Data source: "The 6th China Minors' Internet Usage Survey Report"

　　Recently, the topic of online privacy leaks involving minors has attracted attention from many parties. As "indigenous people" of the Internet, minors broaden their horizons, increase their knowledge, and express themselves through the Internet. At the same time, they also face the situation of uneven quality of information and the safety hazards of smart devices. The healthy growth of minors is inseparable from a clear and harmonious network environment. This edition will launch a series of reports on "Qinglang Minors' Network Environment" from today, focusing on new phenomena and new problems emerging in the current network environment of minors, exploring solutions, and protecting the online spiritual home of minors.

　　——Editor

　　"I was 'opened', what should I do?" Recently, the topic of "opening a box" involving minors has sparked heated discussions on the Internet.

　　Going online has become a part of the lives of minors. However, new problems such as privacy leakage, APP "face changes", and smart watches induce addiction and comparison bring hidden dangers, and the teenager model sometimes "fails", which arouses parents' concerns.

　　How to better protect the clear and clear environment for minors to access the Internet? This requires the whole society to solve it together.

　　"Opening a box" and "changing face" are very risky

　　Lin Xiao, a third-year junior high school student in Chengdu, Sichuan, posted a photo of himself "support" in a celebrity's super talk, and mistakenly took the cover of the uncoded homework book together. Zoom in the photo and its school, class, name and other information are clearly visible. Immediately afterwards, the star's "opposite" fans locked Lin Xiao's address through this information and harassed him. Lin Xiao's parents reported the case to the public security organs.

　　The "opening box" that Lin Xiao encountered is an online illegal act involving the privacy leakage of minors. It has serious harm and has attracted attention. Previously, relevant departments discovered during law enforcement that some online platforms accepted anonymous submissions, exposed the names of minors, schools and other private information, and published insulting remarks; some online users spread the tutorial of "opening boxes and hiding people"; and even more, some businesses provided paid "swearing" services to minors.

　　Wang Zhenhui, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, analyzed that the main online risks faced by minors are personal privacy leakage, bad information contact, online violations, and online addiction. Minors have strong social needs and often "show off" their lives online. As they "show off", the risk of personal privacy leakage also increases.

　　During the special campaign of "Qinglang·2024 Summer Network Environment Improvement" launched last year, Internet information departments in Beijing, Henan, Guizhou and other places thoroughly investigated the clues of problem, and dissolved and closed more than 1,500 topics, super talks, and post bars. In 2025, the "Qinglang" series of special operations will focus on eight rectification tasks, including rectifying false information released by "self-media", chaos in the abuse of AI technology, and the online environment for minors during the summer.

　　Some Internet chaos arose because of "showing", while others are born because of "hiding".

　　Not long ago, Beijing citizen Zhang Shuang said that his son, who was in elementary school, wanted to download a software on his own mobile phone. "I read it when downloading it. It was a foreign language learning software." Afterwards, Zhang Shuang accidentally clicked on the software, and links of bad information and gambling advertisements appeared on the interface. It’s obviously learning software, how could there be any illegal content?

　　According to software engineer Haiyang, in the past, some APPs would often disguise themselves as normal tool and video APPs when they were launched, avoiding the review of the application store, and after they were launched, they would "turn into" illegal software or insert illegal links. During the special campaign of "Qinglang·Remediation of the Internet Environment for Minors in the 2024 Summer" by relevant departments investigated and found relevant "face-changing" APPs and carried out rectification.

　　Some functions of smart watches induce addiction

　　Today, children's smart watches have become the "standard wrist configuration" for many children. A small watch can be used to add friends, NFC payment, and download software, just like a miniature smartphone. The new problems brought by smart watches have also made many parents worry.

　　On the one hand, the built-in application of children's smartwatches may spread bad information. Not long ago, Shanghai citizen Li Yang discovered that his son, who had just entered elementary school, read novels that were not suitable for children to read through the reading software on his watch. He quickly checked the app and found that there were many inappropriate contents.

　　"In addition to some people deliberately spreading bad information, some content in children's smart watch applications are fine from an adult's perspective, but they are not suitable for minors to contact." said Fu Zitang, a professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

　　On the other hand, some functions of children's smart watches are prone to indulgence.

　　"My son has recently become obsessed with the game "Memorizing words and eating mushrooms" on his watch, but the game is the main thing and there is very little learning content." said a parent in Beijing. Some games allow parents to relax supervision under the guise of learning. In addition, points, circle of friends and other functions can easily divert the attention of minors.

　　According to a smart watch product manager, some children's smart devices currently lack a unified and standardized anti-addiction mechanism. When parents neglect supervision, children are prone to addiction.

　　As the functions of smart watches on the market continue to be upgraded, minors are also catching up with the "wrist trend". Chen Jie, a parent from Nanning, Guangxi, said that his child is 8 years old and has purchased the second smartwatch. The reason is very simple. "The child said that his friends laughed at his previous smartwatch for being too bad."

　　Many parents have reported that since a certain brand of smart watches occupy most of the market, a specific circle of friends has been formed, and watches that are not of the brand cannot add friends to each other, thus forming a certain degree of "brand contempt chain".

　　Fang Jiandong, a teacher at the School of Education of Guangxi Normal University, pointed out that children may define their identity and status through the items they own, and children's smartwatches will also become part of their self-identity. "Parents and educators should educate their children to pay attention to inner qualities such as personality and talents, and guide them to establish correct values."

　　Adolescent mode experience is not good

　　The youth mode is an important measure to ensure the safety of minors' network usage by restricting the software's functions, time and content. However, whether the "protective wall" can be prevented and whether the youth model can be better used on the basis of usefulness depends on the effectiveness. The "Blue Book of Youth: Report on the Application of Internet for Minors in China (2024)" released by the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, etc., shows that the overall proportion of minors using adolescent models is not high.

　　Ms. Zhang's child is in the second grade of junior high school and usually likes to watch short videos. I heard from a friend that the software can be used to enable teenager mode, but she immediately tried it, but was opposed by the child. "After turning on the teenager mode, only cartoons will be pushed." Ms. Zhang's child Fangfang said, "All in junior high school, who is willing to watch these?"

　　At present, the content supply of youth model needs to be enriched and the user experience is relatively single. It takes more effort to make children willing to use and love to use the teenager model.

　　After experiencing the Youth Mode on some platforms, the reporter found that after turning on the Youth Mode, many platforms can only browse the content pushed on the homepage and cannot search, comment, etc. "After opening it for a while, the child clamored to turn it off." The parent said that after closing it, he was worried that the child would be exposed to bad information.

　　In addition, the teenager model can sometimes “fail”. On some second-hand platforms, there are also cases where accounts are sold to "circumvent" the teenager model, and you can often buy a video platform account for only a dozen to a few dozen yuan.

　　Zhang Xiaobing, deputy director of the Institute of Children and Children in China Youth Research Center, suggested that relevant departments can conduct research on the teenager model and invite teenagers to talk about problems and make suggestions. Only when minors love to use the youth model can it be truly useful and practical.

　　(Reporter Yang Hao of this newspaper participated in the interview and writing, and parents and minors in the article are all pseudonyms)

　　Netizen message board

　　The system continuously pushes content of interest according to browsing habits, which will cause children to become addicted to single information. I hope that the youth mode will push more traditional culture, scientific and technological knowledge and other content to break the "information cocoon".

　　——Beijing netizens

　　We hope to increase supervision of relevant companies, urge them to implement anti-addiction measures, register and log in by real-name, and limit the use time of minors.

　　——Tianjin netizens

　　The number of harsh words in the comment section of some short video APPs has increased rapidly, seriously affecting the physical and mental health of minors.

　　——Chongqing netizens

　　It is very necessary to carry out scientific online education, educate children on how to deal with Internet information and strengthen their self-thinking ability, rather than following the crowd or following the crowd.

　　——Guangxi netizens

　　It is recommended that the coverage of the youth mode be expanded from APP to more ports, so as to realize the three-party linkage between mobile smart terminals, applications and application distribution platforms.

　　——Yunnan netizens

　　(The above comments are excerpted from the People's Daily "People's Suggestions" and compiled by Shi Yunjuan)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]