Launch of Teen Mode to help rational use of the Internet
"Touch the net" is younger, escort is indispensable (Online China)
At present, the number of underage netizens in China continues to grow, and the "Internet access" is becoming younger and younger.
How to better protect the physical and mental health of minors and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace is a topic of much concern.
With the improvement of relevant laws and regulations, many online platforms have successively launched youth models to better help teenagers use the Internet rationally, which has become a consensus from all walks of life.
Various measures weave a strong protection net
According to data released by the China Internet Network Information Center, in 2020, the number of minor Internet users in China will reach 183 million, and the Internet penetration rate of minors is 94.9%, which is higher than the Internet penetration rate of 70.4% of the national population in the same period.
In this context, laws and regulations related to minors' cybersecurity have been promulgated intensively in recent years.
In June last year, the newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors was officially implemented, which added network protection to comprehensively regulate the protection of minors' online information and the prevention and control of online addiction.
Since the beginning of this year, relevant departments have continued to introduce a number of measures to further provide protection for minors online.
In March of this year, the "Regulations on the Protection of Minors on the Internet (Draft for Comment)" was again open for public comments.
In May of this year, the Central Civilization Office and other four departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Streaming Rewards and Strengthening the Protection of Minors", proposing to "prohibit minors from participating in live broadcast rewards" and "strictly control minors from engaging in anchors".
At present, the National Cyberspace Administration of China has guided the main platforms to launch the youth model, and stated that this year, in order to prevent minors from indulging in online work, the coverage of the youth model will be further expanded, and efforts will be made to cover all platform applications and all application functions. The characteristics and needs of minors in the age group are distinguished in terms of time limit, function settings, and content tools, so that the functions of the youth mode are more personalized and attractive.
"Security risk is a major challenge faced by minors using the Internet, and this is also a common problem faced by the world in the protection of minors online." Tong Lihua, director of the Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center, believes that from the perspective of legislative policy , China's network protection work for minors has developed rapidly.
In order to solve the problems of uneven Internet content and minors' addiction to the Internet, it is necessary to pay more attention to the implementation of specific policies.
Internet Platform Active Action
For Internet companies, it is their corporate responsibility to establish a protection mechanism for minors using the Internet.
Many platforms have taken positive action.
Since September last year, Douyin has launched strict anti-addiction measures for teenagers on the platform. In the teenager mode, users use the default mode for 40 minutes a day, and cannot use it from 22:00 to 6:00 the next day.
Douyin's "same city", "hot search" and other entrances will be hidden, and minors cannot use private message chat and live broadcast functions, let alone recharge and reward.
In June this year, the Kuaishou short video platform released the 2022 Kuaishou Minor Protection Report, and launched version 4.0 of the youth mode.
According to reports, the platform has carried out strict community supervision and governance of minors’ live broadcast appearances, rewards, “fan circle” marketing and other violations, prohibiting minors from live broadcast or rewarding, and strictly prohibiting anchors from inducing minors to consume. And opened a minor refund line.
In the past year, Kuaishou platform has cleared more than 5,000 related videos in response to hype or commercial activities such as children's beauty makeup and primary school students' makeup that use underage Internet celebrities as gimmicks.
At the beginning of the youth mode, the videos in this mode were generally monotonous.
In this regard, some experts pointed out that a "one size fits all" approach is not desirable.
The online platform should not only undertake the educational function of minors, but also safeguard the rights of minors to leisure and entertainment, and provide more high-quality content.
It is reported that the Kuaishou platform, together with the Palace Museum and the People’s Daily client, launched products such as “Forbidden City Knowledge Classroom”, and selected high-quality content in more than 40 fields such as education, popular science, musical instruments, and sports, and completed over 1.5 million video reviews. Let teens learn knowledge and relax while watching videos.
Xiang Yan, a professor at the Law School of Wuhan University, believes that the use of more accurate algorithm technology by Internet platforms to push content to minors who need this information can make short video content play a more important role in cultural education and guiding young people to establish correct values. large positive effect.
Schools and families take responsibility
To protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace, and to guide minors to use the Internet reasonably, we should also bring together efforts from multiple parties.
"The youth model of online platforms is technically regulated, but to solve the problem of minors' addiction to the Internet, we cannot rely solely on the technical level." Associate Professor Chen Chujie, School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University believes that the Internet is a dynamic field, and relevant departments , enterprises, schools, and parents also need to work together to promote and improve the network protection mechanism for minors, so as to better help young people develop civilized, healthy, and beneficial Internet usage habits.
Internet literacy education in schools is indispensable.
"How long do students use the Internet every day?" "How to get rid of Internet addiction?" Recently, Chongyuan School in Taishan District, Tai'an City, Shandong Province invited adolescent psychologists to come to the campus and hold lectures to explain to students how to live in daily life and Learn to use the network correctly and improve your awareness of network security.
After listening to the lecture, the students expressed that they should start from themselves, make the Internet a good friend on the way to their growth, jointly maintain network security, and create a clear and clean network space.
In the family, the correct guidance of parents is also very important.
"Parents should learn new science and new technologies with teenagers with an open mind." Zhao Xia, an associate researcher at the China Youth Research Center, believes that when teenagers access the Internet, parents should promptly perform their online education duties, install filtering software, and control the Internet. Time, but also to cultivate their own good Internet habits, to avoid giving children a bad example.
Our reporter Li Zhen