Phoenix Satellite Television:

My question is about the online environment for minors. We noticed that on July 18, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission launched a campaign to clean up the online environment for minors during the summer holidays. And the campaign had been carried out for years. What are the salient problems online that endanger the growth of minors? What targeted measures have been taken to address these issues? And what has the effect been? Concerning the protection of minors online, what will be done next? Thank you.

Sheng Ronghua:

Thank you for your questions. The online protection of minors is a hot issue with increasingly greater attention from society and also a key and difficult issue regarding the regulation of cyberspace. At present, there are three salient problems in the online environment for minors. 

The first is the problem of unhealthy and harmful information online, such as erotic, vulgar, violent content, and extravagant displays of wealth and worship of money, which are harmful to the healthy growth of minors both mentally and physically. There are also problems such as cyberbullying and cyber hunting, which seriously violate the legitimate rights and interests of minors.

The second one is the problem of online addiction. We have worked out ways to resolve this problem, and online platforms have also made great efforts. Some progress has been made in addressing the problem of online addiction, but there are still some shortcomings. For instance, the functional design of some online platforms is not reasonable enough and the protection mechanism still needs to be improved. Therefore, the problem of online addiction has been curbed to some extent, but has not been comprehensively and completely solved. 

The third problem is inducing minors to commit crimes and committing crimes against minors. For example, some people use the internet to incite and lure minors to commit violence, fraud, and even suicide. Some people conduct illegal activities targeting minors, including sexual seduction and online molestation, which are all very serious in nature.

The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission has attached great importance to the protection of minors online. To be specific, we have done the following work.

First, we have launched special campaigns to thoroughly clean up the online environment. In our campaign to purify the environment, every year we would carry out special actions to address the issues the people are strongly concerned about, one of which is the protection of the online environment for minors. This year, the campaign kicked off on July 18. The launch of the campaign intends to address the problems mentioned above when they crop up, strike them hard, and maintain high pressure, aiming at thoroughly cleaning up harmful information online concerning minors.

Second, we have prevented minors from online addiction by strengthening the application of teen modes. We have guided major online platforms to launch teen modes, with limitations on online hours and interactive functions for teens, effectively preventing online addiction.

Third, we have protected the legitimate rights and interests of minors through online reporting. We have organized key online commercial platforms to set up specific reporting channels for issues concerning minors, safeguarding the online rights and interests of minors.

Fourth, we have traced the origin of and combated crimes through cooperation with other departments. We have worked with public security organs to crack down on illegal and criminal activities, cut channels for the transmission as soon as possible, and traced and dealt with those users of the accounts who posted the information.

Next, we will strengthen two areas of work. One is to improve juvenile online protection, and the other is to enhance the efficiency of our protection work. I can summarize our future measures into two sentences in four aspects: "We have the law, and we have penalties. We can manage, and we can manage well."

"We have the law" means improving laws and regulations. We have been speeding up introducing the Regulations on the Protection of Minors Online, improving the supporting system of the Law on the Protection of Minors, and providing more robust legal safeguards for the online protection of minors.

"We have penalties" means ensuring offenders are punished. We will continue strengthening daily supervision and increasing online law enforcement and penalties. In particular, we need to pay close attention to websites and platforms frequently used by minors and their favorite product functions and platform sections. In special campaigns, those illegal website platforms and accounts should be exposed to the public and be punished strictly to form a strong deterrent. The penalties should be in accordance with the laws and regulations. The penalties should also have a purpose and be painful to make online law enforcement and supervision more effective.

"We can manage" means strengthening management, especially moving protection to the beginning of the whole cycle. Two aspects of work should be done well: One is to supervise the signs, and the other is to prevent risks from the source. To supervise the signs is to promptly discover the signs and tendencies of minor-related problems on the internet and manage and prevent threats and hidden dangers. To prevent risks from the source is to find out the chain of interests and profits in chaos on the internet and solve problems from the root. In fact, there has been a common and prominent problem in online disorder: the chain of interests and profits is very long. Cutting off the chain of interests and profits will enable us to address the symptoms and root problems and control the chaos on the internet.

"We can manage well" means improving protection measures, such as optimizing the effectiveness of the youth model and the recommendation algorithm. Through such efforts, harmful information can be prevented from being promoted to minors, so minors will be reassured online and parents can be more relieved. Thank you.

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