How to protect the "young you" in the digital era
Today's minors are known as the new generation of "digital natives", and their online disputes are increasing year by year
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The Internet has become an indispensable space for the growth of contemporary minors. According to the white paper released by the Beijing Internet Court, minors are active in online behavior, and the trend of younger age in Internet-related disputes is prominent. Strengthening the online protection of minors has become an important topic for the protection of minors.
The youngest of the minors involved in the lawsuit is only 6 years old; Some minors recharged more than 61,<> yuan in online games within one month; The dispute over recharge tips for minors raised by alternate generations has increased significantly...
According to the White Paper on the Online Judicial Protection of Minors (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) released by the Beijing Internet Court on May 5, minors involved in litigation show significant characteristics of younger age, and disputes involving minors are mainly caused by recharge tips, online shopping, online speech, etc., and the subject matter of recharge and tipping cases is the highest.
According to the "Statistical Report on Internet Development in China", by the end of 2021, there were 1 million minors in China, and the Internet penetration rate of minors reached 83.96%. In the era of digitalization, networking and intelligence, the majority of minors are known as a new generation of "digital natives". In the digital era, how to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of minors in cyberspace has become an issue of concern to the whole society.
The game recharged more than 61,<> yuan within one month
According to the white paper, among the disputes involving minors heard by the Beijing Internet Court, the average amount of recharge and tipping cases is the highest. Among them, the average game recharge is 2,5 yuan, the average live broadcast tip is 6,2 yuan, and the proportion of cases with a recharge and tipping case amount of more than 10,10 yuan is close to <>% of this type of case.
During the epidemic from February to March 2020, 2-year-old Person A recharged a game software operated by a technology company through his Alipay account in just one month, amounting to more than 3,17 yuan.
In this case, the court found after hearing that plaintiff A had uploaded a real identity document for real-name authentication at the request of the system, which shows that the defendant technology company has the ability to know that the other party is a minor, but has not restricted the behavior of large recharge.
"The plaintiff's account was frequently recharged and the amount of recharge in a short period of time was large, but the defendant did not review and restrict the consumption of the account when the account was registered as a minor in its real name, nor did it claim recognition from its guardian, and continued to provide large-amount recharge services for the minor, and the defendant was mainly at fault for the occurrence of the recharge act involved in the case." Cui Lu, a judge of the Third Comprehensive Trial Division (Juvenile Court) of the Beijing Internet Court, said: "The plaintiff's guardian is also at fault for neglecting the plaintiff's management and lack of security awareness of property." The court ordered the tech company to refund the recharge.
In addition to platforms such as large-scale online games, casual puzzle mini game platforms have also become an important category for minors' game recharge, with a maximum recharge of more than 40,<> yuan, and "mini games" have caused "big disputes" and "multiple disputes". At the same time, new social platforms also affect minors, such as the recharge and tipping disputes caused by new software such as Lianmai Dating, which has been accepted by the Beijing Internet Court.
"Disputes over recharge and tips for minors raised by intergenerational generations have increased significantly, and their ability to protect their rights is relatively weak." According to the white paper, 11 cases accepted by the Beijing Internet Court involved minors recharging and tipping during the period of raising their grandparents, accounting for 26.2% of the recharge and tipping cases. Such groups are obviously weak in determining the subject of litigation, selecting the cause of action, and presenting evidence.
Marketing number: consumer minors create "explosive models"
It is worth noting that the Beijing Internet Court reported that the number of personality rights infringement cases accepted by the court in the past year increased by 111% year-on-year.
"When a minor is the infringed, the infringement of his personality rights is mainly due to the infringement of reputation rights, and may also involve portrait rights, privacy rights, personal information rights and interests, etc." Zhao Ruigang, vice president of the Beijing Internet Court, said: "When minors are infringers, some cases and disputes are caused by offline campus conflicts, and then insult and slander peers on the Internet, and there is a negative trend of gradually evolving into cyberbullying in serious cases; Some are caused by online social conflicts, coupled with the influence of factors such as 'rice circle culture' and 'online memes', which eventually lead to infringement. ”
In cases heard by the court, some parties maliciously edited videos containing portraits of minors, accompanied by text, and published them online, without technical processing such as coding the portraits of minors, and arbitrarily disclosing the portraits of minors; Some parties arbitrarily publish surveillance videos containing portraits of minors in the owner group; Some parties have caused controversy over football matches, posting videos containing portraits of minors with derogatory language such as "bad character".
There are also some self-media and marketing accounts based on commercial marketing, attracting attention and other purposes, excessive consumption of minors, infringement of minors' rights and interests. For example, in cases of infringement of minors' portrait rights, many marketing accounts have published articles containing portrait photos and videos of celebrity children, analyzed the behavior and habits of celebrity children, and recommended relevant children's training, lectures, and books.
In an infringement case arising from medical treatment, Xiao Jia was accompanied by relatives to the pediatric outpatient clinic of a hospital, and without the consent of Xiao Jia and her guardian, the hospital filmed and edited the doctor's consultation process into a video, and publicly posted it on the short video platform account registered by the doctor's real name. The theme of the video is "When will the child be okay, I have to ask parents about this question", the video content not only revealed Xiao Jia's condition, but also showed Xiao Jia's "problems" and "bad habits" during his medical treatment, which received a high number of likes and comments. The court found that the division of labor and cooperation adopted by the hospital and the attending doctor together constituted an infringement of Xiaojia's portrait rights, reputation rights and privacy.
The protection mechanisms of network service providers are still not in place
"Minors' online entertainment consumption urgently needs to be strengthened." Zhao Ruigang introduced that in addition to the common purchase of game equipment, live broadcast rewards, and online shopping, minors are also keen on blind box drawing, gift lottery, and lucky shooting mini games. Some spend tens of thousands of yuan in order to extract blind boxes; Some spend more than 1,2 yuan a day to tip anchors; Some addicted to shooting lucky mini games recharge more than 1,60 yuan in <> month.
"At present, the awareness and mechanism for the protection of minors by some network service providers are still not in place." The court pointed out that in some platforms, users can complete adult identity authentication by simply entering their ID number; Some platforms have a "minor mode", but they cannot be used after entering.
In the recent trial of the Beijing Internet Court's case of banning pedophile accounts by short video platforms, the court firmly supported online platforms in implementing their duties to protect minors. The plaintiff in the case, Zheng Moumou, was banned by the platform for following and liking underage girls' videos and posting pornographic comments. Zheng Moumou believed that the platform's move constituted a breach of contract and sued the court. The court found that the online platform took reasonable and effective measures to identify accounts that published vulgar content involving minors and may infringe on the lawful rights and interests of minors through technical and manual means, and made legal contracts.
The white paper points out that whether from families, schools or society, the awareness of the protection of minors' rights and interests in cyberspace still needs to be further strengthened. The Law on the Protection of Minors sets up a special chapter on "Internet Protection" to comprehensively strengthen the responsibilities of the state, society, schools, and families, and deeply protect the rights and interests of minors.
This line of thinking is also reflected in the new version of the Beijing Regulations on the Protection of Minors, which came into effect on June 6. The regulations focus on hot issues such as the prevention and control of student bullying and the prevention of online addiction, and make a series of provisions on the online rights and interests of minors. For example, in terms of online games and recharge and rewards, which are widely concerned, the regulations require that online game service providers should classify game products, give age-appropriate reminders, and must not provide online game services to minors from 1 o'clock to 22 o'clock the next day. Minors must not be provided with cash recharge, online payment and other tipping services in violation of regulations.
(Workers' Daily reporter Lu Yue)