On August 30, 2021, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the "Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Being Addicted to Online Games", limiting the gaming time of minor players to 8 to 9 pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 3 hours per week. The "830 New Regulations" are also considered to be "the most stringent new policy in history to prevent addiction."
Since then, game manufacturers have followed up on the new policy. On the basis of real-name authentication, they have combined facial recognition, age-appropriate reminders, parent supervision platforms and other measures to help minors avoid game addiction.
Recently, the "2022 Progress Report on the Protection of Minors in China's Game Industry" jointly released by the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association, the China Game Industry Research Institute and Gamma Data shows that in the year after the implementation of the new game anti-addiction regulations in 2021, the total game time, consumption turnover and other data of minors have been greatly reduced.
At the same time, the above-mentioned report stated that the anti-addiction system of game companies has covered more than 90% of underage game users.
However, the loophole still exists. You can directly enter the game using a mobile phone system account that has been authenticated by an adult. Parents report that minors are using this "loophole" to bypass supervision, and even make large recharges.
Nandu reporters further investigated and found that some merchants are selling real-name authenticated mobile phone accounts on e-commerce platforms. An account can be purchased for less than 1 yuan.
For example, now mainstream mobile phone brands will launch their own systems and ecological services. An account with a real-name authentication of the owner can enjoy games, payments, audio-visual entertainment and other services in the mobile phone ecosystem.
Nandu reporters found that vivo/oppo/Huawei mobile phone accounts can log in to most games downloaded from their own game store with one click, and directly provide real-name authentication information for the games.
Some mobile phone manufacturers will set up exclusive "channel servers" for some popular games to gather their own mobile phone users to play and consume in them. Therefore, they will also provide convenience in account login and real-name authentication.
In addition, Beijing Youth Daily also reported that criminals illegally obtained citizens’ personal information and online game accounts to circumvent and crack the face recognition program and anti-addiction system of online games. And then make illegal profits by selling or renting game accounts to underage gamers. Since 2022, the Liuhe District People's Court of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province has heard 5 such cases involving 5 people.
In this regard, Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Wei Zhixin had some exchanges with Shule. Pindao believes:
Real names are not real people, which is the biggest pain point of the anti-addiction system.
In the absence of parental supervision, this online account renting and selling industry chain may be used to bypass the anti-addiction system of games for minors.
mobile phone manufacturers provide services such as "one-click login" and "fast real-name authentication" for accounts and mobile games in their own ecosystem. This is essentially to improve user experience, but it also creates some loopholes that allow minors to bypass anti-addiction restrictions.
Mobile phone manufacturers are not without action. In May this year, it was reported that for minors aged 6-18, a certain mobile phone adopted a policy of prohibiting login to games for accounts without real-name authentication. Real-name minor accounts can only log in between 20:00-21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, and are prohibited from logging in at other times.
But the problem has not been completely solved. The root cause lies in the current anti-addiction mechanism, which has the defect of "real name but not real person".
The current real-name authentication for online games is basically completed once during registration, but later in the game it is impossible to ensure that the person logging in to the account is the person himself.
It is not easy for game manufacturers to ensure that players have "real names and real people."
Only leading manufacturers have the ability to perform roving real-person authentication work. If real-person authentication pops up frequently, it will also affect the player's gaming experience.
Under such a state, how to finally achieve the effect of anti-addiction in games is still a problem, and perhaps better technology is needed to solve it.
Author Zhang Shule, columnist of People's Daily Online and People's Post and Telecommunications, expert at China Economic Media Think Tank, senior TMT industry commentator
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