may cause minors to imitate unsafe behaviors and conduct that violate social morality, induce minors to have bad habits, etc.

In June 2022, the State Administration of Radio, Television and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly issued the Code of Conduct for Online Anchors, which stipulates that online anchors must not exhibit the following behaviors in the process of providing online performance and audiovisual program services: including costumes and makeup, language behavior, live broadcast room scenery and other content with sexual innuendo and sexual provocation; Prohibited by laws and regulations, and other conduct that has a negative impact on online performances and online audiovisual ecology.

Ma Lihong believes that because of the high generalization of the text and the lag of legislation, it is impossible to include all phenomena through legislation, but such acts can be measured in combination with relevant legislative principles, such as the principle of "public order and good customs" established by the Civil Code. The Advertising Law also clearly stipulates that advertisements must not obstruct social public management norms or go against good social customs. Where advertisements contrary to public order and good customs are published, the market supervision department shall order the publication of advertisements to stop, and impose fines, revoke business licenses, and other punishments.

"Relevant departments can play a declarative role through the handling of individual cases, such as administrative punishment or judicial trial of certain types of marginalization behaviors that violate the law, and concretize legal principles through precedents, so that the public can have a more intuitive understanding of edge-rubbing behavior through the form of cases." Ma Lihong said.

The reporter noticed that some live broadcast platforms have also made explicit prohibitions and warnings on edge rubbing behavior, but due to the different judgment methods and review modes of each platform, the treatment of edge wiping anchors is also different, resulting in the edge rubbing behavior has not been jointly rectified.

"Generally speaking, the dissemination of online information must go through multiple checkpoints such as self-examination by the publisher and review of the published network platform. However, this brushing of edges is still prevalent, indicating that these levels have loopholes. If you don't describe sexual behavior, it's not obscene, and this kind of pornographic information is rubbing this side. A legal expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said pornography was no less harmful than perceived obscenity.

Ma Lihong believes that some fringe behaviors on the current short video platform not only violate public order and good customs, but also are suspected of vulgar soft marketing. The Internet is not an illegal place, and Internet users' activities on social platforms should not only follow the autonomy rules of social platforms, but also conform to social order and good customs.

She suggested that the operation managers of registered accounts on online social platforms should operate and manage their registered accounts in a lawful, civilized and standardized manner, attract audience attention and interactive sharing with high-quality information content, maintain the good social image of the account and themselves, and should not adopt the method of "brushing the edges" to attract network traffic and attract attention. Online social platform operators shoulder the responsibility of prudently reviewing and judging the content of information uploaded by platform users, and shall employ appropriate management and disposal measures for information content that violates laws and regulations and violates social order and good customs.

"In terms of supervision, in addition to further improving Internet norms and laws, it is also necessary to consolidate platform responsibilities, strengthen training and education for online anchors, and strengthen guidance for netizens, in order to form a joint force of all parties to jointly purify cyberspace." Ma Lihong said. (Rule of Law Daily)