Who is hyping "summer scariest"? The reporter investigates the phenomenon of "trafficking in educational anxiety"

Original title: Who is hyping "the scariest summer"?

The reporter investigated the phenomenon of "trafficking education anxiety" online and offline in the summer

"Selling Anxiety" manga / Gao Yue

Whether online or offline, many teaching and training institutions are "selling anxiety" in the summer, and the training teachers (anchors) "sincerely" tell students' parents that "the ×× stage is the most important", and they must hurry up to study in the summer, otherwise the children will not be able to keep up when school starts, or they will be quickly overtaken by their peers

On the short video platform, such "selling anxiety" video fire, from early childhood to junior high school, almost every grade is covered - in the mouth of short video bloggers, every semester's summer vacation is a key node of "counterattack". The tutors in these videos may belong to different organizations, but use the same set of words, and the bottom left of the video is often accompanied by a link to purchase the teaching aid or training course

Parents of students should look at it rationally, enhance their ability to identify, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their children's all-round development, and enable their children to truly have a healthy and happy summer life. At the same time, regulators should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure that the "double reduction" policy is in place

"The summer vacation of the first grade is the most terrible, and the gap between the two months has widened, and I have not grasped the summer vacation step by step."

"The summer vacation in third grade is the scariest, and if you don't do it, your child will be a big step behind when school starts."

"The summer vacation of the sixth grade is the most terrible, and the students with poor grades in primary school, after the summer vacation, the grades are all up, and they must do a good job of bridging."

……

With the summer holidays approaching, similar videos have flooded the Internet. The tutors in these videos may belong to different organizations, but use the same set of words, and the bottom left of the video is often accompanied by a link to purchase the teaching aid or training course. "The more I look at it, the more anxious it becomes, and I feel that this summer vacation children will no longer be able to keep up if they don't hurry up with their studies." Mr. Wang, a parent in Beijing, said.

A recent investigation by a reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" found that whether online or offline, many education and training institutions are "selling anxiety" in the summer, and training teachers (anchors) "sincerely" tell students' parents that "the ×× stage is the most important", and they must study quickly in the summer, otherwise the children will not be able to keep up when school starts, or they will be quickly overtaken by their peers.

In this regard, a number of experts in an interview with reporters believe that as the audience of such advertisements, parents of students should look at it rationally, enhance their recognition ability, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their children's all-round development, and let their children truly have a healthy and happy summer life. At the same time, regulators should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure that the "double reduction" policy is in place.

The "most" videos are overwhelmed, but they are actually selling book lessons

In a short video released by a video channel in June this year, almost three-quarters of the screen was occupied by the face of the "teacher" - he wore glasses, his palms swayed to the rhythm of speech, his eyebrows frowned slightly, and he looked like a "senior teacher". The large characters in front of the forehead are particularly eye-catching: "Grades generally want to turn over, and the summer vacation of the fifth grade does this."

In the video, he said seriously: "The results of the fifth grade are average, and after you reach the sixth grade, it will still be average, and it will be more average in the first year of junior high school." "What should I do if I want to turn things against the wind? The "teacher" likened learning to a race, saying that the results of "elementary school" are the ultimate indicator of how well children learn in elementary school.

Many children start preparing for the entrance exams in the second semester of the sixth grade, and this "teacher" suggests that they should start in the fifth grade and start early in the revision. Then he changed his tone and began to sell a certain textbook tutorial book...

On the short video platform, such "selling anxiety" video fire, from early childhood to junior high school, almost every grade is covered - in the mouth of short video bloggers, every semester's summer vacation is a key node of "counterattack".

From the perspective of course categories, "language is the watershed", "English should be learned in advance", "Olympiad is a stepping stone"... Koko must pay attention. However, when the video is about to end, the blogger will immediately give advice on buying books and courses.

Not only that, on the promotional slogans of some videos, it is also written that "×× grade is the most terrible", "don't play summer vacation anymore, ×× grade is a watershed", "if you don't make good use of this summer vacation, you basically have no chance with high school" and so on. The exaggerated tone, coupled with tense music, made some parents who watched the video exclaim: feel anxious.

If you don't grasp this time, is the child really "wasted"? Some netizens complained that in the past two years, every summer vacation and winter vacation, you can always brush a large number of such videos or live broadcasts on the short video platform, from the first grade to high school graduation, every year is a "watershed", as if the success or failure of children's studies is in this move.

The reporter saw that most of these accounts opened shopping windows, and the link at the bottom left of the video clicked in, which was the sale of various learning materials and tutoring courses. The price of teaching materials varies, some sell for 350 yuan, and some are more than 100 yuan. According to the preview data of a small school junior summer vacation, 380,000 pieces have been sold. Tutoring courses are more complicated to purchase, and the pricing seems low, but in fact, it is only a consultation registration fee, and you need to pay a certain fee to start the official course.

On June 28, Douyin released the fifth issue of the announcement to crack down on "taking advantage of hot events to rub hot hype", and selling summer "education anxiety" content has become the focus of governance. Accounts that create "educational anxiety" content such as "the summer vacation of the second grade of primary school students is 'very dangerous' and 'the most terrible'", "the summer vacation of the second grade does not do a good job of preparation, and the grades of the third grade plummet", "the summer vacation is coming, do not waste 60 days of summer vacation" and other accounts that create "educational anxiety" content have been strictly dealt with for violating the rules of the platform. At present, Douyin has dealt with 961 related illegal videos, and imposed penalties on 81 accounts such as banning publishing and restricting e-commerce permission to bring goods.

The reporter noticed that the experience sharing post has also become a new way of spreading anxiety. When sharing his experience of raising a baby online, a netizen named "Xixi's mother" said that unnecessary courses really do not need to be supplemented, telling other parents not to be overly anxious, but then changed the conversation and said, "My child is reading ×× tutoring book, which is very useful." At the end of the post, the purchase links of various tutoring materials were directly attached, and many parents contacted her to purchase.

Some users left messages in the comment area: Applying for seven or eight cram schools and interest classes for children in one breath is actually alleviating their anxiety and increasing their children's stress. More users pointed out that watching is sharing experience, but in fact it is "selling anxiety" and eating ugly.

The bloggers in the "Selling Anxiety" video boasted, how effective are the courses and teaching materials in their shopping links?

Many parents said that they saw various teaching materials recommended by bloggers on the Internet, and they did not know which one was good, so they simply bought them all for their children, but found that although many teaching materials were written nationwide, the actual content was completely inconsistent with the local teaching content and progress, and the children were very uncomfortable with learning.

Training institutions find people to deliberately create group anxiety

"Trafficking education anxiety" is not only online, but also offline.

Shen Zhou (pseudonym), who used to work in the education and training industry in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, told reporters that the online phrase of "selling education anxiety" has long existed, all originating from offline training institutions, "first rendering anxiety and then guiding parents to sign up for classes and buy books, offline training institutions play the rest to move to the short video platform, and deceive a group of parents."

Shen Zhou revealed to reporters that there are some training institutions near Chuansha in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, where he is located, there are "trafficking education anxiety" phenomenon, these make-up institutions cover all stages of primary school to high school, as long as there are subjects with test needs, classes can be held here, and anxiety is the main enrollment method of these institutions.

Shenzhou said that education and training institutions usually mobilize students' parents to let them publicize the organization among relatives and friends. Some institutions also promise that for every student they recruit, the introducer will receive a commission, or the introducer's child will be enrolled at a discounted price. As a result, many "institutional trusts" were mixed in with the group of students' parents.

"These 'institutional nurseries' use occasions such as small talk time and parent-teacher conferences to spread anxiety to other parents. In this way, the anxiety of the surrounding parents was greatly mobilized, and they all consulted what to do. At this time, if you say the name of the institution, some parents will be very convinced and hurry to pay for the class. Shen Zhou said.

Parents' anxiety will be magnified several times every winter and summer vacation, and it seems that if they do not take advantage of this time to make up for it, their children will be left behind by the same class "top students" after the start of school, and even be "overtaken on a curve" by other students.

The reporter found that this kind of anxiety has even spread among some parents since kindergarten, and many make-up training courses have emerged online and offline, ranging from talent specialties to subject counseling. Parents are anxious, children are busy.

"The second child was promoted to junior, yesterday the pinyin class 'sold anxiety', let the baby make up all the Chinese and mathematics, I couldn't bear to report, I planned to only teach him basketball swimming, these young people don't learn later, there will be no time." A parent in Shanghai said.

Jasmine (pseudonym) in Shanghai's Xuhui District is attending kindergarten and seems out of place with the children around her. Jasmine's father, Mr. Ma, told reporters that parents around him are already discussing how to choose make-up classes before their children's primary school, and they must hurry up to attend English classes and art classes, and a wave of anxiety spreads among parents.

In the face of the "educational anxiety" that parents have fallen into, students are even more "suffering words". Xiao Song of Suzhou, Anhui Province, complained to reporters that in school, teachers will say that "if you do not preview in advance, you will not be able to keep up with the teaching arrangement of the next semester", and ask parents to help students use the vacation time to study the next semester's courses by themselves in advance, so students will have two sets of teaching materials, one set bought in advance for self-study, and one set for formal class time issued by the school.

"If my grades drop a little, my parents will sign me up for cram classes, one-on-one tutoring, evening self-study tutoring, recess tutoring, use all the time available, and holidays are almost non-existent." Xiao Song recalled that especially during the summer vacation after the middle school entrance examination, she seemed to seamlessly transition directly to the first year of high school, and there was no summer vacation at all. Parents' anxiety is worse than that of children, they do not digest themselves, but transfer to children.

In the short video platform, some warning videos of so-called "senior teachers" will also be shared by parents to family and friends and parent groups, creating group anxiety.

At the same time, offline make-up institutions are also facing the problem of mismatched goods.

During the interview, students generally reflected that there were many problems in offline courses: the course was too basic, the whole process was not explained, and the teacher blindly read the PPT... Not only that, it is difficult to guarantee the teaching staff, and some "tutors" and "famous teachers" have not even obtained teacher qualification certificates, and some are still college students.

Xiao Yang in Shanghai's Qingpu District worked as a "black tutor" during the summer vacation, tutoring primary school students with their coursework. When asked about the reason for his employment, Xiao Yang said that some parents have difficulty in tutoring their children's homework, but they are afraid that their children's summer homework will not be completed well, so they find teachers outside to help tutor, and their grades in high school are quite good, plus college students charge less, so they are hired by parents.

Actively implement regulatory duties and resist trafficking anxiety

The reporter found that "trafficking anxiety" has become the norm when institutions sell courses. Is such a campaign legal?

Sun Wei, a senior partner at Zhongzheng Law Firm in Beijing, believes that it is no problem for institutions to increase exposure through advertising in order to obtain better sales results, but it is very inappropriate to seek marketing results by "selling anxiety" in advertising.

Sun Wei said that the first item of the first paragraph of article 24 of the Advertising Law stipulates that "advertisements for education and training shall not contain the following content: express or implicit guarantee promises for further studies, passing examinations, obtaining degrees or certificates, or the effect of education and training." While "trafficking anxiety" does not directly manifest itself as a pledge of commitment, it is not directly manifested as a guarantee through the phrase "if not... will...", indicating the necessity of its teaching and training courses or teaching materials and books for further study, passing examinations, obtaining academic degrees, etc., which is essentially an implied guarantee promise, which violates the provisions of the Advertising Law.

At the same time, Article 3 of the Advertising Law stipulates that advertisements shall be truthful and legal, express the content of advertisements in a healthy form of expression, and meet the requirements of building socialist spiritual civilization and carrying forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation; Article 4 stipulates that advertisements must not contain false or misleading content, and must not deceive or mislead consumers. Strictly speaking, "trafficking anxiety" is an "unhealthy manifestation", and its content is deceptive and misleading, which does not meet the requirements of the Advertising Law for advertising content.

What are the responsibilities of online platforms? How should offline training courses advertise "selling anxiety"?

Sun Wei said that according to Article 2 of the Advertising Law, online platforms belong to advertisement publishers, and they should bear the supervision and review responsibilities prescribed by law for the advertisements they publish. Article 34 of the Advertising Law stipulates that "advertising agents and advertisement publishers shall, in accordance with relevant national provisions, establish and complete systems for undertaking registration, review, and file management of advertising business." Advertising agents and advertisement publishers are to check relevant supporting documents and check the content of advertisements in accordance with laws and administrative regulations. Advertising agents must not provide design, production, or agency services for advertisements whose content does not match or whose supporting documents are incomplete, and advertisement publishers must not publish them."

"If it is determined that certain education and training advertisements violate Article 24 of the Advertising Law, and the advertisement publisher continues to publish it despite knowing it, the regulatory authority has the right to impose administrative penalties such as fines, suspension of advertising publication business or revocation of business license on the publisher according to the seriousness of the circumstances and in accordance with the Advertising Law." Sun Wei said.

Sun Wei believes that advertisements should be recognizable in accordance with the law, and the advertising content of offline training institutions should be able to enable parents and students to identify that this is an advertisement, rather than trying to explain the necessity of teaching and training courses and teaching books from a "scientific" perspective, and causing consumers to misunderstand through the guiding content of "selling anxiety". In this regard, administrative organs shall actively perform regulatory duties and further regulate the conduct of offline training institutions publishing advertisements.

How should the problem of "trafficking anxiety" in training institutions be dealt with in the summer?

Sun Wei said that on the one hand, regulators should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure that the "double reduction" policy is in place; On the other hand, as the audience of such advertisements, parents of students should look at it rationally, enhance their recognition ability, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their all-round development, and enable them to truly have a healthy and happy summer life.

"Freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the success of the method of 'selling anxiety' is only to take advantage of the long-term psychology of parents hoping for their children to become dragons." In the view of Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, using the holiday to overtake on a curve is of course an option, but it is a bit worth the loss to use all this rare vacation to improve performance. Instead of suffering students and poor parents, it is better to put aside grades for a while and find the right way to open the holiday together.

Meng Qiang said that during the summer vacation, relaxation and play are very important, but children should also be allowed to learn and cultivate a certain amount, such as reading books and learning new skills. Parents should give their children enough support and encouragement to make them feel the warmth of family during the holidays. At the same time, he reminded relevant video platforms not to let this chaos of "trafficking anxiety" go because of the pursuit of commercial interests, and should let more people be aware of the harm of this behavior and resolutely resist this "trafficking anxiety" behavior.

(Source: Rule of Law Daily)