Since the establishment of the court in September 2018, the Beijing Internet court has accepted a total of 76 cases of Internet disputes involving minors, of which 57 are cases of recharge and reward, accounting for 75%. This data comes from the report on the judicial protection of minors online (hereinafter referred to as the report) recently released by the Beijing Internet court. The report shows that the vast majority of minors in these cases have evaded family supervision and platform authentication measures. In addition to being the victims of network personality rights infringement, minors sometimes become the perpetrators of violations**
Most of the reward recipients are primary school students
According to the report, among the 76 cases, the youngest victim was only 5 years old, and the most victims were 8 to 16 years old, accounting for 86.8%. Of the 63 cases concluded, 74.6% were settled by mediation and withdrawal, and 22.2% were settled by judgment. From the specific dispute content of the case, the network disputes involving minors mainly focus on recharge reward, online shopping, infringement of personality rights and so on.
According to the report, recharge and reward cases also include game recharge, live broadcast reward and other types. The plaintiffs of the cases mostly claim that the recharge of minors is not effective and require the refund of the recharge. Among the 57 cases, the average target amount of game recharge cases was more than 84000 yuan, the average target amount of live reward cases was more than 69000 yuan, and the highest amount involved was 610000 yuan. Minors often start with simple access to online games and webcast, and then get a better entertainment experience through recharging and reward. Later, they develop into large-scale recharging and reward. Some minors also buy "game practice" services.
"Some minors deceive their parents to obtain electronic equipment on the grounds of online learning and normal entertainment, and some minors even steal their parents' equipment for entertainment consumption during their parents' rest time." Said Jiang Ying, vice president of the Beijing Internet court.
The reporter noted that in the typical cases released by the Beijing Internet court, the minors who recharge and reward are basically primary school students. They use their parents' mobile phones to register accounts, recharge games, reward anchors, and watch paid cartoons.
For example, Xiao Liu, a primary school student, without the knowledge of his parents, used his father's mobile phone number to register an account on the live broadcast platform operated by the defendant. He spent eight days recharging more than 40000 yuan to buy virtual gifts and rewards on the live broadcast platform. After the "east window incident", Xiao Liu's Guardian sued in the name of Xiao Liu, asking the court to confirm that the plaintiff Xiao Liu's recharge at the defendant was invalid and order the defendant to return the recharge. The court held that the plaintiff was a minor, and the high value recharge and reward he carried out was incompatible with his identity, age and economic status. Finally, under the auspices of the court, the parties reached a settlement, and the defendant agreed to return the plaintiff's recharge.
"In order to circumvent the platform's anti addiction measures and consumption restrictions, minors often register and log in with the guardian's or other adult's account. Some will delete the verification SMS prompt information after consumption in order to prevent being found. Some also purchase adult's account through the online shopping platform and purchase the recharge service." Jiang Ying said that minors have bypassed regulatory and certification measures, resulting in their consumption time of using online entertainment far exceeding the reasonable time of using the Internet stipulated by the state, and also causing Internet addiction.
Some platforms let go
The Beijing Internet Court pointed out that the cases involving minors involved online games, webcast, online video, online social networking, e-commerce and other types of platforms. The cases reflected that some relevant market players still need to be improved in terms of technical measures for the protection of minors, identity verification, information content construction, complaint handling mechanism and so on.
For example, in terms of identity verification, some network service providers' identity verification methods are relatively single, lacking dynamic verification methods other than collecting personal information. Some Internet service providers still indulge their recharge behavior after they may know that the user is a minor. Some Internet service providers provide game account purchase, recharge and other services on the e-commerce platform, which in fact facilitates minors to bypass the anti addiction measures of online games, and the e-commerce platform is poorly regulated.
The report shows that in recent years, Internet bullying involving minors and the infringement of personal rights such as personal information and privacy have attracted increasing attention. In the cases heard by the Beijing Internet court, minors have both victims and perpetrators of the above-mentioned violations. Some minors attack each other on the Internet due to school conflicts, expose others' portraits on short video platforms, social platforms, etc., or carry out verbal violence against others; Some minor parents criticize other students with extreme remarks in the class group because of the contradictions between their children and their classmates.
The reporter learned that under the influence of the "rice circle culture", some minors are keen on irrational star chasing behaviors such as listing, controlling and commenting, anti black competition, etc., and the anomie of online speech is more prominent. For example, in a case in which the reputation right of a star was infringed, there were minor defendants who used obviously extreme words to abuse the plaintiff and attack him personally. In the cases involving the infringement of minors' personality rights, it reflects that both minors and adults are lack of network literacy and awareness of minors' protection.
"In cases involving minors, most of the parties have shown a strong willingness to mediate and have achieved remarkable results in settling disputes." Jiang Ying said that the Beijing Internet court has established a priority mediation mechanism for juvenile cases and strengthened the whole process of mediation. The proportion of parties involved in mediation or self reconciliation under the auspices of the Court reached 74.6%.
Strengthen protection through multiple efforts
According to the statistical report on the development of China's Internet, by the end of 2020, the number of Internet users in China had reached nearly 1billion, the number of Chinese Minors had reached 183million, and the Internet penetration rate of minors had reached 94.9%.
How to strengthen minors' network protection? Jiang Ying suggested that parents, schools, relevant market entities and relevant departments should effectively shoulder their responsibilities.
Parents should improve their network literacy, guide minors to correctly use Internet protection software, intelligent terminal products, etc., manage personal electronic devices and payment accounts, earnestly perform their monitoring duties, and create a good home environment for Internet use;
Relevant market entities should strictly implement the requirements of laws and regulations, actively improve the deficiencies in technical measures, identity verification, content management, complaint handling, and actively provide network products and services that adapt to the laws and characteristics of the physical and mental health development of minors;
Schools should strengthen network literacy education for minors, strengthen communication with parents, and properly handle campus disputes;
Relevant departments should further strengthen the performance of functions, formulate relevant teaching indicators for network literacy, clarify the relevant technical standards or requirements for minors' online protection software and intelligent terminal products specially for minors, and determine the specific types, scope, judgment standards and prompt methods of information that may affect minors' physical and mental health as soon as possible.
It is understood that the Beijing Internet court attaches great importance to the protection of minors, adheres to the development direction of the professionalization of juvenile justice, and in May 2021 set up the country's first Internet juvenile court to focus on the trial of Internet disputes involving minors.
At present, the Beijing Internet court has formulated and issued the opinions on strengthening the judicial protection of minors' networks, put forward development plans in multiple directions, and comprehensively strengthen the level of minors' network protection. Focusing on the online judicial protection of minors, we will create the brand of "first mutual future", create a "first mutual future" virtual conversation room for minors, and use soft scenes to alleviate the tension and anxiety that may arise when the parties accept court inquiries. At the same time, through various ways, such as judging according to law, putting forward judicial suggestions, establishing a talent pool for Vice Principals under the rule of law, and issuing family education guidance orders, we have guided all subjects of the whole society to improve their awareness and level of network protection for minors.