With the arrival of the "May Day" holiday, many children have been allowed by their parents to use children's phones and watches to enjoy the fun of taking pictures, socializing and games. The "smartphoneization" trend of children's phone watches has made parents worry about their social and entertainment functions. At the same time, there are also increasing complaints about children's watches suspected of privacy risks and hidden fee traps.
The Red Star News reporter observed that a relatively niche electronic student ID card has appeared on the market, which has been welcomed by some parents with its minimalist design and screenless features, but with the basic functions of safe contact and emergency help.
Sun Hongyan, a researcher at the China Youth Research Center, suggested in an interview with Red Star News that children's phone watches should focus on the main functions that parents care about, and come standard with a minor protection mode, and some additional functions are not as good as possible.
The market penetration rate is high
Children's phone watches have been exposed to many hidden dangers
According to the China Industry Research Institute's "2022-2027 China Children's Smart Watch Industry In-depth Research and Investment Prospect Forecast Research Report", there are currently about 170 million children aged 5 to 12 in mainland China, and the market penetration rate of children's smart watches is about 30%, which is equivalent to 1 in 3 children using children's smart watches, and the market penetration rate of urban children is even more than half.
Red Star News reporters searched on the mainstream e-commerce platform, only between 200 ~ 500 yuan or even more than 1,000 yuan The number of babies has exceeded 4000 pieces, in addition to basic functions such as making and receiving calls, GPS positioning, etc., there are also a series of extended functions such as flipping dual cameras, waterproof, health monitoring, etc., and some even directly put "children's social" as an important selling point.
Mr. Zhou, a parent, bought the latest children's phone watch for his son who is in primary school, and he was very happy to see the child's happy appearance. But it wasn't long before he discovered that every time his son went out to play, he could add strangers as friends by touching or shaking the children's phone watch. He also found that the function of some brands of children's phone watches is limited to the function of adding friends between watches of the same brand, "and some high-end children's watches often start at thousands of yuan, which invisibly forms a comparison psychology among children."
Not only that, children play games on their watches after school, which is originally for the combination of work and rest, but it is easy for children to become addicted and their eyesight will be affected. What worries him even more is that the watch has functions such as red envelope payment and shopping.
And his worries have become a real experience for some parents. The Red Star News reporter saw in the public information of the Black Cat complaint platform: Many parents complained that the child's children's watch did not open password-free payment, but the deduction information was found, and some deductions even exceeded 1,000 yuan.
Some consumers complained that a variety of game consumption was hidden in the child's watch, and the deduction had reached 1,830 yuan, but the parents could not contact the customer service and could not refund.
Some parents complained that the deduction app in the phone watch is called "backgammon", etc., and the fee can be deducted directly by scanning the code, and later found that the child has recharged a total of 1585 yuan.
Some parents complained that the fun farm encyclopedia software installed on their children's watches was deducted without prompting. Fortunately, parents have the habit of checking bills for credit card repayment, otherwise they would not have known that there is such a purchase.
CCTV's 3.15 party exposed a children's smart watch with sales of "100,000+" on the e-commerce platform. After testing, it uses an operating system without any permission management requirements, so that malicious programs can be easily implanted, not only can hear the chat recordings on the watch in real time, but also can easily obtain the child's location, face image and other private information.
Quietly listed and diverted
Can the electronic student ID card become a "replacement"?
The Red Star News reporter learned that the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Mobile Phones for Primary and Secondary School Students" in 2021, requiring primary and secondary school students not to bring personal mobile phones into the campus in principle, and encouraging schools to explore the use of electronic student ID cards and other devices with call functions to solve the call needs of students and parents.
Red Star News reporters searched for electronic student ID cards or smart electronic student cards on mainstream e-commerce platforms and found that hundreds of products were on sale. In addition, according to parents, communication operators can also provide similar products. These smart devices for kids have HD calling capabilities and are usually hung around the child's neck like a document or card. They have the function of family calls, filter out strange calls through the whitelist, and only the fixed number confirmed by parents can be dialed to avoid harassment by strange calls. In case of emergency, children can press the SOS button, and they can set up electronic fences, and they cannot install third-party apps or add strangers at will. And compared with children's phone watches, the price is mainly concentrated in the range of 150-300 yuan, and the threshold is low.
Mr. Yang replaced the children's watch his daughter was wearing with a trial electronic student ID card provided by a telecommunications operator. According to him, the electronic student ID card allows parents to contact their children at any time, see their children's location, and children can also contact designated family members at any time, which is enough. He didn't want to see his daughter playing chess on a screen the size of a watch, or being obsessed with interacting with a smart assistant and listening to stories that teachers didn't recommend. "I want my children to exercise outdoors more freely, rather than being a low-headed person from an early age," he says.
Red Star News reporter searched for "electronic student card" in Taobao Mall, sorted by sales, the price of the electronic student ID card in the first place was 159 yuan, more than 10,000 people paid, and more than 1,000 evaluations; It can be seen that the sales of children's phone watches far exceed those of electronic student IDs, and the price is also higher, reflecting the market's preference for multi-functional products. Despite this, the electronic student ID card also attracts a certain number of consumers due to its minimalist design and affordable price.
Expert opinion
The front desk does subtraction and the back end does addition
On the e-commerce platform, there are many types of children's phone watches, and the functions are becoming more and more abundant, and some even directly use "children's social" as a selling point. Is the more features the better?
Sun Hongyan, a researcher at the China Youth Research Center, said in an interview with Red Star News that the main purpose of parents buying children's watches is to maintain emergency contact with their children and ensure their safety. Since children's phones and watches can now access the Internet and have game functions, there are actually some uncontrollable risks for parents, such as being affected by bad websites or being addicted to games.
Previously, Cui Minyan, chief representative of the Global Child Safety Organization (China), also suggested in an interview with the media that manufacturers of children's smart watches should add or subtract when designing product functions. For example, you can add parental background supervision, design age-specific smart watches, turn off the function of touching and adding friends to younger children, or require parental consent to use friends and download games.
In the interview, the Red Star News reporter found that with the continuous increase in the functions of children's phone watches, the price gap is also very large, and some high-end products have even triggered children's comparison psychology. In this regard, Sun Hongyan suggested that parents and teachers should encourage minors to focus on the spiritual level, rather than comparing whose watch is more expensive and has more functions. She called on manufacturers to launch more children's phone watch products that are affordable and suitable for most families, rather than blindly pursuing multi-function and high-end prices. She supports more parents to choose electronic student ID cards or smart electronic student card products with simple functions, focus and outstanding cost performance.
The Red Star News reporter also learned that the "Guidelines for the Protection of Personal Information and Rights and Interests of Children's Smart Watches" has been officially implemented on March 11, 2024, for children's smart watch producers, in terms of notification and consent and rights protection, guardian control, network information content security, etc., it is hoped that the industry can comply with unified standards and models.
Red Star News reporter Pang Jian
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for reporting!)