Strictly control minors engaged in anchors, optimize and upgrade the "teenage model", regulate the application of key functions, and strengthen management during peak hours
Four departments: prohibit minors from participating in live broadcast rewards
On May 7, the Central Civilization Office, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and the State Internet Information Office jointly issued the "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Rewards and Strengthening the Protection of Minors" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions").
The "Opinions" pointed out that minors are prohibited from participating in live broadcast rewards, strictly control minors to engage in anchors, optimize and upgrade the "teenage model" to standardize the application of key functions, and strengthen peak-hour management.
Prohibition of minors live streaming rewards
The "Opinions" pointed out that in recent years, with the rapid emergence of new online live broadcast formats, there have been frequent occurrences of the lack of main responsibility of the platform, the uneven quality of the anchors, and the anomie of rewarding behavior, causing minors to indulge in live broadcasts and participate in rewards, seriously damaging minors. physical and mental health and other social issues.
According to the "Internet Security Law of the People's Republic of China", "The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors" and other laws and regulations, the four departments put forward relevant opinions.
The "Opinions" put forward normative requirements for minors and prohibit minors from participating in live broadcast rewards.
Online platforms should improve the protection mechanism for minors, strictly implement the real-name system requirements, prohibit the provision of various reward services such as cash recharge, "gift" purchase, online payment, etc. for minors, and must not develop online functions that attract minors to reward Apply or develop various "gifts" that induce minors to participate.
Strictly control minors from engaging in anchors
In terms of minor anchors, minors are strictly prohibited from engaging in anchors.
The "Opinions" require that platforms shall not provide online anchor services for minors under the age of 16, and if they provide online anchor services for minors between the ages of 16 and 18, the consent of their guardians shall be obtained.
The "Opinions" also put forward requirements for optimization and upgrading of the "Youth Mode". The platform should increase the supply of live broadcast content suitable for minors, strictly control the content review process, and optimize the mode function configuration.
In addition, the "Opinions" also proposed that the platform should establish an exclusive customer service team for minors, and if minors fraudulently use adult accounts to give rewards, the website platform should check in time under the premise of protecting privacy, and if it is true, it must be refunded according to regulations. payment.
Lists and "gifts" are important functional applications that attract young people to "watch" and interact.
The "Opinions" pointed out that the website platform should cancel all the reward lists within one month after the "Opinions" are released, and it is forbidden to use the reward amount as the sole basis for ranking, attracting traffic, and recommending network anchors, and prohibiting users based on the reward amount. ranking.
In addition, from 20:00 to 22:00 every day is the peak time for teenagers to surf the Internet, and it is also an important time to regulate online live broadcasts.
In this regard, the "Opinions" require that during the daily peak hours on the website platform, the number of "Lianmai PK" in a single account's live broadcast room shall not exceed 2 times, and no "PK penalty" link shall be set up or a technical implementation method for "PK penalty" shall be provided.
Text / Intern Gu Xiaoxiao Photo courtesy of our reporter Wen Jing / Visual China
Industry interpretation
There have been many cases of rewarding minors before.
In the opinion of Ding Daoshi, an independent Internet analyst, the introduction of the new regulations is expected. "The regulations for rewarding underage games have been introduced before, and this time the scope has been further expanded."
In November 2020, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television clearly pointed out that underage users cannot be rewarded, and the platform must pass real-name verification, face recognition, manual review and other measures to ensure that the real-name system requirements are implemented, and the reward function for underage users is banned. .
In September 2021, the Central Propaganda Department and the National Press and Publication Administration re-emphasized in their interviews with game companies and platforms such as Tencent and NetEase that it is necessary to strengthen the management of game live broadcasts and prohibit the occurrence of high rewards and underage rewards.
The introduction of these regulations is a response to real problems.
In recent years, there have been numerous cases of minors using their parents' accounts to tip streamers.
According to media reports, in 2020, the 400,000 yuan of a citizen in Jiangsu who sold a house to pay off debts was used by his children to live stream gifts and play online games. In the end, only 0.23 yuan was left in his bank card.
In the same year, it was also revealed that a 16-year-old boy rewarded the anchor with nearly 2 million yuan in total while watching the live broadcast.
"Minors are immature in their cognition of various things in society, such as addicted to games, excessive rewards, fans' support, etc. Their three views have not been fully established, and the society needs to formulate rules to guide and regulate them. The introduction of this new regulation is an important measure for the country to further protect minors." Professor Shen Aiguo, dean of the School of Media and Communication of Zhejiang University City College, told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter.
Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, believes that the introduction of the new regulations means that underage anti-addiction has entered the segmented field.
"This is not only an extension of the system for the anti-addiction governance of minors, but also a detailed specification for social hotspots and practical issues."
Hype "Internet celebrity children" will become history
In August 2020, the incident of "a 3-year-old girl being fed up to 70 pounds to make money from eating and broadcasting" was reported by the media, causing heated discussions. At that time, the Guangzhou Women's Federation intervened in the investigation.
Regarding the strict control of minors as anchors in the new regulations, Ding Daoshi said that in the past few years, many parents have demanded to cultivate their children to be stars, "This idea is too deformed and affects the physical and mental health of children," Opinion "It's a big step forward to make this clear."
It can be said that there has long been a call to stop minor anchors.
In June 2021, the Online Performance (Live) Branch of the China Performance Industry Association issued a proposal that the online live broadcast platform will not provide online live broadcast services for minors under the age of 16.
In July 2021, the Central Internet Information Office launched a special campaign of "Clean and Bright Summer Network Environment Remediation for Minors", strictly prohibiting minors under the age of 16 from appearing in live broadcasts, and seriously investigating and punishing the behavior of hyping "Internet celebrity children".
On September 17, 2021, the China Performance Industry Association officially established the "Online Performance (Live, Short Video) Brokerage Committee" and released the "Online Performance (Live, Short Video) Brokerage Industry Self-Discipline Proposal".
It is mentioned that no brokerage services are provided for minors, the participation of minors is strictly controlled in all content production links, and a special review mechanism is established for content involving minors.
In November 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Minors in the Online Cultural Market".
Strictly control and strictly control the participation of minors in online performances. If minors appear alone or are accompanied by adults for more than a certain period of time and have been approved as live broadcast rooms or short video accounts that use minors to accumulate popularity and seek benefits, or use Accounts that attract traffic and make money for profit by child models posing indecent poses and sexually suggestive actions will be dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.
The platform side needs to further improve the technology
For the implementation of the "Opinions", Pan Helin and Ding Daoshi both believe that this not only requires further self-discipline of the industry and intensified official governance, but also requires the joint efforts of the whole society, and the key point is to further improve the technology of the network platform. .
"For example, the real-name system authentication of the platform should not only be authenticated at the time of registration, but also must be authenticated when using it, so as to prevent teenagers from bypassing supervision by borrowing registration information from adults." Pan Helin said.
"The system is timely, but the establishment of a systematic and normalized anti-addiction governance system for minors requires the joint efforts of all levels of the whole society to change the status quo." Ding Daoshi also said that there will be more minors in other segments in the future. regulations on personal protection.
"Minors will not only encounter rewards, but also encounter games, telecommunications fraud, bad information, etc., which also need to be managed."