Should minors play with each other？ How to manage it？

　　Wu Shuting/Comics

　　Core tips

　　◆ Minors engaged in e-sports play may lead to indulging in online games and affect their normal study and life.

　　◆ There are personal safety risks when minors play offline. If they encounter criminals, they may also face security problems such as being molested and injured.

　　◆ Law enforcement agencies should strengthen supervision and severely crack down on businesses that attract minors to provide escort services.

　　◆ At the platform level, we must strengthen the examination in the registration process, and strictly implement one certificate and one number on the basis of real-name registration system.

　　Playing with games, also called "playing with them", is a way for game experts to help novices improve their skills. In recent years, with the rapid development of China’s game industry, the game play industry stands out with the gradually expanding market demand and user base. According to the data, the domestic game play market has exceeded 14 billion yuan as early as 2021, which is the fourth track in the e-sports industry except games, live broadcasts and events. As a rapidly developing emerging format, the game play industry has also seen some discordant scenes in the process of vigorous development. Through investigation, our reporter found that there are chaos in this field, such as lax real-name authentication and minors engaged in accompanying play, which directly affects the healthy development of the game accompanying play industry. Why do these chaos exist in the game play industry? How to govern? The reporter interviewed industry insiders and experts in related fields.

　　Who’s playing along?

　　At three o’clock in the afternoon, Lulu (pseudonym), who just got up, simply tidied up the desktop, ate the takeaway quickly, and began to get busy with her work — — First release the game record on a short video platform, and then wait for the player to "take the initiative to come to the door". As a full-time game player, Lulu’s monthly income is not fixed. According to her description, she can earn 10,000 yuan a month in good times, but only enough to maintain a basic life in bad times. "Most players are online at night, and it will be almost five or six o’clock the next morning. Our profession is mainly difficult to find customers. If we are unlucky, we won’t get a single order a day. If you are lucky, you can also get a big order to play with a boss for a day … …” When talking about future plans, Lulu told reporters that although the working hours of playing games are relatively free, it is not a long-term solution after all, and I will find other jobs in the future.

　　Unlike Lulu, Xiaoxiao (a pseudonym) is still a high school student. Because she is still in school at ordinary times, she can only use her evenings and weekends as a part-time companion. He told reporters that he wanted to be an escort, so he joined the escort guild through the recruitment platform (the escort management organization responsible for taking orders or dispatching orders). The reason why he chose the escort guild was not only because the time was relatively free, but the most important thing was that the escort guild could avoid auditing mechanisms such as real-name authentication of the escort platform. "The person in charge of the guild will post the user’s demand for ordering to the playgroup every day, including information such as game level and price. Interested companions can find the person in charge to sign up, and the person in charge will pull the users and companions into the WeChat group. After that, with the audition in the group, the user can choose to play with the intention and go black. " Xiaoxiao told reporters that he wanted to earn some pocket money when playing with him. When the reporter asked if playing with him would affect his academic performance, he just smiled and didn’t answer.

　　The reporter randomly downloaded a companion App in the mobile app store. You only need to complete the user registration to enter the game companion home page. Players can quickly filter the companion according to the game category, and even click on the companion avatar to communicate with each other online. After that, the player can purchase the corresponding game currency and place an order independently.

　　Some voice chat software will also open a companion channel, and after entering the channel, you can register as a companion. Mr. Zhang, the owner of a channel’s companion shop, told the reporter that most of the people engaged in companion play are young people around the age of 20. They are young, playful, quick-witted, receptive and healthy, and some people can even take orders for several days without sleeping. When asked whether there are minors playing games to accompany them, he told reporters: "Quite a lot. After all, our channel is different from the shops operated by entities. Almost all the shops that accompany them have only one assessment of accompanying them, that is, game technology. You don’t have to look at your face to play online, and your voice can be changed with a voice changer. "

　　Lack of supervision of minors to play with.

　　In the survey, the reporter tried to search with keywords such as "game play" and "king play" on the e-commerce platform, and found some online stores that operate game play. After contacting the customer service, the reporter got a detailed account of the store’s operation. In the details, the store divided the play into two types: technical play and entertainment play. The technical play mainly led the players to score points, while the entertainment play also provided emotional services such as chatting and sleeping.

　　After further investigation, the reporter found that although there is an age limit of 18 years old when registering on the platform, there is no review mechanism for the follow-up of the platform, and the actual age of users cannot be verified. When applying for playing as a technical companion, although the platform requires the applicant’s real-name authentication, one real-name authentication can bind multiple accounts, and the true identity of the end users of these accounts is unknown. These "grey areas" bring difficulties to the follow-up supervision. What’s more, underage playmates will be used by criminals and become accomplices of crimes.

　　Xiaohua (a pseudonym), a minor, is the defendant in an online fraud case handled by the prosecutor of Dantu District Procuratorate in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province. She has been living with her father since her parents divorced. The economic situation at home is not very good, which makes her eager to earn some pocket money in high school, so she uses her spare time to play games. Xiaohua’s father doesn’t know much about the play industry and doesn’t interfere too much. After joining the play association, Xiaohua, at the request of accomplice Xu and others, diverted users to the live broadcast platform during the game play to help criminals implement online fraud.

　　In August 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Indulging in Online Games, demanding that the time for providing online game services to minors be strictly limited. All online game enterprises can only provide online game services to minors for one hour from 20: 00 to 21: 00 every day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and they are not allowed to provide online game services to minors in any form at other times, and strictly implement the requirements for real-name registration and login of online game users’ accounts.

　　Zhang Shuqin, a representative of the National People’s Congress who has been engaged in education for a long time, told the reporter that playing with minors in e-sports may lead to their addiction to online games and affect their normal study and life. Being immersed in the virtual world for a long time is not conducive to the healthy growth of minors. "There are still personal safety risks for minors to play offline. If they encounter criminals, they may also face security problems such as being defamed and injured. It is not even excluded that some merchants or e-sports players use the name of soliciting to play."

　　How to control minors to play with?

　　Then, how to deal with the problems such as the lack of strict real-name authentication and minors engaged in accompanying play?

　　Du Jiangyong, an associate professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the reporter that the platform level must strengthen the examination in the registration process. On the basis of compacting real-name registration system, one certificate and one number should be strictly implemented, and suspicious accounts can be temporarily suspended through voice reminders and SMS phone reminders. At the same time, face recognition technology can be used in a wider range. Although most games need real-name authentication at present, it is difficult to achieve the purpose of regulation only by inputting identity information. The application of face recognition can accurately screen minors who are engaged in game play. In addition, the competent authorities of the industry should intensify investigation and punishment. Once there is a game play platform to hire minors to play with, even involving pornography and crimes, they must be severely punished according to law to form a deterrent. Du Jiangyong also suggested that a credit rating classification management mechanism should be established for the platform, and the existing risks should be marked according to the credit rating. When the accompanying App or the accompanying shop reaches the minimum credit rating, it can adopt punishment methods such as automatic cancellation. Law enforcement agencies also need to strengthen supervision, verify the age of the accompanying players on the platform, and repel the minors.

　　Chen Xiao, a lawyer of Beijing Horizon Law Firm, said: "It is necessary to integrate legislation, supervision, platform, schools and families to jointly build a good protection for minors ‘ Protective wall ’ . First of all, the legislative department should improve the standard system and classify the accompanying play platform into the business place of Internet service; Secondly, law enforcement departments should strengthen supervision and severely crack down on businesses that attract minors to provide escort services. In addition, platforms and businesses should also fulfill the obligation of auditing and checking, and minors are prohibited from providing companionship services. "

　　Pan Helin, executive director of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, believes that at present, game play is mostly a matchmaking transaction rather than a platform management. If the relevant platform can turn the game player into a real employee, once it violates the rules, it will directly punish the platform, which will greatly enhance the deterrent effect on the industry.