e” starts to protect “young you
“How should you protect yourself if you encounter ‘cyber violence’?” In a class meeting that discussed “rejecting cyber violence”, a student asked the class teacher Lu Xin, which sparked her thinking. As a teacher at Shanghai Kongjiang Middle School, Lu Xin has always been concerned about the online abuses suffered by minors, and has been constantly calling for the protection of minors online. After learning that the “Regulations on the Internet Protection of Minors” was officially announced, she felt that she had direction and guidance.
Recently, the State Council announced the “Regulations on the Internet Protection of Minors” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”), which will come into effect on January 1, 2024. This marks that my country’s legal construction of minors’ online protection has entered a new stage.
“This fully reflects the country’s great emphasis on the protection of minors online, leading various departments, organizations, and members of society to shoulder the responsibility and mission of protecting minors online.” As a teacher, Lu Xin also has a deeper understanding of her own Responsibilities: Strengthen the cultivation of students’ Internet literacy in subject teaching and moral education, and educate, demonstrate, guide and supervise students’ Internet behavior. “The protection of minors online requires all sectors of society to jointly hold up a protective umbrella and contribute to the protection of ‘young you’.”
Parents, schools and society must jointly say no to cyberbullying
“Among the cases I have handled, there are cases in which minors suffered cyberbullying.” Lou Zhuangwei, deputy director of the Eighth Procuratorate Department of the Yiwu City Procuratorate, has been engaged in the protection of minors for a long time and often pays attention to the online protection of minors. She told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily about a case.
Xiaoling, a 13-year-old girl, suffered terribly because of an Internet rumor that alluded to her having sex with multiple people. Her classmates didn’t know the truth, and some pointed at her behind her back, and some even ridiculed her in person. Dare to go to school and fall into depression. Later, Xiaoling called the police accompanied by her parents. The procuratorate intervened and conducted psychological evaluation and counseling on Xiaoling, and Xiaoling improved. But considering the possibility of online rumors spreading again, her parents finally transferred Xiaoling to another school.
Lou Zhuangwei said that with the development of Internet informatization, cyberbullying problems are emerging one after another. “Parents, schools, and society must jointly say no to cyberbullying. Prevention is better than governance.”
Cyberbullying is becoming a serious social problem. Since cyberbullying is out of the sight of schools and families, whether minors bully others or are bullied by others, it will cause serious interference to their lives and studies and affect their healthy growth.
Lu Xin has also seen children use the Internet to criticize and criticize students because of misunderstandings or unpleasantness in real life. “This will not only affect their learning status, but also cause psychological problems, making them full of insecurity and distrust of the outside world.” As a class teacher, she once guided students in class meetings to think about the dangers of online violence. In daily teaching, we will also consciously improve and cultivate students’ network literacy and network security awareness.
In response to the phenomenon of cyberbullying of minors, the “Regulations” clearly stipulate that no organization or individual may conduct cyberbullying behaviors such as insulting, slandering, threatening or maliciously damaging the image of minors through the Internet in the form of text, pictures, audio and video, etc.
The “2021 National Research Report on the Internet Usage of Minors” shows that the number of underage netizens in my country has reached 191 million, 38.3% of underage netizens have encountered bad or negative information while surfing the Internet, and 31.9% of underage netizens use parents The account has played the game. From the addition of a special chapter on Internet protection in the “Minor Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China” in 2021 to the promulgation of this year’s “Regulations”, it has standardized major issues such as Internet literacy improvement, personal information network protection, and Internet addiction prevention. The Internet protection of minors Various mechanisms have entered a standardized and process-based management mode.
“The Regulations are the first specialized comprehensive legislation on the online protection of minors introduced by our country.” After the Regulations were passed, Lou Guangwei studied them immediately.
She is more concerned about the detailed provisions made by the “Regulations” based on the “Internet Protection” special chapter set up in the “Minor Protection Law”, and whether the measures in the regulations clarify the corresponding responsible entities.
Lou Zhuangwei believes that the “Regulations” have detailed provisions in four aspects: the promotion of Internet literacy, the regulation of Internet information content, the protection of personal information online, and the prevention and control of Internet addiction, which makes her feel very excited. Because she often came into contact with similar cases, there were always no specific regulations to refer to before. This time she finally had the “Dinghai Shenzhen”.
Provide minors with “non-toxic and harmless” online products
Ms. Lin, who lives in Shandong, has a daughter who is in primary school. Because she is busy with work, she has neglected to discipline her child. She has recently become addicted to the Internet and often plays games on her mobile phone for several hours.
“I found that children were playing games on their parents’ mobile phones, and the youth mode was of little use.” What worried Ms. Lin even more was that she found that the games her daughter played were full of violent elements, and the game platform would also induce children to recharge for purchases. Skins and equipment, “There should be more supervision and restrictions on these gaming platforms.”
Ms. Lin’s expectations are echoed in the Regulations. The “Regulations” put forward many requirements for network product and service providers, such as “a sound anti-addiction system should be established” and “management of information released by users should be strengthened”, etc.
Guo Kaiyuan, director of the Youth Organization Research Institute of the China Youth Research Center, pointed out that the lack of supervision and restraint on providers of online products is one of the prominent problems in the current online protection of minors. “Only by solving this problem can we do a good job at the source, create an online environment that is conducive to the physical and mental health of minors to the greatest extent, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors online.”
The Regulations impose restrictions and supervision on network product and service providers. So, how can online product and service providers actively act to truly provide “non-toxic and harmless” online products to minors?
Guo Kaiyuan believes that online product and service providers must strengthen self-regulation, improve their sense of social responsibility, continue to purify the online content ecology, and build a high-quality online environment through positive guidance and negative punishment. Users should also be encouraged to create excellent works and enrich online content types.
“Research shows that as age increases, minors’ needs for online information and materials become more diversified.” He said, therefore, online product and service providers need to further enrich content and types, improve the quality of cultural products, and focus on different fields. The introduction and recommendation of knowledge make it easier for minors of different ages to find and learn.
At the same time, minors are encouraged to actively participate in the creation of high-quality works, so that minors can transform from consumers of online products to producers of online products, and adapt to the requirements of the digital age for improving the quality of minors.
“Many providers of network products now only care about their own interests and do not consider social responsibilities.” Zhang Yaoqi, the former principal of Changzhou Jinsha Senior High School, believes that providers of network products must be aware of the protection of minors and pay attention to the protection of minors. The physical and mental health of the company should not only be concerned about commercial interests.
Lou Zhuwei said that online product and service providers should adhere to the principle of “most beneficial to minors”, avoid neglecting the interests of children in pursuit of corporate profits, and implement the “setting up a minors model” mentioned in the “Regulations” Specific measures such as establishing and improving the cyberbullying information signature database will improve technology and service levels.
Home and school are the two firewalls for minors’ network protection
During the growth of minors, family and school are the places where they learn and live the most, and they are also the best places to protect their healthy growth. Article 5 of the “Regulations” clearly requires: Schools and families should educate and guide minors to participate in activities beneficial to physical and mental health, use the Internet in a scientific, civilized, safe and reasonable manner, and prevent and intervene in minors’ addiction to the Internet.
“If cyberspace is compared to a park, then this park should be clean, tidy, and pleasing to the eye. It should not be an environment that damages the body or mind, let alone bring danger to people.” Zhang Yaoqi believes that protecting the network security of minors , schools, families and society all have responsibilities. School and family are two firewalls. Only when these two firewalls are consolidated can the network security and physical and mental health of minors be guaranteed.
As an educator, Zhang Yaoqi said that communication between home and school should be strengthened, a consensus should be formed on the safety of minors online, and specific and feasible measures should be taken. “Nowadays, some parents may not be aware of Internet security issues, and some parents themselves are very addicted to the Internet. Both schools and parents should pay attention to it and have good communication.”
Lu Xin also has similar views. She believes that schools should often carry out publicity on the safety of minors online, and parents should improve their online literacy, regulate their own online behavior, and set good examples for their children. At the same time, when it comes to protecting minors online, she believes that parents should shoulder the first responsibility and tell their children how to protect themselves when they are harmed online and how to take appropriate measures to solve the problem.
“Parents are the first responsible party for supervising and protecting minors from surfing the Internet, and schools are the second responsible party.” Guo Kaiyuan suggested that parents should fully consider the growth patterns and needs of minor children, strengthen family protection, and prevent minors from using the Internet. Being harmed online. Schools should also carry out a variety of publicity activities to let students learn how to use the Internet healthily and how to protect themselves online.
For example, Guo Kaiyuan said that as the first responsible body, parents can actively understand and use the minor mode to manage and guide their minor children’s online behavior. This mainly includes: actively guiding and supervising their children to use the minor mode when logging in to the software. , to prevent children from bypassing the minor mode; effectively use the parental supervision system in the minor mode to understand the specific usage time and browsing content of the children, and enable management settings such as time reminders for the children based on the actual situation; monitor the children’s online content Necessary intervention is required to educate and guide children to identify online risks and prevent minors from browsing harmful online content and leaking personal information.
In addition to being a prosecutor, Lou Guangwei is also a parent. She believes that in order to protect children from being harmed by the Internet, parents must establish a solid and good parent-child interaction relationship with their children, perform their guardianship duties well, and prevent children from being overly dependent on the Internet world; they must teach their children necessary safety precautions and make them understand The operating rules of the online world and improve children’s Internet literacy. At the same time, once children are harmed online, parents must pay attention to their children’s interests, take decisive measures, and use legal means to actively protect their rights when necessary.
“I am very concerned about the prevention and control of Internet addiction. After studying the Regulations, the provisions on promoting Internet literacy also gave me a lot of inspiration.” In recent years, Lou Guangwei has often been invited to primary and secondary schools to carry out activities for minors. Regarding publicity activities on network protection, she believes that it is necessary to carry out publicity activities in schools. Minor protection workers can give students a more intuitive experience by explaining specific cases. Every time she talks to students in school Interactions are welcome. “I will continue to give lectures in schools in the future.”
The protection of minors online is not the responsibility of one person or group
Lu Xin now has a new understanding and thinking about the protection of minors online. She believes that the protection of minors online is not just the responsibility of a certain person or group, and hopes to arouse the attention and sense of responsibility of the entire society. “The current online environment is too complex and noisy. We hope that after the implementation of the new regulations, we can create a good online environment for young people and avoid unnecessary negative interference.”
“We hope that parents or other guardians of minors can improve their Internet literacy, and that network product and service providers can improve their sense of social responsibility.” Guo Kaiyuan hopes that the whole society will establish the concept of minors’ rights subjects and fully protect minors’ online rights. .
Lou Zhuwei hopes that parents, schools, providers of network products and services, manufacturers and sellers of smart terminals, etc., will put the interests of minors first, purify the Internet environment for minors to grow up, and cultivate minors. Make more efforts to improve network skills and literacy. “The procuratorial organs will also continue to strengthen the comprehensive performance of minors’ online protection duties and integrate into the overall pattern of minors’ online protection and management.”
“After the “Regulations” are promulgated, the key is to implement them.” Zhang Yaoqi believes that all aspects involved in the online protection of minors must comply with the law and be implemented in place. “This requires joint efforts from all walks of life to be effective.”
