Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-Campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education", requiring students to be guided to use electronic products rationally, control the duration of use, and prevent Internet addiction. The reporter's investigation found that at present, the phenomenon of Internet addiction among minors is common, and the impact of online games on the healthy growth of minors cannot be underestimated.

“Some students sometimes play Honor of Kings for 8 hours a day.”

"I dropped 5 or 6 mobile phones. My children didn't eat breakfast. I saved up my money to buy mobile phones and continued to play games."

"No industry or sport can develop in a way that destroys a generation."

This is a worrying statement that reporters heard repeatedly during their research.

Data shows that currently, 62.5% of underage Internet users in my country often play games online; 13.2% of underage mobile game users play mobile games for more than 2 hours a day on average during working days. Excessive investment in online games has had a double negative impact on the physiology and psychology of minors in our country. In 2020, more than half of my country's children and adolescents are myopic, and the phenomenon of addiction to online games affecting their studies and causing personality alienation is on the rise. The harm of games is increasingly recognized by society, and is often referred to as "spiritual opium" and "electronic drugs".

This new type of "drug" has developed rapidly and grown into a huge industry. In 2020, the actual sales revenue of China's game market was 278.687 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.71%. Tencent Games, which accounts for half of the industry, achieved operating revenue of 156.1 billion yuan in 2020.

The impact of online games on minors is shocking

It is a general consensus in society that games have a greater impact on students, but how big is the impact? The reporter recently randomly came to Luzhou City, Sichuan Province to conduct research. After the local Lantian Middle School learned about the reporter's survey topic, it took the initiative to design a questionnaire and conduct a survey among all students in the school. The head teacher and parents urged all 2,154 students in the school to participate as much as possible, and a total of 1,929 questionnaires were returned. Questionnaire data shows that 26.23% of students play online games once every two or three days, and 11.66% play online games almost every day; 53.91% play games for 1-2 hours a day, and 53.91% play games every day. The proportion of more than 5 hours accounted for 2.28%. "Honor of Kings" is the most popular online game among students. 47.59% of the students who participated in the survey often play "Honor of Kings".

Faced with this surprising number, Teacher Liu, the head teacher of Class 12, Grade 8, said bluntly: "Students must have had reservations when accepting the survey. The actual situation is far more serious than this. There are 60 students in the class who do not play games at all." There are almost no students, only 20 of them are controllable!”

The macro data is even more shocking. The "2020 National Research Report on the Internet Usage of Minors" jointly released by the Department for Safeguarding Youth Rights and Interests of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the China Internet Network Information Center shows that the number of underage netizens continues to grow, and the trend of younger people accessing the Internet is more obvious. In 2020, the number of underage Internet users in my country reached 183 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 94.9%, which is higher than the national Internet penetration rate (70.4%). Playing games is still the main online leisure and entertainment activity for minors. Data shows that 62.5% of underage Internet users often play games online. Among underage mobile game users, 13.2% play mobile games for more than 2 hours a day on working days, which is higher than 12.5% ​​in 2019.

The "Research Report on Data, Social Kidnapping and the Healthy Growth of Minors" released by the Research Institute of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind at Communication University of China pointed out that from the end of 2019 to September 2020, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, nearly 200 million primary and secondary school students in my country had to attend online classes. Frequent contact with mobile phones and computers increases the chance of exposure to online games. Some unscrupulous network platforms and service providers took the opportunity to carefully design some online course software and game software to seamlessly switch. Not only can you enter the game state immediately after class, but it also creates comparisons and competitions among classmates. Students who do not play games are easily isolated from other students or lose the opportunity to communicate with other students.

Excessive use of online games has dual negative effects on minors' physiology and psychology. "I am the leader of the tribe in the game "Clash of Clans" and manage more than 50 people. This gives me a sense of dominance and accomplishment," said Xiao Xia, an eighth-grade student at Lantian Middle School. Xiaoxia's father said that since his child became obsessed with online games, his academic performance has plummeted, and he only scored more than 30 points in his latest math test. He has already dropped 5 or 6 mobile phones. The child skipped breakfast and saved up money to buy mobile phones secretly. After he found out, the child jumped off the balcony on the second floor and stayed there all night. From then on, he never dared to control her harshly.

Lin Wei, director of the Internet Rule of Law Research Center and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences University, said that some children may feel pleasure and gain in games, but overall the negative effects of online games still dominate. Among them, excessive investment in online games has caused huge problems in the time allocation and management of minors, distracting attention from other aspects and affecting their studies; addiction to the virtual world of games can easily cause minors to drift away from the real world, causing Risk of personality alienation.

In April 2021, Ms. Liu’s family took Tencent Games to court. Ms. Liu's son Xiaoming was promoted from elementary school to the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, and his grades have always been good. After being exposed to the game for a period of time, Xiao Ming gradually developed severe hallucinations. The names of the characters in the game often came to his lips. Sometimes he would talk to himself about killing and killing, and he would also bring some scenes from the game into his life. When his family refused to provide funds to recharge, Xiao Ming used violence against his parents every now and then, even slashing Ms. Liu's cheek with a knife, and finally set fire to his grandparents' house.

The "China National Mental Health Development Report (2019-2020)" released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the detection rate of depression in primary school is about 10%; the detection rate of depression in junior high school is about 30%; the detection rate of depression in high school is close to 40%, among which the detection rate of severe depression is 10.9%-12.5%. Some of these children are tired of studying, have insomnia, and suffer from various physical discomforts, some are addicted to the online world to escape reality, and some even choose to end their young lives.

Peng Ling, deputy director of the Membership Department of the China Law Society, pointed out that minors are in a critical period of growth and development. Using mobile phones with their heads down for a long time and staring at computers for a long time can easily cause damage to their body functions and reduce their physical fitness. Data recently released by the National Health Commission show that in 2020, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents in my country was 52.7%; of which 14.3% were 6-year-old children, 35.6% primary school students, 71.1% junior high school students, and 80.5% high school students. The overall myopia rate in 2020 increased by 2.5 percentage points compared with 2019 (50.2%).

In addition, Peng Ling said that the Internet is both a treasure trove of information and a mixed garbage dump. Minors have weak discernment and poor self-discipline, and are easily attracted to new things on the Internet; once they are addicted to the Internet, it is difficult to extricate themselves, and they are extremely susceptible to the influence of bad information.

The rapid development of the game industry has made it increasingly difficult to prevent addiction.

Behind the increasing penetration rate of online games among minors is my country’s growing gaming industry. With the rapid development of the game industry, it is becoming more and more attractive to minors, making it increasingly difficult to prevent addiction to online games.

The "2021-2027 China E-sports Game Industry Market Operation Pattern and Prospects Strategic Analysis Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting shows that in the past ten years, the annual registration growth rate of China's game-related companies has been fluctuating and rising. In 2019, China's new There are more than 65,000 game-related companies, which is the year with the largest number of new additions in history. In 2020, there were more than 58,000 new game companies. In 2020, the total number of game-related companies in China exceeded 280,000.

The "2020 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association (GPC) and the China Game Industry Research Institute shows that in 2020, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market was 278.687 billion yuan, an increase of 47.81 billion yuan compared with 2019. A year-on-year increase of 20.71%, maintaining rapid growth. Among them, the actual sales revenue of China's mobile game market continues to rise. In 2020, the actual sales revenue of China's mobile game market was 209.676 billion yuan, an increase of 51.565 billion yuan from 2019, a year-on-year increase of 32.61%. "The development of mobile games has brought about the convenience of games, which means that it is more difficult to control mobile games for minors." Peng Ling said.

my country's game industry is highly concentrated, with Tencent Games accounting for half of the industry. According to Analysys analysis data, in the first half of 2020, Tencent Games and NetEase Games occupied the first and second place in the industry with market shares of 54.46% and 15.29% respectively. Tencent Games is also the company with the largest operating income in my country's gaming industry. In 2020, Tencent Games achieved operating income of 156.1 billion yuan, which was 101.5 billion yuan higher than the operating income of NetEase Games, which ranked second.

"Honor of Kings" launched by Tencent Games in 2015 dominates the market. In 2020, the number of daily active users averaged 100 million, occupying the top spot in domestic mobile game revenue. It is highly adaptable to fast-paced and fragmented idle scenes, and can "play blackmail" with WeChat friends at the touch of a finger, allowing "Honor of Kings" to achieve viral spread and unreplicable player stickiness. "A classmate once played King of Kings for eight hours a day." Xiaoxia said.

How do games attract players to increase their "stickiness" and even stimulate psychological weaknesses? According to some game company insiders, some game companies have hired a large number of experts to study players' consumption psychology and psychological weaknesses to design and improve games. These digital control departments are at the core of the company and have relatively high salaries.

The "Research Report on Data, Social Kidnapping and the Healthy Growth of Minors" points out that online game developers, service providers and other participating merchants and manufacturers must find ways to improve the gameplay, game equipment, and game music and stories. In terms of the setting of links and the difficulty of promotion, etc., we try our best to capture the psychological characteristics of game players, and conduct professional designs based on the weaknesses of human nature, so that the games we design and operate online can gain as many users as possible Likes and as many users as possible invest time, energy and financial resources.

The reporter logged into the official website of Tencent Game Academy and found that there are related courses aimed at teaching students to "understand the significance of learning psychology for game production through this course." According to Gamma data estimates, Tencent Games has nearly 14,000 R&D personnel in 2020. R&D expenses amount to 12 billion yuan.

Faced with professional design and operation teams, and faced with online games operated out of profit-seeking, once individual users enter the kingdom of games, they may face situations that they are simply unable to realize and control. "Adults can't resist the attraction of games. My ex-husband plays games all day long except for eating and going to the bathroom. There are holes in the game keyboard, and he doesn't even care about his mother being hospitalized." said Ms. Liao, a parent of a student at Jiangyang Vocational High School in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province. , because her ex-husband was addicted to games all day long and could not live a normal life, she finally chose to divorce. She said, "In the past, when choosing a spouse, I thought it was enough not to gamble or go whoring. I didn't expect that gaming would become another factor that broke up the family." A leader of the local education bureau told reporters that one of her friends also got divorced because of this. The reporter learned that family conflicts due to addiction to games are not unique.

If adults do this, minors are more likely to become the targets of calculation, capture and control by online games because of their deficiencies in age, intelligence and comprehensive judgment.

In addition, the e-sports industry is developing rapidly, and the inducement of online games to minors makes the situation of preventing and treating minors' Internet addiction more complicated. In 2003, the State Sports General Administration listed e-sports as an official sport, and in 2013, the State Sports General Administration established the e-sports national team. Currently, no less than 20 colleges and universities have opened e-sports majors. This allows e-sports to get rid of its exclusive impression of "internet-addicted teenagers" and become a serious profession.

The "2021-2027 China E-Sports Game Industry Market Operation Pattern and Prospects Strategic Analysis Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting shows that in recent years, the user scale of China's e-Sports game market has shown a linear growth trend, with the number of Chinese e-Sports game users reaching 4.88 in 2020. billion people, an increase of 43 million people compared with the same period last year. From the perspective of age distribution, Chinese e-sports users in 2020 are concentrated in the age group of 19-22, accounting for 39.7%, and those aged 18 and under account for 9%.

The e-sports industry brings huge challenges to the management of youth online game addiction. Peng Ling pointed out that for example, the user portraits of the e-sports game Dota 2 ("Dota 2") show that low-income students are the main profile of e-sports users, with student users accounting for 33.6%, and high school education or below accounting for 31.4%. More than half of e-sports users The user's income is less than 5,000.

Xiao Zhang, a fifth-grade student at Lixing Road Primary School in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, said that among his 55 classmates, more than ten classmates, including him, play "Honor of Kings." He plays two or three times a week, and his own ideal is to become a professional e-sports player in the future.

"The development of the e-sports industry has benefited from the strong support of game companies. From game competition platforms, single-product e-sports professional leagues and even world-wide e-sports leagues, game companies are leading the way. The large influx of capital into the e-sports industry has made my country's e-sports The industry is developing rapidly, and how to prevent minors from being addicted to the Internet while the e-sports industry is developing is an issue that requires in-depth thinking," Peng Ling said.

Lin Wei said that the threshold for e-sports is too high and that it is completely different from teenagers’ addiction to online games. They should not be confused in publicity and mislead minors. There are very few who can become true professional e-sports players. No industry or competition can develop in a way that destroys a generation. The growth of minors is the first priority.

Breaking out of the industry and cooperating with multiple parties to prevent Internet addiction requires multiple measures

The industry pointed out that as an emerging industry, gaming has developed rapidly in recent years and has a considerable scale. How to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages and guide its healthy growth has always been the focus of great attention from all walks of life. Relevant policies have been continuously improved, but there is still room for improvement.

In November 2019, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the "Notice on Preventing Minors from Addicting to Online Games", which requires strict real-name registration. All online game users must use valid identity information before registering a game account; minors are strictly controlled Use online game session duration. It is stipulated that no game services may be provided to minors from 22:00 to 8:00 the next day, no more than 3 hours a day on statutory holidays, and no more than 1.5 hours a day at other times.

On June 1 this year, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors was officially implemented. A special chapter on "Internet Protection" was added, which stipulates that online product and service providers shall not provide minors with products and services that induce their addiction. Internet service providers such as online games, online live broadcasts, online audio and video, and online social networking should set up corresponding time management, permission management, consumption management and other functions for minors to use their services.

The game industry continues to improve the youth protection system, and manages the use of games by teenagers through the implementation of a real-name system for online game accounts and basic means such as time limits, curfews, and payment limits.

Peng Ling said that although legislation has been improving, specific measures have not been able to keep up with the development of the Internet, making it difficult to cure youth Internet addiction in practice. For example, the youth anti-addiction system that has been widely adopted by Internet platforms can still allow children to find loopholes, thereby avoiding supervision and successfully surfing the Internet.

Many students interviewed also said that it is a common practice for students to bypass various "youth modes" by borrowing parent accounts and ID cards to register and log in to games. Xiao Lin, an eighth-grade student at Lantian Middle School, told reporters that in addition to using different accounts to log in, he and his classmates also learned a variety of methods, such as purchasing accelerators, "circuiting the wall", etc., to use foreign versions of games such as Honor of Kings. You can bypass various restrictions such as online game duration.

A parent of a student at Lantian Middle School in Luzhou told reporters that after the government issued a policy not to allow students to bring mobile phones, some businesses developed "new products" such as water cups that can hide mobile phones. Teachers at Luzhou Lantian Middle School reported that the school now does not allow students to bring mobile phones. The small store at the school gate has added mobile phone storage services, and some students can get their mobile phones after leaving the school.

In response to various problems, the industry pointed out that preventing teenagers from being addicted to online games is a complex systematic project that requires multi-party collaboration and linkage between government departments, schools, families and enterprises, and the introduction of stricter management methods to achieve the goal more effectively.

Peng Ling pointed out that network entrances must be tightened to reduce the opportunities for minors to come into contact with games. The government must strictly perform its supervisory duties, continue to supervise the platform in accordance with the law, and hold companies that deliberately break through the bottom line and harm society to the end.

"Faced with the powerful appeal of online games, few children can take the initiative to resist the temptation, and it is often difficult for parents and schools to find ideal solutions. Considering this background, game manufacturers cannot ignore social responsibilities." Lin Wei said that through the government Guide and even more coercive means to enhance the social responsibility of game companies. The next step is to implement stricter control over the duration of online gaming sessions for minors, and significantly shorten the duration based on the existing regulations. In his opinion, time management and allocation of minors will definitely be a problem if they are allowed to play games for one or two hours every day. In addition, online games must further strengthen identity authentication and content review must be more stringent.

The game company investigated by the reporter said that game research and development only accounts for 10% of the cost, and publicity and promotion expenses account for 60%. Therefore, supervision of the publicity platform must also be strengthened.

Relevant people suggested that in addition to requiring platforms to enhance their awareness of social responsibility and not simply pursue profits, they should also improve the anti-addiction system for minors and improve the platform content review mechanism to reduce the entry of harmful information into the eyes of minors. The intensity of punishment must keep pace with the situation.

Peng Ling suggested that families should also effectively perform their guardianship duties, implement the responsibilities prescribed by law, and strengthen the guidance and supervision of minors' Internet use. Parents have the responsibility to supervise and set an example. While setting an example for their children, they should strengthen family education to help their children learn to distinguish, and cooperate with school education to help their children learn to use the Internet correctly.