Legal Characterization and Liability Allocation in Minor Live-Streaming Tipping in China

Abstract

With the rapid development of China’s live-streaming economy, legal disputes arising from minors’ tipping behavior on live-streaming platforms have been increasing. Related issues mainly focus on the legal characterization of tipping behavior, the validity assessment of minors’ declarations of intent, and the allocation of responsibility among platforms, streamers, and guardians. Under the current framework of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, significant interpretive tensions remain regarding these issues. In particular, as algorithmic recommendation mechanisms increasingly intervene in user decision-making, the traditional assessment approach centered on civil capacity has revealed certain limitations in application. Through normative analysis and a review of typical cases, combined with platform governance and algorithmic influence mechanisms, this paper reconstructs the legal relationship structure of live-streaming tipping behavior. The study finds that judicial practice has gradually tended to characterize live-streaming tipping as an online service contract relationship rather than a pure gift relationship. However, in the context of minors, reliance solely on capacity rules cannot fully explain the authenticity of declarations of intent, as algorithmic recommendations and immersive interactions significantly strengthen behavioral inducement effects. Meanwhile, the boundaries of responsibility between platforms and streamers remain relatively ambiguous in practice, and existing youth modes and identity verification mechanisms are easily circumvented, resulting in limited effectiveness in risk prevention. Based on this, from the dual perspectives of institutional and technical governance, this paper proposes strengthening platform algorithmic governance and risk control obligations to improve protection rules for minors’ online consumption and provide theoretical support for regulatory policies.