The person in charge of the Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate answered a reporter’s question on publishing a typical case of juvenile protection procuratorial public interest l

　　Cctv newsAccording to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s WeChat WeChat official account news, on February 25th, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate released a typical case of public interest litigation for the protection and prosecution of minors. What is the background of these typical cases? What are the characteristics? What measures will the procuratorial organs take in the next step to promote the work of public interest litigation for the protection of minors in emerging formats? The head of the Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (also known as the Juvenile Procuratorate) answered the reporter’s questions on related issues.

　　Q: What is the background of this typical case released by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate?

　　A: The Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress clearly put forward the requirements of protecting children’s legitimate rights and interests. It is the duty of procuratorial organs to practice the supreme leader’s thought of rule of law and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors to carry out public interest litigation for the protection of minors. In recent years, e-sports hotels, script killings, on-demand cinemas and other emerging formats have been welcomed by consumers, including minors, but at the same time, there are also blind spots in supervision and governance and potential risks that affect the healthy growth of minors. We publish these typical cases mainly based on the following considerations:

　　First, the need to implement the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC)’s deliberation opinions and strengthen the protection of minors. On October 28th, 2022, the 37th session of the 13th the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) listened to and considered the report made by the Procurator-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Zhang Jun, on the procuratorial work for minors, fully affirmed the effectiveness of procuratorial work for minors in recent years, clearly pointed out the difficulties and existing problems in performing their duties, and put forward opinions and suggestions on strengthening the professional construction of procuratorial work for minors and promoting the overall implementation of the "six protections". During the deliberation, the participants put forward specific opinions and suggestions on strengthening the protection of minors in the governance of emerging formats, pointing out that "the lack of supervision on the protection of minors’ rights and interests associated with emerging formats such as e-sports hotels and escape from secret rooms, as well as the overall planning of minors’ comprehensive assistance, legal popularization and other work forces, etc., require the joint participation of all forces." The release of these typical cases of public interest litigation for the protection of minors in emerging formats is the height of implementing the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC)’s deliberation opinions and strengthening legal supervision, and it is a powerful guide for the national procuratorial organs to do a good job in the procuratorial work of public interest litigation for the protection of minors in emerging formats.

　　The second is the need to pay more attention to the hidden dangers of minors’ protection in emerging formats. In handling cases, the procuratorial organs found that while the emerging business forms are developing rapidly and being welcomed by minors, there are certain regulatory blind spots and hidden dangers in the protection of minors. Some on-demand cinemas take personalization and privacy as their selling points, and the space is relatively closed, which is prone to illegal and criminal acts such as public security problems and sexual assault. Some blind boxes sold around primary and secondary schools are not marked with important information such as brand, manufacturer, address and implementation standards, and the product quality is shoddy. Some e-sports hotels accept minors’ unlimited access to the Internet, fail to truthfully register the identity information of check-in personnel, and illegally sell cigarettes and alcohol to minors. Some scripts used to kill business premises contain bloody, violent, horrible, superstitious content, and even interspersed with pornographic and drug-related plots, but the operators failed to fulfill their obligation to remind minors, resulting in the physical and mental health of minors being damaged, and so on.

　　The third is the need to unite social consensus and solve the dilemma of emerging business governance. At present, there are the following problems in the governance of emerging formats: first, the ownership of the industry is not clear. For example, e-sports hotel supervision involves market supervision, public security, cultural tourism and other departments, and issues such as overlapping functions affect the implementation of regulatory responsibilities. The second is that the industry norms are not perfect. For example, at present, the norms for VOD cinemas mainly focus on the fields of film screening and distribution, while the regulations such as the Measures for the Administration of Entertainment Places do not explicitly include VOD cinemas in the scope of supervision, which leads to the lack of law enforcement basis for administrative organs. The third is that the legal provisions are not clear. For example, e-sports hotel, as a new format, has no clear definition of industry attributes at present, and it is mainly managed according to the hotel industry, which leaves hidden dangers for minors to use online game equipment without restriction by staying in e-sports hotel. The fourth is that social attention is not enough. E-sports hotels, online booking rooms, on-demand cinemas, and blind boxes pose urgent risks to the protection of minors. However, from a national perspective, insufficient attention has been paid to the governance of emerging formats, resulting in insufficient protection synergy.

　　Q: What are the main working methods adopted by the procuratorial organs to carry out public interest litigation for the protection of minors in emerging formats, and what achievements have been made?

　　A: In the protection of minors in emerging business governance, local procuratorial organs have actively broadened the sources of clues, conducted in-depth investigation and evidence collection, accurately determined the objects of supervision, filed public interest litigation according to law, and cooperated to promote social governance, and achieved initial results.

　　First, give full play to the advantages of centralized and unified handling of juvenile procuratorial business and find supervision clues through multiple channels. For example, after CCTV’s "March 15 in Action" program exposed the chaos of blind boxes, Renqiu City Procuratorate of Hebei Province was keenly aware that the related problems might be universal, and immediately investigated the sales of blind boxes around the local campus, and focused on the outstanding problems in the blind box market, issued a procuratorial proposal to the market supervision department, and actively performed the supervision duties of public interest litigation.

　　The second is to organize expert seminars and industry hearings to fully unite the consensus of all parties. For example, the Minhang District Procuratorate of Shanghai held a seminar to invite functional departments, people’s supervisors, experts and scholars to explore the theoretical basis and practical path of standardized management of the scriptwriting industry in the secret room, and put forward opinions and suggestions on place safety, content grading, age-appropriate tips, identity inspection, employment constraints, mandatory reporting, etc. The Procuratorate of Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province organized a public hearing to discuss practical problems and governance countermeasures in view of the nature of e-sports hotels and the vague subject of supervision.

　　The third is to play the role of procuratorial public interest litigation and urge all parties to fully perform their duties. For example, in view of the fact that the supervision of on-demand cinemas involves multiple administrative departments, the Shanghai procuratorate issued and publicly announced procuratorial suggestions to the competent departments of the industry, and simultaneously copied them to the departments of market supervision and cultural law enforcement; Suqian City Procuratorate of Jiangsu Province filed a civil public interest lawsuit against the e-sports hotel, asking the e-sports hotel to prohibit the provision of Internet access services to minors, and publicly apologized in the national media. The court decision supported all the litigation requests of the procuratorate.

　　The fourth is to play the role of comprehensive judicial protection and promote "all management" with "I manage". For example, in promoting blind box governance, Renqiu City Procuratorate of Hebei Province not only promotes the administrative organs to perform their duties according to law through public interest litigation, but also promotes the family, school, society and government to form a co-governance pattern through judicial protection through social governance procuratorial suggestions, letters to parents, guiding schools to strengthen education guidance, and establishing linkage mechanisms.

　　Fifth, the introduction of local industry norms, collaborative governance to form a joint force. For example, the Minhang District Procuratorate of Shanghai, together with the five departments of public security, cultural tourism, market and fire protection, countersigned the measures for standardizing the management of the script killing industry in the secret room, and put forward special protection measures for minors such as exploring content grading, age-appropriate tips, checking the identity of minors, and standardizing time management.

　　Q: In the next step, what measures will the procuratorial organs take to push the emerging business forms to a new level?

　　A: Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Communist Party of China specifically emphasized "strengthening the legal supervision of procuratorial organs" and "improving the public interest litigation system". the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) also put forward clear requirements for the protection of minors in new formats in his deliberation opinions on the special report on unchecked work. In the future work, we will focus on the following aspects:

　　The first is to strengthen business guidance. Summarize the law of cases, refine the experience and methods, incorporate the procuratorial supervision of emerging formats into the relevant normative documents and guiding opinions of juvenile public interest litigation in a timely manner, and guide local procuratorial organs to improve the accuracy, standardization and effectiveness of handling cases.

　　The second is to promote the formation of a good atmosphere. We will strengthen publicity and guidance through various ways and means, such as continuing to carry out the activities of the rule of law into the campus, and co-producing and broadcasting the program "Guarding Tomorrow" with CCTV, so as to enhance the concern of the whole society about the protection of minors in emerging formats, raise the awareness of self-protection of minors, and prevent and resolve potential risks.

　　The third is to promote the cooperation and common governance of all parties. Adhere to supervision without substitution and offside, and further build consensus through seminars and expert argumentation; By introducing typical cases and analyzing special reports, we will strengthen communication with government supervision departments, strive to solve the blind spots in industry governance as soon as possible, fill in the shortcomings of social governance for the protection of minors, and strive to promote family, school, society, network and government protection with judicial protection and active performance of duties, so that "1+5>6= reality".