Recently, the Zhengding County Procuratorate of Hebei Province, relying on the vice principal of rule of law, explained the harmfulness of staying in e-sports hotels and related legal regulations to students in more than 30 middle schools in the jurisdiction by conducting questionnaire surveys, interpreting typical cases, and playing video popularization videos.
This is the first legal education class carried out by the Zhengding County Procuratorate in the new semester. The reason why the Zhengding County Procuratorate anchored the first legal education class of the new semester to the theme of "minors are prohibited from entering e-sports hotels" stems from a recent civil public interest litigation case handled by the court.
Source of clues: Minor scams are actually to pay for e-sports hotels
From March 23 to early April 2022, 17-year-old Zhang Moumou pretended to be a customer service staff of a credit company and made phone calls to defraud and drain traffic, causing others to be defrauded of more than 212,000 yuan. Zhang Moumou made a profit of 4,581 yuan. After the public security organs transferred the case for review and prosecution, the Zhengding County Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the court in accordance with the law. In April 2023, Zhang Moumou was sentenced by the court to one year and six months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan.
Like Zhang, 17-year-old Gao Moumou also impersonated the customer service staff of the credit company to commit fraud. From March to early April 2022, Gao Moumou defrauded others of 30,000 yuan and made a profit of 4,781 yuan.
Wang Moumou knew that Gao Moumou was defrauding and draining traffic by making phone calls, but still helped him withdraw more than 10,000 yuan and made a profit of 1,100 yuan. On November 30, 2022, the cases of Gao and Wang were concluded.
"We found in the handling of the case that when Zhang, Gao and others carried out illegal and criminal activities, they basically lived in an e-sports hotel in the jurisdiction, and carried out illegal and criminal acts such as making fraudulent calls and selling bank cards in order to pay for the e-sports hotel. Li Jing, deputy director of the First Procuratorate Department of the Zhengding County Procuratorate, told reporters.
The phenomenon of illegal reception of minors and even crime in e-sports hotels has aroused Li Jing's great attention. As the person in charge of the juvenile prosecution work of the Zhengding County Procuratorate, Li Jing sorted out the juvenile crime cases handled by the procuratorate since June 2022 and found that among the 14 juvenile crime cases, 7 cases involved minors had the experience of staying in e-sports hotels, and they were suspected of telecommunications network fraud, sexual assault and other crimes.
According to reports, e-sports hotels refer to a new type of accommodation format that provides e-sports entertainment services to consumers by setting up e-sports rooms. It originated in foreign countries, in recent years in the mainland large and medium-sized cities gradually emerged, mainly relying on e-sports games to provide consumers with e-sports venues and equipment and e-sports related services, generally divided into three categories: specialized e-sports hotels, ordinary e-sports hotels and e-sports online rooms, the core customer group is mainly post-90s, post-95s and other "netizen generation", men account for nearly ninety percent. Some industry insiders pointed out that the domestic e-sports hotel market has maintained a steady growth momentum in the past two years, and the number of e-sports hotels in the country has exceeded 20,000, and more than 40% of traditional hotels may be transformed into e-sports theme hotels in the future, and e-sports hotels will become the mainstream room types in the hotel segment.
Visit and research: 3 e-sports hotels received more than 700 minors in violation of regulations
"In the course of handling the case, we learned through visits to relevant departments that there are 5 e-sports hotels in the jurisdiction that have obtained special industry business licenses. We immediately conducted a thorough investigation into whether these esports hotels were illegally accepting minors. According to Li Jing, on September 27, 2022, the Zhengding County Procuratorate invited the county public security bureau to visit the above five e-sports hotels one by one, check the hotel facilities on the spot, obtain online and offline guest registration information, and through the analysis and screening of the identity information of tens of thousands of guests, it was found that 3 of the e-sports hotels actually received more than 700 minors in violation of regulations.
"During the visit, we also found that two children were absent from school and were playing games in their rooms at one of the esports hotels. Through inquiry, it was learned that the two children had stayed at the e-sports hotel with their friends many times to play games, and the guardian information provided was false. Li Jing told reporters that the rooms of the three e-sports hotels that illegally received minors are equipped with computers, beds, and toilets, some with 2 beds, and some with 3 to 5 beds, mainly providing Internet access services and accommodation.
"What's the difference between an esports hotel and a regular hotel?"
"E-sports hotels can play games, and the computer configuration is relatively high, which can meet the needs of guests to play games and surf the Internet. ”
"What do you think is the difference between an esports hotel and an internet café?"
"You can play games online. E-sports hotels are more private than Internet cafes, and you can rest in bed when you are tired of playing games. ”
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After learning about the relevant situation from the e-sports hotel operator, the procurator handling the case focused on questioning the 25 minors who could be contacted for multiple stays in the e-sports hotel, and collected evidence from the information channels for obtaining the e-sports hotel, the configuration of the e-sports hotel, the purpose of staying in the e-sports hotel, and whether the e-sports hotel provided unlimited Internet access services, and learned about the illegal facts of the e-sports hotel using high-quality e-sports Internet as a gimmick to solicit minors to stay and provide unlimited e-sports Internet access services, and infringe on the physical and mental health of minors. Through on-site inspections, the prosecutor handling the case ascertained the fact that all the rooms in the above three e-sports hotels were e-sports rooms.
On October 17, 2022, the Zhengding County Procuratorate visited and investigated the three problematic e-sports hotels again and found that they were still receiving minors online. The Zhengding County Procuratorate reported this clue and the results of the investigation to the Hebei Provincial Procuratorate. With the approval of the Hebei Provincial Procuratorate, in April 2023, the Zhengding County Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit against the three e-sports hotels involved in the case and performed the announcement procedure, and transferred the case to the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate after the announcement period expired.
The court ruled that e-sports hotels should place signs prohibiting minors in conspicuous places
"We request the court to prohibit the reception of minors in accordance with the law, hang a sign prohibiting minors from entering the hotel in a conspicuous position at the entrance of the e-sports hotel, and order a public apology in the national media in accordance with the law." "In June 2023, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit against the three e-sports hotels mentioned above in violation of regulations to accept minors and provide Internet access services, violating the minor's right to health and harming the public interest.
In October 2023, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court held a public hearing of the case. After trial, the court found that the defendant had received many minors since 2021 and provided e-sports game services, and some minors were suspected of committing crimes in the hotel. In the case that all guest rooms can provide e-sports entertainment services, the defendant's act of accepting minors to stay and providing e-sports game services not only infringes on the minors' right to health and other lawful rights and interests, affects the minors' physical and mental health growth, but also harms the public interests of the state and society, and the defendant, as the subject of the infringement, shall bear the civil liability of publicly apologizing to the public. According to article 58 of the Law on the Protection of Minors, operators of Internet access service business sites and other venues that are not suitable for minors must not allow minors to enter, and operators shall set up signs prohibiting minors from entering in conspicuous places. Therefore, the hotel should set up a sign prohibiting minors from entering in a conspicuous position.
In December 2023, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court issued a judgment in accordance with the law, ordering three e-sports hotels to prohibit the illegal reception of minors, and to set up signs prohibiting minors from entering the hotels in prominent places, and to publicly apologize in the national media within 30 days from the effective date of the judgment.
In order to promote the long-term governance of the new business format of e-sports hotels, the Zhengding County Procuratorate held a symposium with the county's public security, cultural tourism, market supervision and other departments to study and discuss issues such as the attributes of e-sports hotels, the division of regulatory responsibilities, and the basis for law enforcement, and jointly signed the "Linkage and Coordination Mechanism for the Protection of Minors in the Management of E-sports Hotels", which clarified that the public security organs are responsible for supervising the implementation of real-name registration and the "five musts" for minors to stay in e-sports hotels It is stipulated that the department of culture and tourism is responsible for supervising the implementation of the prohibition of receiving minors and hanging signs prohibiting minors from entering e-sports hotels, and the procuratorate is responsible for the transfer of clues and related coordination work. At the same time, the public security and other departments jointly carried out special governance of e-sports hotels in the county, and 13 hotels equipped with e-sports rooms in the jurisdiction have posted signs prohibiting minors from staying at them, and the operators have all clearly known that it is forbidden to receive minors, basically realizing zero check-in of minors in e-sports hotels, and effectively regulating the development of new forms of e-sports hotels.
In March 2023, Li Jing, a prosecutor from the Zhengding County Procuratorate in Hebei Province, carried out a legal popularization campaign related to prohibiting minors from staying in e-sports hotels in a school in the jurisdiction.
In addition, the Zhengding County Procuratorate continued to carry out campus law popularization activities, and issued supervision and guardianship orders to the parents of the 54 minors involved in the case who stayed in the e-sports hotel, informing them of the harm of e-sports games to the healthy growth of minors, and recommending that they strengthen supervision, understand the growth dynamics, and jointly promote the healthy growth of minors.
(Source: Procuratorate Daily, Future Weekly Author: Xiao Junlin)