On December 23, 2023, the "Fifth National Survey Report on the Internet Use of Minors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the Ministry of Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Minors of the Communist Youth League and others shows that by the end of 2022, the scale of underage Internet users in China has reached 19.3 billion people, and the Internet penetration rate of minors has reached 972%, almost saturated.
In the face of such a large group of "no one without the Internet", what measures can be taken to truly protect minors? This needs to be answered by every adult.
The protection of minors online is not a new topic, especially in recent years with the rapid development of the Internet, which has become a hot topic of attention for all parties. From green content and Internet addiction to personal information protection and Internet literacy, the protection of minors online has been rolled out in an all-round way. In order to make the protection of minors more effective and in-depth, it is necessary to make up for the shortcomings of online protection, and make efforts to deepen and solidify it, so as to achieve a qualitative leap in online protection.
Five New Risk Points The protection of minors online still needs the attention of all parties
The report not only shows the characteristics of the times of underage netizens, but also shows us the five new risks facing the protection of minors online, which need to be paid attention to by all parties.
Minors in rural areas are at greater risk of using the Internet. According to the report, the gap between urban and rural minors' Internet access levels has continued to decrease, with a difference of 5 from 20184 percentage points to 2022, a difference of 10 percentage points, which means that the gap between urban and rural Internet access has been closed. The proportion of rural minors who use mobile phones as Internet access devices and play games with mobile phones is more than that of urban minors, and the proportion of urban minors who use mobile phones to watch short** and live broadcasts is close to that of urban minors, but there is a large gap between them and urban minors in terms of safety and precaution awareness. Rural parents have a weaker awareness of their children's online protection and are even weaker in their ability to protect them. Some rural parents buy mobile phones for their children in order to reward them for doing well in exams, only to find that their children are out of control when they play with mobile phones. Some rural parents said that they thought they had managed their children's mobile phones, but they didn't expect their children to save breakfast money to buy second-hand mobile phones to play.
The use of the Internet by minors living in schools is easily overlooked. According to the report, the proportion of minors living in schools who are dependent on the Internet is higher, and the proportion of minors who feel very dependent or somewhat dependent is about 12-16 percentage points higher than that of guardianship who live with both parents, one parent, or relative. The proportion of minors who live in school to use mobile phones for more than 5 hours during holidays is 14-17 percentage points higher than that of guardianship with both parents, one parent, or relatives. However, many parents place their hopes on the school for the management of their children's mobile phones, and even find relationships to let their children live in the dormitory, thinking that the school can control their children's Internet use. Many children are more affected by the lack of management of boarding schools or the compensatory "bad compensation" when they return home.
The new smart device is easy to protect the blind spot. According to the report, the proportion of new smart devices such as smart watches, smart desk lamps, dictionary pens, and tablet learning machines among minors has increased compared with 2021, especially children's smart watches, which have reached 40%. Looking around, we will see that many children are wearing smart** watches. The watch has a variety of functions, the built-in APP is dazzling, and some APP content and functions are very unsuitable for minors. There are also tutoring machines and electronic dictionaries whose content is pornographic and violent, and some smart desk lamps can be directly linked to *** watches, desk lamps, and dictionaries are no longer watches, desk lamps and dictionaries in the traditional sense......However, nearly half of parents are unaware of these risks and ignore the potential blind spots when buying new smart devices for their children.
Lack of guidance on e-learning features. According to the report, minors learning through the Internet has become a far leading online activity, with more than 20 percentage points higher than playing games, watching, chatting and other activities. The proportion of people who believe that the Internet has a positive impact on learning has also increased by 24 percentage points compared to 2018, which shows that the Internet generation has become accustomed to the best way of learning. **There are problems such as Internet trek, uncontrollable time, and lack of concentration in learning, and some minors often "look around" and "can't remember what to learn while shopping" when studying online. In addition, minors do not use the Internet to search for information, read news and other learning functions, and more than half of minors lack the awareness of screening the authority of information. However, many adults think that as long as children don't play games and don't watch short **, they will be happy, ignoring the protection and guidance of children in online learning and online information acquisition.
Not keeping up with the pace of minors chasing new technologies. According to the report, minors have a strong curiosity about new technological changes, and more than forty percent say they are very interested in artificial intelligence and other knowledge. However, most minors lack security awareness and ability to distinguish the risks brought by new technologies, such as fake ** and audio. They rely mainly on the Internet and extracurricular reading to acquire this knowledge, and less than 40% of them receive tutoring and services from schools, and even less from families. This shows that teachers and parents are half a beat slower than minors in chasing new technologies and new changes, and it is difficult to timely alert minors to the cyber security risks they may encounter.
Four aspects of "going deep and practical" to do a good job of protecting small netizens
In order to achieve the high-quality development of online protection for minors, it is necessary to work "going deeper and more practical", so that online protection can be grasped and implemented in detail.
The implementation of existing laws and regulations should be deepened and realized. In recent years, our country has taken a variety of measures to protect minors online. From the addition of a special chapter on "Internet Protection" to the "People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors**", to the newly implemented "Regulations on the Protection of Minors on the Internet", and the introduction of other management measures, all reflect the great importance and determination of the Party and the state to protect the rights and interests of minors. Good laws should also be used well, and laws, policies, and systems need to be further deepened and implemented in the process of implementation. For example, there are still minors who do not use electronic identity real-name authentication online, which leads to minors using adult identity information to play games and give tips. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen the strict implementation of the existing legal system, so that good laws and regulations can be implemented in all aspects of implementation. All parties should also work together to ensure that the implementation of good policies and systems is not delayed or prevaricated.
The upgrade of the juvenile mode should be in-depth and practical. Teen Mode is a "firewall" to protect the health of minors. In the past, minors didn't like the teen model, thinking that the content was too young and the form too dull. Nowadays, the youth mode has been upgraded to the juvenile mode, and it is not only the name that needs to be upgraded, but also the content characteristics, function diversification, and standard unification. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen the construction of content pools, develop functions that are more suitable for minors, and introduce unified industry standards as soon as possible, so that all platforms, regardless of their size, will set up a model for minors in strict accordance with standardized requirements, and will not engage in furnishings or deal with things, so that the series of difficult and blocking problems in network protection can be effectively solved.
The construction of the self-discipline mechanism of the industry should be deepened and solidified. The Regulations on the Protection of Minors Online have once again consolidated the main responsibilities of platform enterprises, such as requiring smart product terminals to have built-in cyber protection software, regularly carrying out cyber protection impact assessments, and establishing and improving mechanisms for the prevention, identification and handling of cyberbullying. Therefore, it is necessary to further mobilize the enthusiasm of the Internet industry, so that all enterprise platforms form sustainable strategic thinking, consciously and voluntarily assume social responsibility, and upgrade the protection of minors to the primary goal pursued by platform enterprises, so that the establishment of industry self-discipline mechanisms can be implemented, so that the protection of minors online does not follow a formality and does not do superficial work.
Network literacy education should be in-depth and practical. The protection of minors online should ultimately be implemented in the improvement of online literacy, so that minors can consciously use good online literacy to deal with the risks of online use. In recent years, network literacy education has received great attention from all walks of life, and a variety of network literacy courses have been developed. It is necessary to truly send Internet literacy education courses to minors, so that minors want to watch them, love them, and use them. It is also necessary to focus on putting online literacy courses on rural minors, left-behind children, and boarding primary and secondary school students. Online literacy education must not be a formality, but should strengthen minors' life experience, establish a "double protagonist" mentality in online education, and take root in the lives of minors, so that minors have emotional resonance and form good habits. It is also necessary to send online literacy education to adults, improve the online literacy and online education ability of parents and teachers, and truly realize that the online protection of minors is effective.
*: China Youth Daily.