Survey on underage proxy game: A junior high school student is working as a proxy game in an esports room. Studio | Account | Junior high school student
As summer vacation approaches, many minors have started to develop an addiction to playing games. Among them, some minors with high gaming skills are called "gods", and while being worshipped by many players, they also embark on the path of "making money" - they will receive "olive branches" thrown by proxy game agencies or individuals, invited to play games and receive rewards.
During the investigation, the reporter found that many minors were deeply trapped in it, and even some minors were willing to neglect their studies and engage in full-time gaming and gaming work.
In recent years, policies to prevent minors from becoming addicted to online games have been continuously introduced. For example, restrictions have been placed on the length of time minors can play games, but minors can restart the game's "play button" through proxy playing. So, what is the existence of the underage proxy market? What are the impacts on minors who have not yet delved into the world? A reporter from the Legal Daily conducted an investigation into this matter.
Playing games on behalf of others can still earn money, distorting the values of minors
"Take over the order, otherwise you won't be able to eat tomorrow," netizen "Shuangshuang" has sent multiple messages on a certain social platform.
The reporter contacted Shuangshuang and learned that she is a girl who started her second year of junior high school in September this year. Due to family reasons, she was sent to stay with relatives early. Usually, her relatives and parents don't discipline her much. She is exposed to electronic devices every day, but still feels lonely and bored. In order to relieve boredom, she downloaded many games, made many friends playing games together, and joined some game communication groups.
In the game communication group, "Shuangshuang" can speak freely and chat with netizens about game skills. Due to her ability to play games for a long time, her gaming skills and level have always been far ahead of her peers, and many of them have sought her advice on gaming experience.
In February this year, a group friend approached "Shuangshuang" and said that due to academic pressure, they were unable to complete game tasks online every day. They wanted to ask "Shuangshuang" to help them complete the tasks and promised to pay compensation.
Seeing that there was money to make, both of them readily agreed and immediately helped the group friend complete the game task. With the advantages of high efficiency and low fees, "Shuangshuang" quickly received requests from other group members to play games as a proxy, and the name "professional proxy" gradually spread in the group.
The good times didn't last long, and "Shuangshuang" often had to talk to their teachers alone due to playing games for too long and their academic performance was in a mess. But her criticism of the teacher went in one ear and out the other, and after returning home, she still threw away her backpack and skillfully started playing games on the computer.
Relatives and parents quickly discovered her abnormal situation, and upon inquiry, they learned that "Shuangshuang" was helping others play games. They advised her to study hard and earn money, which is the future. But Shuangshuang believes that they enjoy playing games and can earn some extra income by playing games.
Helpless, relatives and parents cut off their WiFi at home.
What if I don't have WiFi to play games online? Shuangshuang decided to use mobile data to play games online. In order to purchase data packets and use them for daily expenses, she could only seek more proxy game listings, which led to the scene of Shuangshuang advertising in the group.
Cai Hua, a 16-year-old netizen from Dongguan, Guangdong, believes that his parents provide less monthly living expenses and often engages in game playing services in his spare time to earn some living expenses. His "clients" include classmates and friends, as well as netizens introduced by friends.
Cai Hua told reporters that when he plays games on behalf of others, it often takes five or six hours for an order to meet the "customer"'s requirements within the specified time. He plays games on behalf of others and usually charges 2 to 5 yuan for winning one game. As the game level increases, he can charge 30 yuan for winning one game.
Associate Professor Zhang Xin from the School of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University analyzed that playing games on behalf of minors can to some extent satisfy their self-esteem needs, and also make them realize that what they are doing has a certain value. In this sense, playing games on behalf of minors plays a certain positive motivating role; But the drawbacks of proxy games are even more obvious. Proxy games are directly linked to money, which can easily distort the values of minors and lead to excessive monetization of their understanding of things. Using money as an internal driving force for action is often difficult to sustain in the long term.
Playing games on behalf of others has become a job, and platform organizations are inevitably responsible for it
During the interview, the reporter found that some minors only take orders and play games on behalf of others in their free time, while others make it their profession to play games on behalf of others.
Guangdong Shantou netizen Xiaoyu started his third year of junior high school in September this year, but he didn't care at all about the entrance exam for the second year. Instead, he fantasized about making a difference in the booming esports industry. He even changed his personal signature on his social media account to "Internet addicted teenager".
Therefore, before this year's exam, Xiaoyu did not prepare for the exam, but instead plunged into the game to "kill all sides". At the beginning of a gaming season, he can easily advance. This kind of gaming strength brought him the "first bucket of gold in life": in the game team he joined, some "comrades" began to ask Xiaoyu if he could help play the "promotion match" and expressed willingness to pay a certain "labor fee", which made him gain a lot.
Afterwards, with the introduction of a friend, Xiaoyu joined an offline esports studio. There's no need to fill out the form, the boss just looked at my ID card. In this way, Xiaoyu's offline esports studio began his first "serious" proxy game work. Players in need handed over their accounts to the studio, and the boss coordinated and assigned tasks. Each person needed to complete the player's requirements as soon as possible according to the agreed time.
According to Xiaoyu, the working hours are generally from 15:00 to 3:00 the next day. During this period, everyone usually hides in their respective beds and starts working with their assigned phones from the studio.
Among Xiaoyu's colleagues, there are also boys who have just graduated from junior high school.
The investigation by reporters found that the sources of proxy orders usually include "private orders" posted by individuals in social media groups, orders posted by specialized proxy platform apps, and bulk orders posted by esports studios. The reporter randomly joined several proxy order receiving groups, and by browsing account information cards and online platforms, they could quickly find multiple accounts suspected of minors, who occasionally posted "order receiving" messages in the groups.
Xiaoyu told reporters that some of his colleagues in the studio get in touch with the boss through social media platforms. The reporter immediately sent a private message as a "newly graduated junior high school student" to multiple esports studio accounts on a certain platform app, asking if they were still hiring. On the same day, we received responses from three accounts, of which only one explicitly replied "no, brother". The staff of the other two accounts began to inquire about the journalist's gaming skills and provided social media accounts, showing a willingness to further understand the situation.
It is illegal for minors to act on behalf of others, and it is prohibited to use technical means to do so
Can minors engage in game matchmaking and receive compensation?
Regarding this, Zhu Jie, Secretary General of the Network Space Security Industry Center of Chongqing Cloud Data Association and Senior Partner of Taihe Tai Law Firm, believes that playing games itself has a certain level of fair competition mechanism. Generally, players of the same level will be matched based on factors such as the game level and technology of real players. However, proxy games to some extent undermine this fair competition mechanism and affect the gaming experience of other players. At the same time, underage players playing games on behalf of others inevitably engage in behaviors such as account borrowing, bypassing anti addiction mechanisms, and helping players cheat, which violates legal norms such as the Cybersecurity Law and the Law on the Protection of Minors, and disrupts market order and social public order.
In Zhu Jie's view, according to the provisions of labor law, playing games on behalf of others is difficult to be considered as a profession in arts, sports, and special crafts. Therefore, hiring minors to play games on behalf of others by playing agencies is suspected of being illegal.
Lin Li, a lawyer at Beijing Law Firm, believes that it is illegal for minors to engage in game matchmaking and earn remuneration. According to the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors, minors under the age of 16 are not allowed to engage in labor that affects their physical and mental health. Therefore, it is illegal for minors to engage in game matchmaking and should not be encouraged or supported.
In Lin Li's view, prolonged use of proxy games by minors may lead to physical health problems such as eye fatigue, cervical pain, and wrist disease, which can have adverse effects on their physical and mental health. In addition, proxy games may also involve monetary transactions and illegal behavior, which can have an impact on the worldview, outlook on life, and values of minors.
"Therefore, it is necessary for parents and guardians to pay attention and avoid minors from excessive addiction to games and engaging in substitute games. At the same time, parents need to guide minors to have a correct view of games and money, improve their moral concepts and social responsibility." Lin Li said.
How should relevant departments and game platforms take action to address the phenomenon of minors participating in proxy games?
Zhu Jie suggests that game platforms should strengthen the detection of abnormal accounts. For accounts that are verified to be playing games on behalf of others, they should be banned for a certain period of time or permanently banned. On the one hand, network regulatory departments and market regulatory departments should guide and supervise the implementation of rectification measures on gaming platforms; On the other hand, efforts should also be made to investigate and punish the proxy printing institutions.
"Education, cultural and other departments, schools, and parents of minors should strengthen education and publicity, correctly guide minors to resist the temptation of games, and prevent addiction. If schools discover that minors are addicted to the internet, they should promptly inform their parents or other guardians, and jointly educate and guide minors to help them restore normal learning and life. Parents or other guardians of minors should not allow minors to become addicted to the internet, and should install network protection software for minors, choose service modes and management functions suitable for minors, and other methods on smart terminal products." Zhu Jie called for.
Yao Jinju, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University and executive director of the Beijing Education Rule of Law Research Base, suggests that at the technical level, effective user real name verification should be carried out in the game login front-end and game process back-end. On the premise of not affecting the game experience, game operators can use facial recognition technology and other mandatory multi period verification to determine whether the player is a minor through automatic verification of user identity information. At the same time, attention should also be paid to protecting the information security of minors. At the operational level, in game registration ports without embedded facial recognition technology, real name registration for online games should avoid single authentication methods as much as possible and use more combination authentication methods to ensure the reliability of game user identity information.
