At present, companionship service has increasingly become a new type of employment and consumption, and there are various forms of companionship, such as chatting, accompaniment, playing, and playing games...
However, in the process of accompaniment, there were some chaos, and even gray areas were involved, and there was no shortage of minors involved.
"Immersive experience, 300 yuan for 1 hour", "Watching movies, eating snacks, chatting, script killing", "Don't disturb if you don't know the rules"... Recently, on some content platforms and service platforms, there have been many businesses that advertise in the name of "board game teaching assistants" and "love experience", saying that they can provide services such as chatting, playing games, and love experience, and showing a large number of sexy beauty pictures on the detail page, many of which are maid outfits.
The experts interviewed suggested that it is necessary to be vigilant about possible pornographic violations in such services, and if there are pornographic services, they may be subject to criminal liability. At the same time, it is urgent to rectify this chaos, relevant departments should strengthen supervision, platforms need to improve the level of review, establish a credit punishment mechanism, and work together to purify cyberspace.
Chaos 1
The "Love Experience Hall" is clearly marked with a price that allows physical contact
The reporter searched on multiple platforms and found that there are many businesses named "Love Experience Hall", "First Love, ×× Teaching Assistant", "Hongyan Private Teaching Assistant", etc., claiming to provide services such as "board game teaching assistant" and "new experience".
Some businesses directly display a large number of pictures of sexy beauties, dressed quite revealing and tempting; Some businesses package the introduction of specific service items and the photos of the service provider in the network disk, and then share the mini program code of the network disk file with the customer, which can only be viewed after scanning.
How is it served? Some merchants are secretive, while others are clearly marked.
Enables customers to "explore"
When the reporter communicated online with a merchant who operated a "board game teaching assistant", the other party introduced that they provide "hazy feel service" and "extreme feel service", which allows customers to "explore to their heart's content". After repeated questioning, the other party told in detail that "hazy" refers to physical contact with the clerk through clothes, and "extreme" refers to direct physical contact.
In a "love experience hall" in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the "maid cinema" service provided by it is priced at 399 yuan at a time, and customers can have physical contact with the "maid" clerk.
There is even a "love experience hall" that divides "maids" into grades, and different levels of "maids" and services correspond to different prices. For example, 100 yuan to 400 yuan is a junior maid, you can accompany you to play games, and you are allowed to hold hands, hug, hug your waist, etc.; 400 yuan to 600 yuan for intermediate maids, can kiss, touch, etc.; 700 yuan to 800 yuan for senior maids, can go deep into the hug, kiss, feeding, etc. The merchant said: Pornography, gambling and drugs are strictly prohibited in the store.
The reporter recently contacted a "love experience hall" on the grounds of applying for a "maid" job, and the store introduced the work content: put on makeup every day, change into the uniform of the maid provided by the store, and stand at the door of the store to welcome customers. "Is it acceptable to kiss, hug, touch and other physical contact behaviors? The store has an escort service, and the store is only responsible for handing over the customer to you, and the store is not responsible for the specific matters after going out. The store said.
Wu Xin (pseudonym) from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, almost became a "maid" after the college entrance examination. She originally wanted to find a part-time job to earn some pocket money, but found that a shop called "Maid Teaching Assistant Hall" on the online platform was recruiting part-time jobs for a long time, so she went for an interview. "The interviewer told me directly that the labor fee is 350 yuan per hour, and there will be different degrees of physical contact. There are quite a few people like you in the store. Wu Xin recalled, she was so frightened that she hurriedly ran away.
Cao Yu (not her real name), who works in Beijing, used to work as a "maid" in such shops. She told reporters that "maids" are divided into grades, and the higher the rank, the higher the salary. "Although customers were not allowed to have physical contact with the store staff at that time, everyone knew it."
The reporter searched for keywords such as "maid" and "maid shop" on a content platform, and a large number of drainage copywriting and check-in videos of visiting the store popped up in the search results. Flipping through the sharing content of the top 50 users under the keyword "maid shop", the main content is to share daily and recruitment information in the "maid shop", and 18 users share content for selfies and other photos of women dressed in sexy and cute eyes, and the camera is often aimed at women's legs, chests, buttocks and other body parts.
When the reporter asked, "Can I experience it if I am under the age of 18", three businesses said "it's okay". It was revealed that some merchants knew that the other party was a minor, but still accepted him to work in the store as a "maid".
It is an illegal act of paid escort
How to define this kind of "maid" playing?
Jiang Baoliang, director of Shandong Deheng Law Firm, said that the behavior of "chatting", "accompaniment" and "companionship" in exchange for remuneration through "emotion" and "entertainment" is a typical "paid escort". The Regulations on the Administration of Entertainment Venues stipulate that entertainment venues and their employees shall not provide or engage in the act of providing or engaging in escorts for the purpose of making profits, and shall not provide conditions for persons entering the entertainment venues to carry out the aforementioned acts. In case of violation, the public security department shall confiscate the illegal gains and illegal property, and order the suspension of business for 3 to 6 months; where the circumstances are serious, the entertainment business license is revoked, and the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel are to be fined.
Dong Yuanyuan, a senior partner of Beijing Tiantai Law Firm and executive director of the Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Research Association, analyzed that the law clearly prohibits the provision or engagement of for-profit escorts, and the so-called love experience services with physical contact have gone beyond the scope of playing "edge ball" and belong to "paid escorts". In addition, she raised the need to be vigilant against the possibility of prostitution in such services.
Chaos 2
There is no review mechanism for "Companion Games" registration
In the second half of 2021, the Comprehensive Management Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) interviewed platforms such as "Bixin", "Xiaolu Playing" and "Hello Voice", and some APPs were required to be removed from the shelves for rectification. It wasn't until June 2022 that some apps were re-launched after rectification.
The reporter's recent investigation found that the "playing" service, which has returned to people's field of vision, has a new trick. Whether it is an application software or a companion studio, there are still all kinds of irregularities - minors provide game companion services in the APP, and even some application software provides offline paid dating services in the name of "playing together".
Open any companion APP, and the interface will appear with the companion service options for various games. Game playing, as the name suggests, is to accompany users to play games. One is that the game itself has a high level and can take users to "score points"; The other is more entertaining, mainly in the process of playing the game to liven up the atmosphere.
One gamer said: "When we only had three or four people before, if there was a shortage of people, we would go to someone else to play the game with, and find someone with better technology. Sometimes it's just a pastime, I don't care if I play well, I just want to play games with someone. At most, the payment reached more than 1,000 yuan a day. If you play well in the game and can chat, you will definitely win or lose when you play the game. If you keep losing, the atmosphere is not good, and he will adjust the atmosphere. ”
The reporter logged in to several companion play apps, and the price of simply playing games ranged from a few yuan to dozens of yuan per game. Some apps allow you to pay directly, while others require you to top up and convert them into in-game currency. Users can see which game characters the service provider is good at, and they can also choose the gender of the service provider to play with.
The gamer said: "Each app will show you what games you are looking for, or what type of game you are looking for, and there are options on it, as long as it is female or as long as it is male, it is okay." In the past, when I played "League of Legends", it ranged from 20 yuan to 80 yuan per hour, and if you need to top up money, you need to convert some coins in the APP. ”
However, in the process of registration and login, these APPs do not have any review mechanism, and the reporter filled in an age at will, and successfully completed the registration. In the so-called masked dating session, the reporter also connected to a 17-year-old high school student who could provide companionship.
Chaos 3
The chat group is secretly greasy, and it is not a secret in the industry that it is involved in pornography
On these apps, there are not only games to play, but also functions such as making friends. A college student who used to play games with him and now mainly provides accompanying singing services said that the platform will have a high commission for receiving orders through the APP, so many users will transfer to social platforms to contact.
"Play" job advertisements require an age of 15+
"I used to play with people, and now I'm on music lists. If you ask to play with you, most of them are on the social platform, because the direct recharge is to deduct the handling fee, and then the person who plays with you will also have to deduct the handling fee after receiving the payment, and the platform has a high commission. After discussing with the companion, transfer money through social platforms. ”
This means that it is more difficult to regulate. The reporter searched through social platforms and found that there are many recruitment advertisements similar to "playing", requiring an age of 15 years or older, and after joining these groups or sending a single group, you can take orders.
On a social platform, searching with keywords such as "playing", the reporter saw that there were many posts that wrote "looking for a boss" and "being able to take orders". A user named "Plop is very soft" posted that he was playing with him, but the picture was accompanied by two pictures of his legs in stockings, and a screenshot of the chat, which showed that the "boss" asked to play with him to provide sexual services, and then had a video chat with the play for more than 4 minutes.
There will always be advertising posts for play groups in the comment area of these "boss" companion posts. Following the information in the comment area, the reporter joined a playback group. The administrator has set up a ban for all, and the name of the group owner and each administrator is "Place an order for private chat, and look at the menu privately". The reporter tried to contact one of them, and the other party sent two pictures, the first picture is the type and price of the accompanying service: 148 yuan per 10 minutes for playing with your face, 228 yuan for every 10 minutes for playing with your face, and you also need to pay a deposit of 30 yuan, and you can hang up within 1 minute if you are not satisfied with the choice of playing, add 30 yuan to replace people, and do not return or change if you exceed the time, and you can not record the screen or watch it by multiple people in the process, and you will not be refunded if you hang up directly.
And the content of the second picture is even more wrong - the picture says that the types of services are divided into "green class" and "TS class", and the "green class" has "entertainment to play, girlfriend to play, technology to play...", as well as sleep, wake up, "baotian" and other services. The "TS class" next to it is a service type such as "Wenai, additional projects", and only after the customer service explanation did I know that they are all pornography-related projects.
Use pinyin and letters to avoid sensitive word detection
In the companion apps downloaded from the app store, almost all have a sensitive word detection system, if the words contain words such as "offline" and "about", they will fail to be sent, and the platform will prompt "the copy contains sensitive words" or directly warn. However, this is difficult to play with, and they can communicate with the initials of pinyin to circumvent it. After selecting a game and placing an order, players can also choose to add a game friend to a private chat or connect to the microphone through voice software.
On a certain APP, a number of companions took the initiative to greet reporters, and all said that they could "h" and "sp", etc., and only after further inquiry did they learn the "deep meaning": players can choose not to play games, but to engage in pornographic text or voice chat, or even direct video naked chat.
As the investigation deepened, the reporter learned that many of the companions had joined the guild. There is also a special person in the guild who is responsible for docking the list involving yellow requirements (they are called h orders), if the customer has relevant needs, the list will be directly transferred to the companion who does this kind of order, according to the voice or video price, mostly 10 minutes of dozens of yuan to more than 100 yuan.
H alone is no secret in the industry. Ms. Zhang, who has been playing with a platform for a long time, told reporters: "There are many orders on the platform, and you can find them by looking for them through the code." Some don't even need to deliberately look for them, they can be found by brushing them in the square. ”
"Although the platform prohibits pornography, it is inevitable that some players will use the platform as a pedal to reach illegal transactions." For example, "Li Baibai, a netizen who has been engaged in playing with him", said that in the process of playing games with him, he is often asked whether he provides a "special order".
In addition to online companionship, there are many offline options for companionship. On an app called "Panpan Tenants", in addition to the game companion function, the most advertised service is the "Tenants" service, where the avatars of the service providers are all young girls, and the price is as high as four to five hundred yuan per hour.
specification
The chaos in the industry calls for regulatory platforms to be held accountable
Data shows that the scale of the domestic game companion market will exceed 14 billion yuan in 2021, but in the eyes of many game developers, the development of companion play is still fragmented and niche, and all kinds of chaos in the development process make it remains to be seen whether this role can grow into a long-term "career".
Luo Peiyu, a game developer, introduced: "For accompanying play, I think there are two things to look at: one is to treat it as a labor service, which is normal; The second is some edge rubbing and adverse events caused by this service. Companion play is a 'service' that must be legally compliant and develop healthily within the scope of the law. I think that playing with you can only be a part-time job at present, and whether it can become a long-term 'career' depends on the subsequent development of this industry. ”
A service economy research expert believes that in recent years, there have been many types of "companion +" service consumption, and game companion play, as a derivative service of the video game industry, provides services through digital virtual channels, which makes it challenging to formulate standards, norms and policy supervision. Xu Dongyi, a lawyer at Beijing Weiheng Law Firm, believes that the platform should first assume the main responsibility.
At the level of industry norms, in 2019, the E-sports Branch of the China Communications Industry Association issued the "China E-sports Sparring Trainer Standard" to regulate game companion practitioners. In addition, at the end of 2022, the association will also launch the e-sports vocational skills recognition examination platform. However, according to Zhang Shule, an analyst in the game industry, these specifications and assessments have not become a "plus" when it comes to actually providing services. At present, the massive and low-cost companion services make the "ceiling" of the industry very obvious, and only by transforming in the direction of "skills and specialization" can the companion play industry achieve greater development.
Zhang Shule said: "At the beginning, the goal was to take the public players as a consumer subject, so we set up 'playing together'. But in fact, this industry should change 'play' to 'practice'. For example, boxing, there are coaches to guide the movements, improve the user's personal skills, e-sports is a kind of sports, and the relevant departments have also introduced similar management methods and related qualifications for playing or sparring professions, which actually represents the encouragement of such a career direction. ”
Be wary of minors being involved
For the "Love Experience Hall", the reporter contacted some relevant platforms, and the staff said that the platform has two ways to verify the qualification of merchants: machine and manual, and merchants need to provide ID cards, formal business licenses, etc., and sign a compliance agreement with the platform.
"However, there is still a lack of a clear set of standards for how the materials uploaded by merchants can be regarded as 'rubbing edges' or 'pornography', and the platform is also 'crossing the river by feeling the stones'." said the platform staff.
"The Law on the Protection of Minors prohibits sexual assault and harassment of minors, and prohibits coercion, enticement, or instigation of minors to engage in illegal and criminal activities." Dong Yuanyuan, a senior partner at Beijing Tiantai Law Firm and executive director of the Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Research Association, said that it is illegal for businesses to lure or instigate minors to accept pornographic services provided by them.
A number of interviewed experts pointed out that for such violations of laws and regulations, contrary to social order and good customs, the rule of law and the rule of ethics need to work together, and the regulatory authorities should adhere to strict law enforcement and accountability for violations, increase the cost of illegal business, and further enhance the guiding role of values and establish a good social custom.
In Jiang Baoliang's view, online platforms are not only the supervised party, but also should bear more responsibilities to assist in supervision, and the platform should bear the responsibility of not reviewing and approving the publicity that clearly violates laws and regulations, and removing and cleaning up the illegal products or businesses that have been made public in a timely manner.
Integration: Yifuhong