Children accessing the internet at an early age has drawn international attention

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File photo: Another chase. At the front was 3-year-old Yingying, muttering, “I’ll just watch for a bit,” while her mother chased after her. Every day, this scenario of you chasing after me happens more than 5 times in this ordinary family, and the reason is the phone. 　　Yingying’s mother, Yue Tong, noticed that her daughter could use her fingers to scroll through a phone screen at the age of two; at first she only viewed photos and videos, but now she is able to play some simple mobile games as well. In Yue Tong’s view, this was like opening the “Pandora’s box”. 　　According to statistics from the China Internet Information Center, by the end of 2015, the total number of internet users in China had reached 688 million. Users under 19 years of age accounted for 24.1% of all internet users, with over 18 million of them being under the age of 10. 　　What can smart touchscreen devices bring to children? What kind of people will it turn the next generation into? Parents cannot find ** to these problems. Children born in the era of touchscreens grow up amid their parents’ anxiety. 　　The 2016 Wuzhen Report on the Development of the World Internet raises a more critical issue: the online protection of children. The report indicates that the international community remains committed to protecting children online. The international community attaches great importance to the impact of harmful information on minors, and has developed action plans to combat online child pornography and address cyberbullying. At the second Global Forum on Child Online Protection (We Protect), 41 participating countries jointly signed a joint action statement. 　　“It’s as if facing a major threat.” “At what age do children start using the internet?” ” 　　Wang Fei, a resident of Beijing, thought for a moment and said, “It should be two or three years old.” Whenever the child cried and wouldn’t stop crying no matter how much I tried to calm them down, I would show them pictures and animations on my phone, and they would immediately become quiet. Over time, I* got used to using this method to distract the child. But I’ve realized that this is actually a wrong approach; now the child wants to watch cartoons every day, and he gets upset if we don’t let him do so – it’s really frustrating. ” 　　Jiao Hai in the computer industry is not so strict. Her son started using his parents’ smartphones at the age of two, and once he was able to hold an iPad, all other toys paled in comparison. My son learned Tang poems, idioms, and the Three Character Classic through an app. One day, the son suddenly started singing and dancing in front of the screen: “The little swallow wears a floral dress.” ” 　　In China, such “internet minors” have become part of the vast internet community. Not long ago, Tencent released the \"Guidelines on Safe Internet Use for Children\" report, which shows that 90% of Chinese children (i.e., minors under 18 years old) have access to the Internet in their daily lives, with the proportion of urban children having Internet access reaching nearly 95%. The age at which children first come into contact with the Internet is getting younger as well; figures from this report show that 56% of children start using the Internet before the age of 5. 　　“\"Internet natives,\" is how Wang Sixin, a professor at the Communication University of China and director of the Research Center for Internet Law and Intellectual Property Rights, describes children in today’s environment. The reason for this is that \"we live in an internet era, and children grow up in such an environment; the internet has become their way of life.\" 　　Sun Hongyan, director of the Institute of Children at the China Center for Youth Research, provided a more specific explanation: \"We often see such phenomena: parents use mobile games to entertain their children, take videos of them with their phones, and some mothers even feed their babies with one hand while using their phone to scroll through social media posts with the other hand.\" With such an environment, children are inevitably influenced by it. Therefore, the younger age of internet use is a normal phenomenon. It can be predicted that the Internet will enter children’s world at an earlier age and to a greater extent, and it will inevitably become an important force influencing children’s lives. 　　However, such an environment puts many parents in a state of high stress. When it comes to children using smartphones and computers, even Jiao Hai, who is generally tolerant, becomes very angry; \"The harmful information on the internet leaves no place to hide from.\" ”Jiao Hai is often startled by unexpected pop-ups on websites; “While browsing news, suddenly a dialog box or a short video appears, and most of the content in those is unhealthy.” As a parent, I’m very worried that if my child sees such information, they might click to watch it out of curiosity ” 　　At the beginning of this year, organizations such as the China Young Pioneers Development Center released the eighth survey report on the use of the Internet by minors in China. The results of the survey showed that over 90% of minors have encountered various types of \"harmful information\" while using the Internet, with about half of them indicating that online advertisements are the main source of such harmful information. 　　When it comes to their children using the Internet, parents are most worried not only about their kids coming into contact with harmful content such as violence and pornography online, but also about them being deceived or persuaded into engaging in illegal activities. 　　It is everyone’s responsibility. For this reason, the international community is paying increasing attention to the issue of online protection for children. 　　What is child online protection? 　　“Child online protection essentially means creating a safe online environment for children as they obtain information, engage in self-education, and satisfy their entertainment needs through the internet. It enables young people to access information appropriate to their age and content suitable for their level of understanding, while preventing them from coming into contact with material they should not see. “To prevent teenagers from causing unnecessary harm to themselves and their families due to information leaks or other issues while using the Internet, thereby protecting the legitimate rights and interests of children” — this is Wang Sixin’s explanation. 　　At the third Guangdong Provincial Cybersecurity Awareness Week held in September this year, China’s first research report on children’s cybersecurity was released. This report, prepared through research and analysis conducted by youth centers in nearly 20 major cities across the country on more than 20,000 children aged 3 to 14 and their parents, shows that parental mistakes are one of the factors contributing to increased risks. 　　The mistake made by parents is, first and foremost, failing to become their children’s digital friends – 44.7% of parents did not add their children as friends on QQ, 55.8% did not do so on WeChat, and 62.9% did not do so on Weibo. 　　The second mistake made by parents is the failure to implement effective safety measures: 61.7% of parents have not filtered the applications on their children’s smartphones or tablets, and 67.7% of parents do not set limits on the amount of time their children can use tablets or on the types of content they can access. 　　Thirdly, parents do not serve as good role models for their children’s digital media usage habits: in the children’s eyes, their parents like to use their phones the most at home. 　　During their interviews, the reporters also noticed that most minors are supervised by their parents while using the Internet. However, they generally felt that their parents had certain rules and guidelines regarding their Internet use, though the ways in which these rules and guidelines were imposed varied; some parents set limits on the time spent online but not on the content, while others set limits both on time and content. There were also parents who provided neither rules nor guidance to their children. 　　On this matter, Wang Sixin’s opinion is that, from a family perspective, parents should control and limit the amount of time children spend on the internet. “When children are using the internet, parents should set up filtering tools on the computers or other electronic devices at home, or use separate interfaces for the electronic devices used by adults and children, so as to minimize exposure to adult content in the interface that children have access to.” 　　“Parents should also educate their children according to their different age stages, keeping them away from content that is not suitable for their physical or cognitive development. ”Wang Sixin said. 　　However, it seems that parents are left with no way to express their grievances. \"At present, the notion of ‘guiding children to use the Internet safely’ is nothing but empty talk in society; how then can parents provide proper guidance and direction?\" ”Wang Fei spoke with a sense of helplessness. 　　In the view of many of the parents interviewed, it is a significant responsibility of the Internet technology providers and content creators, as the originators of such platforms, to analyze what aspects of the Internet are essential for children’s development and what elements represent harmful influences that must be eliminated. 　　In response, Wang Sixin agreed, saying, “There are many things that platform service providers can do. For example, they can create safe online environments for minors, prevent children too young from accessing adult-oriented gaming platforms, and monitor various data in the background to take timely action regarding teenagers’ online activities.” From a societal perspective, public places also need to take measures to prevent teenagers from coming into contact with harmful information. 　　How to manage it? In addition, many of the parents interviewed asked the reporters whether legislative protection could be strengthened for children’s use of the Internet 　　In response to this, Zheng Ning, deputy head of the Law Department at the School of Politics and Law of Communication University of China, told reporters that from a legal perspective, there are laws such as the Law on the Protection of Minors and the Cybersecurity Law that provide relevant regulations. “At the same time, the Internet Information Office has issued the ‘Draft Regulations on the Protection of Minors on the Internet’, which sets out specific responsibilities and requirements for schools, families, society, and other parties in preventing and addressing issues such as online addiction and cyberbullying among minors, and encourages the development and promotion of software designed to protect minors while using the Internet.” 　　In addition, according to Zheng Ning, regulations such as the \"Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services\" and the \"Regulations on the Management of Internet Live Broadcasting Services\" also specify which types of online information are prohibited from being published. The \"General Principles of the Civil Law\" and the \"Law on Tort Liability\", as well as the \"Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Civil Disputes Involving Infringements of Personal Rights through Information Networks\", provide civil law remedies for violations of children’s personal rights. The criminal law, on its part, stipulates crimes such as the illegal acquisition of citizens’ personal information, fraud, defamation, and perturbation of public order. 　　“Administrative departments at all levels in our country have also introduced regulations to prevent minors from becoming addicted to online games, to strengthen online moral education, and to combat harmful information on the Internet. ”Wang Sixin said, “Local authorities also have some specific measures in place; for example, Beijing has established a ‘Mom Review Panel’ to monitor pornographic content and material unsuitable for children on the internet.” 　　“It is more important to apply existing laws effectively. These laws have already established a comprehensive system of responsibilities for the protection of minors in areas such as civil, administrative, and criminal law; what’s key is to ensure their proper implementation, strengthen law enforcement, and enhance judicial protection. It also fulfills the function of industry self-regulation. ”Zheng Ning said. 　　Wang Sixin told reporters that currently, the **Internet Information Office is carrying out a series of targeted measures, such as strengthening the responsibilities of websites as platforms and further refining the regulations for managing Internet service providers. \"In the next step, the Internet Information Office will conduct inspections to ensure compliance with the regulations on online live broadcasting, identify any problems that arise in practice, and propose new solutions promptly.\"