“Cute kids” have become the darlings of the platform, who is creating “Internet celebrity children”?
2024-08-16
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
From daily life to talent shows, from "golden sentences and jokes" to knowledge popularization... many accounts with the theme of "cute babies" have millions or tens of millions of fans, becoming the "darlings" of major video and live broadcast platforms. These "little internet celebrities" have large traffic and strong ability to attract money. Although they are different from the exaggerated eye-catching methods of "3-year-old girl fed to 70 kilograms" and "one and a half-year-old baby drinking beer" in previous years, some parents are driven by interests and continue to "find other ways" to avoid supervision, which also brings many hidden dangers.
Some parents are keen to create "little internet celebrities"
——Life becomes acting: short videos become a "new battlefield". Compared with the strict restrictions on live broadcasts, short videos have become the first choice for many minors and their parents to operate accounts. Some short video bloggers said that when shooting short videos, they need to conceive the children's lines to improve the short video's drainage effect. Only when there are more fans, more brands will come to discuss cooperation. Many MCNs (Internet celebrity incubation agencies) are also making plans to create "Internet celebrity account development templates" to provide some family bloggers with suggestions and assistance in content, hot spots, traffic, etc. Sun Zhifeng, a partner of Beijing Zhuowei Law Firm, said that in order to quickly obtain traffic, short videos of minors are increasingly showing the characteristics of scripted plots and professional performances. Some plots are more like intentional designs by parents, through children's words and deeds that do not match their identities, creating a contrast and attracting fans.
——The essence of bringing goods: putting on the shell of knowledge popularization. Nowadays, many top child bloggers have created their own brands, and the account itself is a "seller show". Some accounts shape children into "knowledge bloggers", and the video content has a certain knowledge popularization function, but later they obviously engage in commercial activities such as bringing goods, which is more confusing and guiding. A child blogger account gains attention and traffic with short videos that tell about ancient ceramic knowledge and share museum experiences, and interacts with well-known ceramic collection bloggers in a joint name, and also deeply participates in market competition. "With the increase in attention and traffic, the purpose of parents shooting short videos may be alienated, that is, "child prodigy" and "youngest collector" as brand labels for the studio to gain advantages in commercial competition." Han Yang, an associate researcher at the Institute of Public Opinion of the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said.
——Breaking the line to attract traffic: the "hidden area" of supervision. Some e-commerce stores use low-level interests to attract traffic by playing the edge ball. A reporter from Banyuetan opened an e-commerce platform and searched for "sweet and spicy children's clothes". Many child models were dressed as "hot girls" and "mature women". The sales of children's clothing such as "backless clothes", "navel-exposed clothes" and "hip skirts" exceeded 1,000. In the live broadcast room with increasingly strict supervision, some parent bloggers let children participate in disguised forms. Some use another mobile phone to scroll in front of the camera to play videos of children trying on children's clothes or tasting snacks, and some use "background sound" to transmit children's voices. Some experts believe that after the real-name authentication of an account is successful, it is difficult to conduct effective follow-up supervision on whether the content of the videos posted by the account involves minors.
There are risks for children who are deeply involved in the "Internet celebrity circle"
Experts believe that the monetization of online traffic has the characteristics of a short life cycle, short-term explosive growth, and easy to wither quickly. Children's addiction to the "Internet celebrity circle" is not conducive to their growth and the long-term development of society.
——Distorting children's values and fostering bad practices. At present, many children's future ideals have become "becoming an Internet celebrity". Liu Yang, a partner at Beijing Deheng Law Firm, believes that children's worldview, outlook on life, and values are not yet mature. They think that they can achieve financial freedom with the help of online platforms, and then neglect their studies. After the traffic disappears, they may not be able to return to the normal growth path. Zhang Dianjun, director of the Science and Social Research Department of the Party School of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, believes that "little Internet celebrities" are prone to utilitarianism and impetuous mentality, which affects their long-term career planning and rational judgment. "If the bad social atmosphere that 'being an Internet celebrity' is more attractive than receiving education spreads, it will have a certain impact on social values." Zhang Dianjun said.
——Harming children's physical and mental health and creating social anxiety. In some videos, "little internet celebrities" are labeled as "queen" and "little milk dog", and "CP-ship", appearance anxiety, gender bias and other content appear in the barrage. Zhou Tiantian, the brigade counselor and the secretary of the Youth League branch of the Experimental Primary School in Xiqing District, Tianjin, said that the popular remarks of "little internet celebrities" are easily imitated by young people, who regard the "golden sentences" in them as "high-quality language", causing some children to have anxiety, inferiority and other mental health problems.
Able to play piano at the age of 1, well-versed in history at the age of 5, mastering university mathematics at the age of 10... Some "genius children" are scripts planned by MCN organizations. Li Bo, vice principal of Fenghuang Primary School in Hedong District, Tianjin, believes that packaging such "genius children" videos is creating and selling anxiety, which can easily cause some parents to forcibly interfere with the normal growth process of their children, exacerbating the utilitarianism and impetuousness of society.
——Disclosure of children's privacy, forming a gray and black industry chain. Zhu Shurong, a lawyer at Beijing Deheng (Tianjin) Law Firm, believes that allowing children's physical characteristics and other privacy to be "naked" on the Internet may attract the attention of criminals, exposing children to cyberbullying and even threats to their personal safety. Sun Zhifeng said that using children to make "soft pornography" and "soft violence" borderline videos can easily lead to illegal and criminal acts against minors, and may also cause children participating in and watching performances to lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong and good from evil.
Purify the Internet environment and give children a clear space
In recent years, my country has formulated laws and regulations and normative documents such as "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Minors in the Internet Cultural Market", "Regulations on the Protection of Minors on the Internet", and "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Streaming Rewards to Strengthen the Protection of Minors", which strictly prohibit the use of "Internet celebrity children" for profit and other uses of the Internet to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of minors. However, this phenomenon has not been completely banned and is still being updated.
The identity of "Internet celebrity children" is still in a legal gray area. Legal professionals suggest that a clearer definition of minors' participation in online activities should be made, and relevant departments should have the right to hold parents accountable for forcing minors to "operate" or "profit" so as to reduce the motivation of parents to profit against the wishes of minors.
Platforms also need to tie a stronger "safety rope" for children. Li Binyu, director of Tianjin Jixian Law Firm, believes that online cultural market players should strengthen online content construction, explore and establish review and judgment standards for content that is not suitable for minors to access, and continuously improve the ability to identify illegal and irregular content models; manual review should improve professionalism and effectiveness, and timely and effectively block and clean up harmful content such as cult, pornography, illegal missionary work, dangerous behavior, and bad values.
Liu Yang believes that the platform should establish a series of mechanisms such as user registration, content review, supervision and reporting, take measures to block accounts that seriously violate the rules, and set up a reporting reward mechanism for "little internet celebrities" who act in a borderline manner, and deal with them as soon as they are discovered. Zhu Shurong said that schools and families need to strengthen children's self-protection education and create a good atmosphere for social co-governance.
