Text | Vichen
In response to the adolescent model reported by many parents, a few days ago, the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission tested 20 mainstream videos, short videos, and live broadcast apps in the market.
In general, the youth model has achieved "from scratch" and needs to move towards "from there to excellent".
The pictures in this article are all WeChat public accounts of the "Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission"
Since 2019, online platforms have successively launched a youth mode, which restricts functions such as the length of use, recharge and tips to varying degrees, and has played an active role in helping minors reduce online dependence and bad information on the Internet.
However, this test still found some vulnerabilities and shortcomings: first, some apps can still be used normally during late-night hours; Second, these apps claim that they will "select a batch of high-quality content suitable for minors" and "recommend education, knowledge and other content suitable for teenagers to watch" in the youth mode, but in fact, the number of videos in this mode has been sharply reduced, or even not at all; Third, the content pool is not well matched by age, such as recommending the same cartoon to 4-year-old children and 14-year-old students. The mainstream APP in the market should not be so "leading".
There's no denying that polishing the teenage model is a delicate job. In particular, some relatively complex functions cannot be achieved overnight. If different content is provided for minor netizens of different ages, it is more like an upgraded version of "selecting" suitable content for teenagers, and the scale designed by age is finer and more difficult.
But when basic functions such as late-night disabling are useless, it makes people wonder: is it a platform technical problem, or an attitude problem?
The key to making the teen model live up to its name is to rely on the platform. In the youth mode, the technical control is stricter and the content threshold is higher, and some platforms are worried that the underage user group will flow to the APP with more "relaxed" restrictions, so they have a perfunctory attitude, and implement the youth mode on the surface, but secretly leave a lot of holes.
The Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission's call for "network service providers to assume corresponding social responsibilities and balance social benefits with corporate interests" has been clearly stated.
To prevent minors from becoming addicted to the Internet, it is not a multiple-choice question but a mandatory question. Similar "hard constraints" are indispensable to incorporate the youth model into the CSR evaluation system.
If once the teen mode is turned on, the number of videos will be sharply reduced, the content will be monotonous and boring, and you can't even watch anything, the attraction of this mode to minors can be imagined. According to the "2021 National Research Report on Internet Use by Minors" released at the end of last year, 85.9% of minor Internet users know the teenage mode, and 37.7% have not set the mode. 44.1% of minor netizens, 40.1% of parents, and 46.2% of teachers believe that the effect of adolescent mode is average or not very effective, which also affects the user scale and implementation effect of adolescent mode to a certain extent.
Under the general trend of constantly promoting the improvement and upgrading of the youth model, passive coping and perfunctory things are not a long-term solution, and taking the initiative to make efforts in the construction of content pools and other aspects to make the youth model work, let minor netizens love to use, and make meaningful things interesting, in order to truly retain users.
【Author】 Yang Yue
Southern Review