How to break the situation when minors frequently bypass the anti-addiction system Expert advice
Strengthen face recognition detection when entering online games
Investigate motives
Recently, readers from Tianjin reported to reporters that her son, who was in junior high school, bypassed the anti-addiction system by renting a number and secretly played online games every night, resulting in a drop in grades. His son said that many of his classmates were like this, playing games through renting numbers, and playing unhindered.
This reader also found that the environment of some online games is very poor, which can be described as a black miasma, such as the phenomenon of scolding often accompanied by confrontation during war, and some of the scolding language is filthy. At the same time, there are also cases of pornographic and verbal sexual harassment, which harm the physical and mental health of adolescents.
Relevant reports show that in recent years, China's game industry has developed rapidly, and the scale of game users has continued to expand, many of whom are minors. What chaos exists in online games and how to purify the online game environment are also hot issues that society has been concerned about for a long time. Starting from today, the Jingwei edition of the rule of law will launch a special column "Purifying the Online Game Environment in accordance with the Law" and launch a series of reports, please pay attention to it.
● Since the implementation of the "strictest new rules on anti-addiction of games in history", the time spent by minors playing online games has been greatly reduced, but many minors still rent accounts to play games, giving rise to renting, buying and selling game accounts, helping to crack the gray industry of the anti-addiction system, and seriously encroaching on the physical and mental health of minors, this chaos needs to be rectified urgently
● The rental number business is very popular, and some stores have monthly sales of 10,<>+. When renting a number, the customer service will prompt "minors are prohibited from placing orders", but will not take the initiative to ask and verify the age of the renter. Minors can rent a number to play games as long as they have the name and ID number of an adult. There is little face recognition during the game, and you can crack face recognition for money
● Game operators can use face recognition technology or fingerprint recognition technology to enforce multi-time verification, while paying attention to protecting the information security of minors. Online game real-name registration should avoid a single authentication method, and more use of "ID number + mobile phone number + SMS verification code" or "bank card number + mobile phone number + SMS verification code" combination authentication method to ensure the reliability of user identity information
● In addition to formulating regulations to constrain game operators, relevant departments should also carry out special regulations on e-commerce platforms, such as strengthening the responsibility of e-commerce supervision, not only blocking game account sellers with keywords, but also increasing manual review. Departments such as for education and culture, schools, and parents of minors shall strengthen education and publicity, correctly guiding minors to resist the temptation of games and prevent addiction
□ reporter Han Dandong
□ Intern of this newspaper Guan Chuyu
"I played online games for half a year, rented different characters and skins, and kept it unimpeded, and I was never asked for face recognition." Xiao Zhang, a first-year junior high school student from Gu'an, Hebei Province, recently told the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter that many of her classmates are playing a popular online game, and the rental number allows everyone to avoid the limit of "only 3 hours a week".
Xiao Zhang said that she was introduced by her classmates to rent a number on an online shopping platform, and the merchant would not confirm whether she was a minor when renting the number. After paying the rental number, the merchant sent an online game login device, she filled in her mother's name and ID number, she could log in to the game smoothly, and then play all the way.
The reporter recently investigated and learned that since the landing of the "strictest new rules on anti-addiction of games in history", the time spent by minors playing online games has been greatly reduced, but there are still many minors who rent accounts to play games, giving birth to renting, buying and selling game accounts, helping to crack the gray industry of the anti-addiction system, seriously infringing on the physical and mental health of minors, and this chaos needs to be rectified urgently.
The platform rents out accounts in violation of regulations
Underage steals games
Xiao Zhang was found addicted to online games, which was caused by a sudden plummeting in his grades.
Originally, Xiao Zhang studied alone in the room. After the precipitous decline in grades, Xiao Zhang's mother secretly observed that Xiao Zhang spent a lot of time playing games every night, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to play games, and completing homework very sloppily.
In fact, Xiao Zhang's mother is not completely opposed to her child playing games, and she was by her child's side when her daughter registered an account for the popular online game. Xiao Zhang's mother clearly remembers that the game prompts have a limit on the time minors can play games.
The so-called restriction refers to the Notice on Further Strictly Managing and Effectively Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games issued by the State Press and Publication Administration in August 2021, which clearly stipulates that all online game enterprises can only provide one hour of service to minors from 8:20 to 21:1 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays, and must not provide online game services to minors in any form at other times; Strictly implement the real-name registration and login requirements for online game user accounts, and must not provide game services and so forth in any form to users who have not registered and logged in with their real names.
The policy has been hailed as "the strictest new anti-addiction rule in history". After the introduction of the policy, major game companies have also upgraded their own game anti-addiction systems. According to the "2022 Progress Report on the Protection of Minors in China's Game Industry", one year after the implementation of the new regulations, the total game time and consumption turnover of minors have been greatly reduced, and more than seventy percent of minors' weekly game time has been controlled within 3 hours.
In that case, why can Xiao Zhang still play online games for a long time?
Xiao Zhang told reporters that she used her pocket money to rent a game account on a shopping platform. "I also heard about the rental number from classmates, during the day, many classmates talked about the game the night before, I felt strange, how can they play games every day, and only after inquiring did they know that there was a rental number service."
"When renting the number, the merchant didn't ask me my age. The online game login sent by the merchant needs to fill in the adult's name and ID card, it turns out that the school used my mother's ID number when filling in the information, and I filled it in. Xiao Zhang said that students are doing this, and if they can't get their parents' ID numbers, they can also buy adult ID numbers online.
Xiao Zhang's statement has been confirmed by many students. The reporter interviewed a number of primary and secondary school students in Tianjin, Hebei, Guangdong and other places and found that they have long seen the matter of renting a number to play online games, because school often involves filling in family information, and many students have their parents' ID numbers and can even recite their parents' ID numbers, so as to pass the online game login "real-name authentication".
Xiao Liu, a second-year junior high school student from Tianjin's Jixian District, has not been in a very good state of mind recently, and his glasses prescription has also increased by 100 degrees. Xiao Liu's mother noticed that every night after going to bed, there was still a faint light in the child's room. So, on the grounds that it was convenient to ask him to get up early the next day, she did not let him lock the door of the room, and one night during a surprise inspection at 11 o'clock at night, she found that Xiao Liu was playing an online game.
"Isn't there an anti-addiction system, why can you still play games so late?" After questioning, I learned that Xiao Liu secretly took money from the money every month and rented a monthly account in a certain post bar to play games.
"If online game accounts can be rented at will, and they are not restricted by identification during use, wouldn't it bypass the online game anti-addiction system?" Xiao Liu's mother asked such a question.
Face recognition is not required for rental numbers
The anti-addiction system can be bypassed
According to the introduction of the interviewed students, the reporter entered a number of online shopping platforms and second-hand shopping platforms to enter "rental number" to search, and a large number of merchants that provided rental game account services jumped up; There is also a post bar to open a special "×× online game rental number bar", which has a large number of rental number posts.
The reporter casually clicked on the product links of several rental game accounts, and the stores showed that the monthly sales volume exceeded 10,<>, and some stores had monthly sales of <>,<>+. At present, the accounts of popular online games are rented, and the rental prices vary according to different regional uniforms, equipment, skins, etc., mostly between a few yuan and tens of yuan per hour; Some merchants also offer daily, weekly, and monthly rental services.
When the reporter asked the customer service of the store about the rental number on a shopping platform, he saw a pop-up on the platform: "According to the relevant national laws and regulations and platform regulations, you must be at least 18 years old to purchase online game products." The platform strictly prohibits merchants from providing relevant goods to minors, and prohibits minors from purchasing".
At the same time, when the reporter consulted customer service on multiple shopping platforms about renting game accounts, the other party would also prompt "minors are prohibited from placing orders". However, neither the merchant nor the customer service took the initiative to ask or verify the age of the reporter.
For example, in a company called "Shuhan Online Game Franchise Store", when the reporter inquired about how to rent a popular online game account, the customer service only asked the reporter about the mobile phone system and which game area to choose, and then sent the reporter a link to select the number.
In order to attract consumers to rent a number to play games, many merchants claim that "the first order is free". But in fact, the so-called free order mostly refers to the return of a few yuan red envelopes for five-star praise after the end of the order, and merchants often stipulate a minimum rent of 2 hours, and the red envelopes returned cannot fully offset the rent.
Seeing that the reporter hesitated and did not place an order, the customer service may think that the reporter was a minor, and "kindly" reminded: "It can definitely be on the number, no face recognition is required." ”
The reporter noticed that some shopping platforms, when renting a game account, need to enter an adult's real name and ID number, and some shopping platforms do not. After the payment is successful, the customer service sends the reporter a download link and login key of the game assistant, and after entering the game assistant, you still need to enter the adult's name and ID number for real-name authentication, and then log in to the game according to the instructions.
The whole process from leasing an account to logging in to the game does not require face recognition, only real-name authentication. That is to say, minors only need to have the name and ID number of an adult to rent a number to play games.
So, during the game game, will the player's identity be verified through face recognition? Many of the above-mentioned minors interviewed said that they often rent different numbers to play and have never encountered situations that require face recognition.
Some customer service told reporters that if the system pops up face recognition when playing games after renting the number, resulting in the inability to continue playing, the reporter can provide another game account with a similar character for free to continue playing.
Moreover, "face recognition technology" can also be cracked. The reporter's investigation found that there are not only many tutorials for removing face recognition in online games, but also businesses that specialize in helping others crack face recognition.
"As long as the person who can contact the real-name authentication is an adult, the face recognition bug can be carded, and it is guaranteed that it will not pop up in the future." One merchant said and posted a number of successful cracking cases. The reporter consulted and learned that the cracking fee was 45 yuan.
Strengthen the responsibility of e-commerce supervision
Crack down on number rental
In recent years, the problem of minors indulging in online games has attracted widespread attention.
In October 2019, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice on Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games, which put forward specific requirements on six levels, including duration control, real-name registration, and standardized payment. In August 10, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice on Further Strictly Managing and Effectively Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games.
The "2022 Progress Report on the Protection of Minors in China's Game Industry" shows that under increasingly strict time constraints, rental services derived from minors' game needs and even scams are frequent, and the anti-addiction system for minors' games has failed technical means.
How can this be effectively prevented?
Zhu Jie, a senior partner at Tahota (Chongqing) Law Firm, said that most game platforms stipulate in the user agreement that the ownership of the account belongs to the platform, and registered users only enjoy the right to use and the ownership of virtual property in the game. Therefore, the merchant will register the account for sale, sale and leasing, according to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code Contract Part, it is a breach of contract, and the platform should take the initiative to identify and combat this behavior, and deal with it with banning.
"The relevant state departments issued a document clarifying that minors must not be provided with online game account rental and sales trading services in any form, and the sale and leasing of game accounts breaks through this provision and provides a channel for minors to bypass the mechanism." Online game accounts should be items prohibited from being bought and sold, and the sale and leasing may constitute the crime of illegal operation. Zhu Jie said.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center at China University of Political Science and Law, also pointed out that renting or selling game accounts to minors is undoubtedly illegal. If the game anti-addiction system can be bypassed by renting or buying and selling game accounts, it means that the entire minor's online anti-addiction system has failed. "If the merchant only declares that it does not rent the account to minors, but actually rents it to minors, it still bears the corresponding responsibility."
How to rectify the chaos of renting numbers to minors? Zhu Jie said that at present, many account rental and sales merchants can be searched for through keywords or alternative words on e-commerce platforms. Therefore, in addition to formulating regulations to constrain game operators, relevant departments should also carry out special regulations on e-commerce platforms, such as strengthening the responsibility of e-commerce supervision, not only blocking game account sellers with keywords, but also increasing manual review, and effectively supervising some sellers who "hang sheep's heads and sell dog meat", otherwise the relevant departments should punish e-commerce platforms.
"Legislative departments should issue more complete and specific laws and regulations for game operators and e-commerce platforms, implement responsible entities, and increase punishment measures; Law enforcement departments should use technical measures to supervise, and raid game operators and e-commerce platforms from time to time, especially e-commerce platforms with huge loopholes, and sound the alarm at all times. Zhu Jie said.
Some parents interviewed asked whether they could increase the intensity and intensity of face recognition in the game, discover underage players in time, seize accounts, and forcibly go offline.
Zhu Jie pointed out that the reason why minors can play normally by leasing and purchasing accounts is because the automatic detection mechanism of some game operation enterprises is not perfect, that is, as long as the account is real-name verified as an adult, it will no longer be tested. In this regard, the operating enterprise should normalize automatic detection, that is, regardless of whether the game real-name authentication is carried out, face recognition detection must be obtained every time it enters an online game.
"Considering the sense of game experience, an account anomaly detection mechanism can be established; If the equipment and location are changed multiple times, it can be presumed to be a rental account, and face recognition detection should be carried out to mark abnormal accounts, and these measures are not difficult to achieve through technology. Zhu Jie said that from the perspective of personal information protection and data security, when conducting face recognition testing, the obligation to inform and agree should be performed, and those who do not agree to face recognition testing can be banned from playing.
In addition, departments such as for education and culture, schools, and parents of minors shall strengthen education and publicity, correctly guiding minors to resist the temptation of games and prevent addiction. Where schools discover that minors are addicted to the Internet, they shall promptly inform their parents or other guardians, jointly educate and guide minors, and help them resume normal study and life; Parents or other guardians of minors must not allow minors to indulge in the Internet, and shall install network protection software for minors on smart terminal products, select service models and management functions suitable for minors, and other such methods. All parties shall perform their legally-prescribed obligations, stand up for their respective posts, and jointly create an environment for the healthy growth of minors.
Yao Jinju, professor of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese and executive director of Beijing Education Rule of Law Research Base, suggested that at the technical level, effective user real-name verification should be carried out at the front end of game login and the back end of the game process, and on the premise of not affecting the game experience, game operators can use face recognition technology or fingerprint recognition technology to force multi-time verification, and determine whether minors have problems such as game addiction and excessive consumption through automatic verification of user identity information, and also pay attention to protecting minors' information security. At the operational level, in the game registration port that does not embed face recognition technology, the real-name registration of online games should avoid a single authentication method as much as possible, and more use of "ID number + mobile phone number + SMS verification code" or "bank card number + mobile phone number + SMS verification code" combination authentication method to ensure the reliability of game user identity information. (Source: Rule of Law Daily)