The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors will come into effect on June 1, strengthening the online protection of minors
Can the anti-addiction system really control the child?
From June 1 this year, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors will be officially implemented, opening a new chapter in the protection of minors online.
Statistics show that as of December 2020, the number of Chinese Internet users reached 989 million, of which students accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 21%.
The Internet has become an important way for students to obtain information, understand the world, and enjoy leisure and entertainment. At the same time, the problem of minors’ indulging in the Internet has become increasingly prominent.
On the occasion of the International Children’s Day on June 1st, major online platforms such as video, live broadcast, and games have upgraded the youth anti-addiction system and optimized the content pool of the “youth mode”.
Before June 1, all online games must be connected to the national real-name verification system.
Experts said that a unified anti-addiction standard should be established as soon as possible, and the industry should work together to prevent minors’ online addiction; the country, society, schools, and families should each fulfill their responsibilities to improve minors’ Internet literacy.
Anti-addiction systems have been upgraded
Chen Ping, who lives in Guangzhou, and her daughter who is in the fifth grade of elementary school have an agreement: You can watch 40-minute short videos every day in the “teenage mode”.
"Now what my daughter is watching is popular science education and knowledge content, she gradually has the concept of time management." Chen Ping said that after the "teenage model", the time her daughter watched short videos every day was relatively fixed for two years. It was not affected.
The "youth model" mentioned by Chen Ping originated from a set of youth anti-addiction systems that the State Cyberspace Administration of China guided the unified launch of 53 major domestic online video and live broadcast platforms two years ago.
At present, the "youth mode" has become the "standard configuration" of the main short video platforms.
On video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, users can only browse for 40 minutes a day after choosing to enter the "teenage mode", and cannot browse from 22:00 to 6:00 the next day.
Some short video platforms have also added the "Cannot open live broadcast and browse the same city page" function, users can not recharge and reward.
Mr. Wang, a citizen of Beijing, has a 6-year-old son. He recently discovered that Douyin has added a collection function to the "Youth Mode" to match content based on age.
"Children like to watch the collection of'Fish, please answer' these days. The video uses animation and real-world methods to describe how the fish breathe in the water, why the fish is colorful, and why the fish in the deep sea glow.
Regarding some parents and users who raised the monotonous content of the "youth mode" and the loopholes in the system, various platforms have recently been upgraded.
According to the person in charge of the Douyin Youth Project, since the beginning of this year, Douyin has launched the "Moe Knowing Project", which has attracted nearly 10,000 creators to participate and created about 85,000 knowledge videos suitable for teenagers to learn; technically, the same minor account user Installing the Douyin App and logging in to different terminals will force you to enter the "teenage mode".
Kuaishou Community Safety Affairs Director Chang An said that Kuaishou has created an independent algorithm for pushing content to children through an upgraded recommendation strategy. In terms of content, it provides more than 40 types of high-quality content mainly around educational themes.
The anti-addiction system for online games was launched as early as 2007 and has been improved.
At present, the real-name verification system at the national level has basically been completed. Before June 1 this year, all online games must be connected.
According to the notice issued by the National Press and Publication Administration on preventing minors from indulging in online games, for online game companies that have not implemented the anti-addiction requirements, local publishing management departments should order corrections within a time limit; if the circumstances are serious, they will be dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations until Revocation of related licenses.
In order to prevent minors from indulging in, Tencent and other online game platforms have successively introduced a number of strict restrictions: "restricted to play", all real-name authenticated accounts of underage users are limited to 1.5 hours of play per day, and 3 hours of play during holidays. It is forbidden to play from 22:00 to 8:00 the next day; "Limited Charge", users under the age of 8 cannot recharge, users aged 8 to 16 are limited to 200 yuan per month, and users aged 16 to 18 are limited to 400 yuan per month.
At the same time, the face recognition technology is applied to nearly 100 games including "Glory of the King" and "Peace Elite" to screen out suspected minor users.
"The child charged the game without my knowledge." "I am his grandmother, and his parents are not around. I can't control him"... In the office area of Tencent's parent service platform for minors in Chengdu, Sichuan, The ringing of the phone came and went one after another.
More than 500 customer service staff assist parents in solving the problem of minors' excessive game play and irrational consumption.
Li Jing, head of Tencent's parent service platform for minors, said: "In addition to assisting in solving unreasonable consumption, we are more concerned about the family education problems behind children's excessive gaming, and provide parents with some effective suggestions."
Lack of preparation by related parties
With the popularization of the mobile Internet, the convenience of information acquisition has been accompanied by the problem of Internet addiction.
"The impact of the Internet is like a cultural shock." Yu Guoming, director of the Academic Committee of the School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, said that the Internet has quickly entered social life and has greatly changed the discourse structure of society and people's social behavior orientation.
Nowadays, the phenomenon of internet addiction among some young people actually reflects that social stakeholders are not prepared.
This "hurried challenge" is manifested in many ways:
First, there are loopholes in the anti-addiction system itself.
In recent years, under the guidance of the government’s cybersecurity and informatization departments, major Internet platforms have continuously improved the "youth mode", "network curfew", real-name system, content review and grading systems, etc., which have been effective in building a protection barrier for minors. But there are also loopholes and weaknesses.
For example, it is difficult to confirm the user identity in the "youth mode", and the use time can be extended by repeatedly entering the password; some short video platforms are not strict about the content; the real-time information pushed by some platforms does not match the "youth mode"; privacy The protection is not sound and user data is exposed.
Some new short video applications that rely on existing social apps have not yet established a "teenage model".
The reporter saw on a question-and-answer platform that posts on "how to hack the anti-addiction system" were very popular.
Among these answers, the answers that can be regarded as "useful" are basically paid tutorials, and the price is around tens of yuan.
But this so-called paid cracking proved to be a way of defrauding money.
Secondly, there are many constraints that hinder the functioning of the anti-addiction system.
"No matter how you upgrade to prevent addiction, you will not be afraid. The big deal is "Glory of the King", "Fantasy Westward Journey", and "The Legend of the Sword of Nine Provinces" for one and a half hours each." Student Liu, who was a junior in a middle school in Beijing, announced to major game manufacturers. The restrictions are disapproving.
He told reporters that it is now easy to bypass vendor verification through cross-vendor and cross-Internet terminal methods.
Behind this is the status quo of the major manufacturers' game anti-addiction systems lacking unified management and acting independently.
In addition, because the "youth model" is not currently a mandatory standard, it is a test of the corporate social responsibility. A few companies, based on factors such as traffic and profits, only meet the regulatory requirements in form.
A parent said frankly: "If some video platforms are inductive in the algorithm design stage and lack identification at the entrance stage, some manufacturers have fascinating designs at the beginning of the game production. How can parents compete?"
The Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that online product and service providers must not provide minors with products and services that induce them to indulge.
Online game, online live broadcast, online audio and video, online social networking and other network service providers shall set up corresponding time management, authority management, consumption management and other functions for minors to use their services.
More and more companies are beginning to call that the industry should strengthen the implementation of the unity of the anti-addiction system, and "precede" the anti-addiction work.
OPPO, Xiaomi and other mobile phones have begun to install game anti-addiction systems.
The game engine company Youmei and Tencent previously announced that they will jointly launch an anti-addiction system development tool, allowing game developers to apply the anti-addiction system during the game development stage.
Work together to create a healthy network culture ecology
"My son is getting too much now and stealing money again. He threatened me last night and asked me to give him 1,000 yuan to buy game equipment. If he didn't give it, he would hurt us."
This is a help call from Mr. Feng to Tencent's service platform for parents of minors.
His child is a 17-year-old student who has irrational consumption and beating his parents because he is addicted to an online game.
"Parents are overly indulgent, which is the main reason for this child's addiction." Li Jing said that 95% of the current refund complaints are caused by minors fraudulently using parental identity information to bypass supervision.
In the contact cases, many parents did not understand their children’s online status, poor parent-child relationship, lack of sufficient care for rural or left-behind children, children did not develop good habits in using the Internet, and the parents themselves made wrong demonstrations... These families have improper education Or missing, often aggravate children’s addiction to the Internet.
"It is very important for parents to find the reasons behind their children's addiction to the Internet through effective communication."
The Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that the press and publication, education, health, culture and tourism, Internet information and other departments shall regularly carry out publicity and education to prevent minors from indulging in the Internet, and supervise online product and service providers to prevent minors from indulging in the Internet. The obligation to guide families, schools, and social organizations to cooperate with each other and adopt scientific and reasonable methods to prevent and interfere with minors’ addiction to the Internet.
As a social issue, strengthening the protection of youth online requires all parties concerned to fulfill their responsibilities and jointly create a healthy online cultural ecology.
Wang Weijun, deputy director of the Key Laboratory of Youth Online Psychology and Behavior of the Ministry of Education of Central China Normal University, said that "surfing" in the virtual world is one of the ways for children to explore and recognize the world and build themselves.
Parents, schools, and society should not adopt simple and rude methods such as "banning the Internet", but should work with their children to formulate reasonable rules for the use of the Internet to cultivate the children's subjective awareness of correct and healthy use of the Internet.
The "youth model" needs innovation and optimization to manage the children who are really addicted and don't want to be managed.
Sheng Ronghua, deputy director of the National Internet Information Office, said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office a few days ago that on the one hand, it adheres to both standard management and encouragement of innovation, and guides and supports the website platform to provide products and services suitable for use by young people.
On the other hand, on the basis of the existing "teenage model", further optimize the function settings, improve the accuracy of minor identification, and enhance the effectiveness of minor protection, especially the effectiveness.
At the same time, guide the website platform to establish and improve the exclusive content pool for minors, increase the supply of high-quality content, and minimize the living space of negative information.
Industry experts suggest that relevant departments should take the lead in formulating national standards based on the practical experience of leading companies, establish a unified mandatory anti-addiction system or platform, and promote relevant companies to implement them in a unified strength and method.
The protection should also be "fronted" to reduce the possibility of young people indulging in the design from the beginning.
Improving network literacy is a permanent solution to prevent addiction.
The Law on the Protection of Minors states that the state, society, schools, and families should strengthen the publicity and education of minors’ online literacy, while the parents or other guardians of minors should also improve their online literacy.
Tian Feng, a researcher at the Institute of Social Development Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that the establishment of a tripartite network literacy education involving parents, schools, and enterprises should be promoted at the legal and policy levels to improve children’s network literacy and provide parents with the ability to manage and guide their children to use the Internet correctly. Ability, and earnestly assume the responsibility of the first responsible person.
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Summary of Chapter 5 "Network Protection" of the Law on the Protection of Minors
Article 64: The state, society, schools, and families shall strengthen the publicity and education of minors’ online literacy, cultivate and improve minors’ Internet literacy, and enhance minors’ awareness and ability to use the Internet in a scientific, civilized, safe and reasonable manner. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace.
Article 65 The State encourages and supports the creation and dissemination of online content that is conducive to the healthy growth of minors, and encourages and supports the creation and dissemination of online technologies, products, and services that specifically target minors and are suitable for minors’ physical and mental health. Research and development, production and use.
Article 68: Departments of press, publication, education, health, culture and tourism, online information and other departments shall regularly carry out publicity and education to prevent minors from indulging in the Internet, and supervise online product and service providers to perform their obligations to prevent minors from indulging in the Internet. , Instruct families, schools, and social organizations to cooperate with each other, and adopt scientific and reasonable methods to prevent and intervene minors’ addiction to the Internet.
No organization or individual may interfere with minors’ addiction to the Internet in a way that harms the physical and mental health of minors.
Article 69: Schools, communities, libraries, cultural centers, youth palaces and other places providing Internet access service facilities for minors shall install minors’ network protection software or adopt other safety protection technical measures.
Manufacturers and sellers of smart terminal products shall install minor network protection software on their products, or inform users of the installation channels and methods of minor network protection software in a significant way.
Article 71: Parents or other guardians of minors should improve their Internet literacy, regulate their own use of the Internet, and strengthen the guidance and supervision of minors' use of the Internet.
Parents or other guardians of minors should install minor’s network protection software on smart terminal products, choose service modes and management functions suitable for minors, etc., to prevent minors from contacting and harming or affecting their physical and mental health. Network information, reasonable arrangements for minors to use the Internet, effectively prevent minors from indulging in the Internet.
Article 74: Network product and service providers must not provide minors with products and services that induce their indulge.
Online game, online live broadcast, online audio and video, online social networking and other network service providers shall set up corresponding time management, authority management, consumption management and other functions for minors to use their services.
Online education network products and services that serve minors must not insert links to online games, or push advertisements and other information irrelevant to teaching.
Article 75: Online games may not be operated until they have been approved in accordance with the law.
The state establishes a unified electronic identity authentication system for minors in online games.
Online game service providers shall require minors to register and log in to online games with their real identity information.
Online game service providers should classify game products in accordance with relevant national regulations and standards, make age-appropriate reminders, and adopt technical measures, and must not allow minors to come into contact with inappropriate games or game functions.
Online game service providers are not allowed to provide online game services to minors from 22:00 to 8:00 the next day.
Peng Xunwen