Pay attention to the online environment of teenagers: real-name authentication is discounted, and there are no restrictions on the lack of rewards

Source: People's Daily

Reporter Shi Yiqi

People's Daily ( 2021-03-22 Edition 07)

On the Internet, money has become a string of numbers, which can easily make teenagers overly "tip" out of following the trend, showing off and other psychology without knowing it; opening real-name authentication, identifying the identity of teenagers and other provisions conflict with the business interests of enterprises

The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors, which will come into effect on June 1, has a separate chapter on the "Protection of the Internet" for minors, which clearly stipulates that online product and service providers must not provide minors with products and services that induce their addiction

Readers and experts suggest that we strengthen supervision, urge Internet companies to take the initiative to perform the main responsibility of content management, provide high-quality content, and carry out normal operation of the background data push content of the youth model; parents should pay more attention to their children, take more care of them, and strengthen interest guidance

The China Internet Network Information Center recently released the 47th "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network", which shows that as of December 2020, the number of Netizens in China has reached 989 million, with 13.5% of Internet users aged 10 to 19 and 21% of students. Among them, the group of school-age teenagers has become one of the larger groups among netizens.

The Internet is an important way for young people to obtain information and understand the world, but the content on the Internet is uneven, and it is easy to cause harm to young people who are not yet mentally sound and have weak self-control. Many readers wrote to this newspaper, reflecting on the various problems that arise in the current process of young people on the Internet, calling on relevant parties to form a governance synergy to jointly create a positive and healthy Internet environment for young people.

Teen mode is useless, and the real-name authentication system is greatly reduced

"From the first day of winter vacation, children have been playing games with their mobile phones every day." Tu Minxia, a reader in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, whose child has just entered junior high school, has recently become obsessed with a mobile phone game that has been played for hours. This made Tu Minxia worried.

Online games are popular with teenagers, but parents are worried. According to the "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network", as of December 2020, the scale of online game users in China reached 518 million, accounting for 52.4% of the total netizens; the scale of mobile online game users reached 516 million, accounting for 52.4% of mobile phone netizens. Adolescents make up a large proportion.

In order to prevent teenagers from indulging in online games, the relevant departments require that online games must introduce a juvenile mode, restricting and regulating teenagers' online behavior in terms of use time, duration, function, and browsing content. However, during the investigation, the reporter found that there are many loopholes in the youth mode of some online games, and regulations such as the real-name system are useless.

Tu Minxia said that in order to prevent children from indulging in online games, she turned on teen mode and set a 4-digit password, and only by entering the correct password can the time limit of the game be lifted. But she soon discovered that children spend much more time playing games than the game claims to be. It turned out that the child spent a few dollars on an e-commerce platform to buy a tutorial to crack the teen mode of this game, and used some tool software to forcibly crack the password, which successfully lifted the time limit of the teen mode.

The reporter found that in addition to cracking the password, there are a variety of ways to bypass the teen mode, such as logging out first when the time comes, and then opening the use of tourist mode to play, or simply uninstalling the game, re-downloading and then installing. What's more, some online games have set UP VIP permissions, as long as you recharge a certain amount, you can get the privilege of lifting restrictions.

In addition to the youth mode, the relevant departments also clearly require that online games must be registered in real names to achieve the purpose of identifying the age of users. But in fact, many platforms, games, etc. are trying to circumvent this provision, some provide third-party account login methods to circumvent the real-name system supervision, and some require real-name registration, but only need to enter the ID card number, register with the parent's ID card number, and even find an ID number on the Internet at will, you can smoothly avoid supervision.

"Some online games not only do not strictly restrict the registration of teenagers, but actively obscure the identity of teenagers, intentionally or unintentionally target teenagers as target users, and induce them to indulge in online games." Chen Chen, a reader in Shanghai, said that the increasingly large group of young netizens contains huge commercial interests, and the provisions such as opening real-name authentication and identifying the identity of teenagers actually conflict with the commercial interests of enterprises, so some game operators are not active in implementing the real-name authentication system.

There is no regulation of live content, and there is no restriction on platform tipping

In recent years, live broadcasting has gradually become the outlet of the Internet industry, attracting a large number of netizens to watch, including many young people. However, some online platforms lack content control and supervision, opening the door to live broadcasts with soft pornography, violence and other natures, and the platforms are making a lot of money, but the youth group is deeply affected.

In accordance with the requirements of relevant departments, live streaming platforms shall build a content pool exclusive to teenagers and provide content suitable for teenagers to watch. However, the reporter found in the investigation that the youth model of some live broadcast platforms did not build an exclusive content pool, or the exclusive content pool appeared homogeneous and inferior. The reporter randomly opened a mobile phone live broadcast software with the top downloads, chose to enter the teen mode, and soon brushed a anchor scratching his head and dancing with pornographic meaning, which was obviously not suitable for teenagers to watch. In addition, there are also live videos of violence, terror and other content, indicating that the youth mode of this software does not actually carry out the screening and screening of live content.

In addition, some criminals use online live broadcasts to lure teenagers into obscene performances. The National Office of "Eliminating Pornography and Cracking Down on Illegal Activities" has previously announced a number of cases. For example, in the case of the "Pocket Entertainment" live broadcast platform investigated by the Public Security Bureau of Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, criminal gangs organized to lure minors into obscene performances, and the police successively arrested 112 criminal suspects in 15 provinces, rescued 36 minors, and frozen and seized more than 12 million yuan of funds.

"For problems such as playing pornography in online live broadcasts, the relevant departments should have zero tolerance and resolutely crack down on them according to law." Zhong Yihui, a reader in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, believes that on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and urge Internet enterprises to take the initiative to perform the main responsibility of content management, on the other hand, it is necessary to dig deep and thoroughly investigate, and severely punish lawbreakers and criminals according to law.

"My 14-year-old child likes to watch some natural and technological videos, but some platforms push rough content, poor content, and some even have common sense errors." Wang Zhaojing, a reader in Beijing, said that there are great differences in the content needs of teenagers of different ages, and if the platform pushes some error-ridden videos to teenagers to watch, it is likely to have a negative impact on children's learning.

In addition, many readers have made comments and suggestions on the issue of "tips" for teenagers when watching live broadcasts. Liu Qiguang, a reader in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, reflected that the youth mode of some live broadcast platforms is limited to watching live broadcast pages, but users can still tip at will, or enter the mall to consume. "Teenagers often lack a specific concept of money, especially on the Internet, money becomes a string of numbers, it is easy to make teenagers out of following the trend, showing off and other psychological excessive 'tipping' without self-awareness." Liu Qiguang said that in recent years, the news of teenagers tipping huge sums of money is not uncommon, in addition to further improving laws and regulations, we should also adopt certain restrictions on the use of payment functions by teenagers to solve this problem from the source.

Relevant departments should accurately implement policies, and enterprises and parents should also perform their respective duties

On June 1, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors is about to come into effect, in which a separate chapter on "network protection" for minors clearly stipulates that network product and service providers must not provide minors with products and services that induce them to become addicted; online game, online live broadcasting, online audio and video, online social networking and other network service providers shall set up corresponding functions such as time management, authority management, and consumption management for minors to use their services.

"The homogenization and inferiority of the content of the exclusive content pool for teenagers means that the content of the corresponding platform is limited, or does not meet the needs of teenagers, which is easy to promote them to have the idea of bypassing the restrictions of teen mode." Xu Zewei, secretary of the party committee of the Beijing Internet Finance Industry Association, said that in order to make online games and live broadcast platforms more friendly to teenagers, Internet companies should strictly implement the main responsibility, on the one hand, they must comply with relevant laws and regulations and regulatory departments, establish a youth model that really plays a restrictive role, on the other hand, they must also carry out normal operation of the background data and push content of the youth model, and provide high-quality content to form a positive interaction with users, and cannot be left alone.

"In addition to strengthening supervision, relevant departments must also accurately implement policies in the details of the implementation of the youth model." Xu Zewei believes that at present, the management of content suitable for teenagers to watch needs to be strengthened, "what content is what teenagers should watch and which should not be watched; which is suitable for 13-year-old children and which is suitable for 15-year-old children, there is a lack of clear definition." ”

Some Internet companies have reported that users have undergone real-name authentication before recharging games and live streaming "tips", and it is difficult for the system to define whether it is real-name authentication. In this regard, Yang Gangyuan, associate professor of the School of Journalism of Chinese Min University, suggested the introduction of face recognition technology, any user must open face recognition before making payment consumption, and only when the real-name authentication information and face recognition match, can they enter the next step of payment and consumption procedures.

"Even if the teen mode of every software works effectively, there will be new problems. For example, a software is limited to 40 minutes of use, but multiple software in the mobile phone is superimposed, and the total time spent on the Internet by teenagers is still uncontrollable, and it is difficult to solve the problem of addiction to the Internet. Yang Gangyuan suggested that whether it is possible to develop a software that summarizes the duration of use of various types of software in the mobile phone, analyze the actual use information of each software, and parents can also set the total duration in advance, and once the timeout is out, it can also be controlled remotely.

Li Kang, a reader in Wuhan, Hubei Province, believes that many parents either objectively lack understanding of the Internet, are not adaptable enough, or subjectively do not attract enough attention, fail to play the guardian's due diligence and assume responsibility, "parents should pay more attention to their children, more care, more interest guidance, after the emergence of problems can not blindly blame the game, live broadcast platform." In addition, schools should also take the initiative to play a role in paying attention to online quality education in relevant curricula to help young people correctly understand and use the Internet.