Today, the mainland's game companion industry has become the fourth track in the e-sports industry besides games, live broadcasts and events. At the same time, some minors bypassed the real-name authentication of the platform to participate in accompanying play, and some people engaged in illegal transactions in the name of game companion play. Experts said that in order to accompany the standardized development of the industry, platforms should strengthen review and improve bottom-line supervision.
Entering July, summer vacation arrives, and playing online games has become a part of the summer life of many minors. With the rapid development of the Internet economy, the game companion industry has also quietly emerged. According to statistics, in 2021, the size of China's game companion market exceeded 14 billion yuan, becoming the fourth track in the e-sports industry besides games, live broadcasts and events.
The so-called companion play is to accompany users to play games and provide interactive services in games for online game players. The reporter's investigation found that the order can be placed through the companion platform or the accompanying group, and the form of companion play is not limited to game technology to accompany play, but also entertainment accompaniment, etc., among which a large number of minors participate, and some companion play business involves gray areas.
In this regard, experts believe that on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the level of review, strengthen the whole process tracking and dynamic sensing of the companion service, on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the bottom-line supervision, once violations are found, they should establish a blacklist system and unite various platforms to form a credit punishment sharing mechanism.
Minors evade real-name authentication and participate in accompanying play
Opening an application mall on the mobile phone, the reporter searched with "accompaniment" as the keyword and found dozens of related applications. The reporter randomly downloaded several apps, and when entering the platform homepage, you can see that the types of games covered mobile games and terminal games, including a number of popular game categories on the market.
If players want to find a companion service, many platforms need to top up tokens first and place orders in the form of tokens. According to the user's requirements and different levels of companion play, the price of a game ranges from a few yuan to tens of yuan, and there are also billed according to the time of play.
It is worth noting that although players need to meet the age limit of 18 when registering on the platform, the reporter found that the review mechanism of many platforms is relatively loose, the actual age of users cannot be verified, and a large number of minors take orders to become companions.
"When applying for companion play, although many platforms now require applicants to authenticate their real names, there will still be cases where minors borrow other people's accounts to participate in companion play." Han Chao (pseudonym), who is engaged in full-time game companionship, told reporters that there are also people who avoid real-name authentication by joining the game companion group, "The so-called companion group is to form a group through online recruitment of skilled companions, and the administrator of the group will send orders centrally, which makes the companion play basically out of platform control, and the only entry criterion is hard technology."
Ms. Ma, a gamer, said that she often ran into minors when looking for companions on social platforms, "This line often needs to stay up all night, and I have met children skipping class to play with them." Ms. Ma said.
Make a "special" deal in the name of companionship
It is understood that there are two main types of users who play with games, one is game technology to accompany play, and the other is entertainment to accompany play, mainly based on dating interaction.
Open the homepage of the companion on a companion app to see that it will not only indicate their game level and the game role they are good at, but also describe their own personality and talents, and the companion will attach a few seconds of voice self-introduction. In the category of user evaluation, in addition to "technical level", "service attitude" and "sound texture" are included.
When the reporter joined the companion room of a platform, the owner "Mo Xi" told the reporter that the female companion in the entertainment is more "delicious", and its requirements are young, good voice, interaction, and preferably high appearance.
"It doesn't matter if the female escort plays well or not, the most important thing is to provide good service and satisfy the boss." "Mo Xi" said. When the reporter asked what services were available for entertainment, the other party sent the reporter a list through a private chat, which listed items such as whole wheat singing, game interaction, and coquettish confession.
According to Han Chao, because the platform has a commission system, the money received by the companion usually has to deduct the handling fee, so many people will choose to communicate with the boss and privately contact and transfer money through social software. In this regard, "Mo Xi" said cryptically: "We pull more music lists online, that is, simply singing, but after you contact the boss offline, what you are willing to play is your own business." ”
Li Ming (pseudonym), who has been engaged in the companion play industry for many years, pointed out that although the platform will now issue timely warnings through sensitive word detection, there will always be people who use the companion play as an intermediary to reach some "special" transactions through abbreviations, abbreviations, etc.
"For example, the price of an ordinary face show photo is about 30 yuan, the specified action and posture is 100 yuan, and some video face show projects (SP for short) will cost more." Li Ming said that in addition, many yellow-related companion projects will be replaced by abbreviations to facilitate "safe" communication between bosses and companions, such as "KP" and "Wen Ai" refer to the pornographic chat of voice and text respectively, and even some people will develop from online companion play to offline companion play.
In this regard, Han Chao told reporters that "yellow orders" are an open secret in the companion industry, "In chat groups or many platform halls, there are people receiving such orders, usually their homepage will attach some more exposed pictures, users through the code to find people is not difficult." ”
Strengthen the review mechanism and improve bottom-line supervision
"Where there is demand, there is a market. The first thing to be sure is that the companion industry has a positive effect on esports enthusiasts. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said of the companion industry, "At the same time, we should focus on two issues, one is the participation of minors, and the other is to be vigilant about playing as an intermediary providing pornographic services or other marginal services." ”
Zhao Liangshan, a senior partner at Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm, said that the mainland's Cybersecurity Law, the Law on the Protection of Minors, the Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, and the Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Games all put forward clear requirements for minors' game access and anti-addiction. At the same time, if you use escort to engage in pornography, gambling, fraud, obscenity and other transactions, and cover up illegal purposes in a legal form, it is also suspected of breaking the law and committing crimes.
As early as 2021, in accordance with the requirements of the notice on online game addiction prevention, relevant departments in many places concentrated on punishing a number of illegal enterprises and platforms, and ordered them to make in-depth rectification on relevant issues, and concentrated on cleaning up illegal information and accounts.
In this regard, Wang Sixin, vice president of the Institute of Community of Human Destiny, Communication University of China, believes that in order to standardize the development of the companion play industry, from the technical point of view, the platform needs to strengthen the review, through the combination of human review and machine review, establish a full-process tracking and dynamic sensing system for the companion service, form a complete response mechanism, and seriously implement relevant policies and regulations; At the same time, each platform should smooth the feedback process for follow-up complaints and reports, and when necessary, coordinate and cooperate with law enforcement departments, and promptly deal with violations once discovered.
Zhu Wei believes that the companion industry should improve the bottom-line supervision. "Bottom-line supervision is also credit supervision, once violations are discovered, penalties should be strengthened and business banned for life." This is similar to a blacklist system, once the problem account is discovered, not only should it be permanently banned, but all its registered accounts should no longer enter the relevant industry. "At the same time, an interconnected credit punishment sharing mechanism should be established between various platforms to form a joint force to punish and deal with illegal accounts." ”