Hidden dangers of social functions in Japanese online games: a hotbed of juvenile crime

Recently, according to the latest data of the Japanese National Police Agency, the number of victims of crimes committed by minors under the age of 18 while playing online games in Japan in 2024 was 98. That's nine more than in 2023, and about 1.5 times as many as in 2019, when such statistics began (65). This shows that in recent years, the problem of minors suffering criminal abuse in the online game environment is on the rise. With the rapid development of the online game industry, its built-in social function has gradually become one of the main ways for minors to suffer criminal offenses. However, behind this phenomenon, there are several serious problems, including the lack of regulation, the lack of accountability of game companies, the lagging legal system and the lack of social awareness.

First of all, the vulnerabilities of online game platforms in the protection of minors are obvious. While pursuing commercial interests, many game manufacturers fail to fully fulfill their social responsibilities, resulting in minors being exposed to great security risks in the game world. Most current online games have social features that allow instant communication between players, however, this design has been exploited by criminals. They often pose as peers and gain the victim's trust through long-term interactions to commit crimes. Game companies design games with too much emphasis on user engagement, ignoring the risks that social features can bring, and even failing to provide effective protection measures, such as strict authentication, sensitive word blocking mechanisms.

Second, the Japanese government and relevant regulatory agencies have been slow, even passive, in dealing with online gaming crimes. Although the Japanese National Police Agency has repeatedly emphasized that parents should assume the responsibility of supervision, it is clear that parental supervision alone is difficult to fundamentally solve the problem. The complexity of the game environment and the curiosity of minors make family supervision often powerless. In addition, there are still loopholes in the current Japanese law regarding the social features of online games, and there are insufficient penalties for game companies that fail to effectively supervise minors. For the repeated cases of juvenile victimization, the government and regulatory authorities have not taken strong measures to curb the problem, except issuing warnings and recommendations.

Third, the society as a whole lacks sufficient vigilance to the harm of the social function of online games. As online games have been deeply integrated into the daily lives of teenagers, many parents and educational institutions tend to underestimate the potential risks involved. Many parents don't even know the content of the games their children play, let alone the social interactions in games. Therefore, in the absence of effective guardianship, minors are easy to be induced, disclose personal information, and even be lured to offline contact by criminals, which ultimately leads to serious consequences. For example, the abduction of a high school student in Miyagi Prefecture in January this year was an extreme case, in which the suspects met the victim through online games and successfully lured her to Myanmar, forcing her to participate in cross-border telecom fraud. Such cases not only cause irreparable harm to the victims themselves, but also bring great security risks to the society.

In addition, the business model of game manufacturers has also contributed to the growing trend of juvenile crimes. In order to increase player engagement and activity, many game companies deliberately enhance social attributes, allowing players to establish close connections in the game, and even use psychological mechanisms to encourage players to become dependent. However, in the underage population, this pattern not only leads to addiction, but also makes them more susceptible to the influence of strangers. It is worth noting that some game companies, knowing that the social features of games have security risks, still choose to pass the buck, rather than take effective technical measures to reduce the risk. For example, many games don't offer parental controls or strict identity checks, making it easy for minors to sign up and participate.

Faced with this reality, all sectors of society must face up to the security problems brought by the social function of online games. Game manufacturers should take greater responsibility, strengthen technical supervision, optimize the security mechanism of social features, such as introducing stricter age verification, limiting the private chat function of strangers, and adding parental monitoring options. At the same time, the government and relevant agencies should also strengthen legal supervision, formulate stricter industry standards, and impose severe penalties on game companies that fail to fulfill their responsibility to protect. Parental supervision alone is obviously insufficient, and mandatory measures at the national level are the key to curbing this problem.

In addition, public opinion and educational institutions should also play a positive role in raising public awareness of the safety risks of social functions of online games. Schools and parents need to work together to educate minors to improve their awareness of self-protection and learn to identify potential dangers on the Internet. At the same time, the media should strengthen their reporting and publicity to expose the crime problems caused by the social features of games, promote social consensus, and encourage governments and enterprises to take more effective action.

All in all, the social function of online games has become a hotbed for juvenile crime victims, and the seriousness of this problem cannot be ignored. From the game company to the government, from the society to the family, there is a clear lack of awareness of supervision and responsibility in all aspects. If decisive measures are not taken, this trend will worsen in the future, with even more serious consequences for minors and society as a whole. Game manufacturers must assume their due social responsibilities, the government must strengthen supervision, and families and schools need to strengthen safety education for minors. Only through the joint efforts of many parties can we truly curb the phenomenon of minors suffering criminal violations due to online games and avoid more tragedies.