What to do if the child is endlessly brushing short videos
The reporter investigates minors' addiction to short videos
Reporter Han Dandong
Intern Zhao Yujia
"Why are you scrolling through short videos again?"
"If you don't brush short videos, you're out!"
"You don't look at your grades!"
......
This is a conversation that often occurs at Ms. Wang's home in Chengdu, Sichuan. Ms. Wang told the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter that her son Xiaopeng is in junior high school, and has been very addicted to short videos recently, and the first thing he did when he came home from school was to brush short videos, and after going to bed at night, he secretly brushed under the quilt, resulting in a plummeting academic performance.
The reporter's interview found that there are many minors like Xiaopeng who are addicted to short videos, which not only seriously affects academic performance, but also easily has a negative impact on physical and mental health, which makes many parents headache.
From March to June 2022, the National Mental Health Assessment and Development Center of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a survey of more than 3,6 primary and secondary school students aged 29 to 3 in 10 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) in China, showing that 16.33% of adolescents agreed to varying degrees of "I can't bear not having a mobile phone". This suggests that these teenagers may have developed a psychological dependence on mobile phones. At the same time, more than 4/1 of teenagers may have affected their studies and lives due to mobile phone use.
In this regard, experts interviewed by reporters recently believe that minors' excessive addiction to short videos may lead to a disconnect from the real world, thus affecting their physical and mental health. In the cultivation and improvement of minors' media literacy, not only the participation of schools and professionals, but also the attention of parents in daily life is required to cultivate and guide. At the same time, we should also improve the attractiveness of the youth model, tailor-made and specially customize more high-quality content, meet the diversified use needs of minors, and jointly escort the healthy growth of minors.
Children are addicted to short videos
Addiction is easy, addiction is hard
"I brush short videos every day when I get home, sometimes pick him up from school, and watch it on the way home!" Ms. Wang complained that the immersive interface of some short video apps, in particular, allows children to not see the time of the phone's status bar, "and it looks endless."
"Sometimes tell me to watch it for a while, but when I come back from grocery shopping, he's still watching." Ms. Wang said that when children write homework, they should go to his house at any time to check it, and several times they caught him writing homework while watching videos.
In the face of her child's declining test scores, Ms. Wang felt anxious. To this end, she has talked to her children many times, hoping to let them quit the "addiction" of reading short videos through communication, but with little effect.
Liu Yun (pseudonym) from Xinxiang, Henan Province, also has a deep understanding of this. "The first thing my brother did when he came home from school was to take out his mobile phone to swipe short videos, and he was reluctant to put down his mobile phone even during meals, and he was not in a hurry to write homework. During the holidays, I watched it almost all day, and we couldn't help him. ”
According to Liu Yun, his younger brother is a third-grade elementary school student, and because the elders in the family spoil him, he will give it if he wants to play with his mobile phone. My brother often watches funny videos and learns the bloggers in the videos. "Now it is becoming more and more difficult to concentrate, and my mind is always distracted when I write homework, and I can't move to pop up a few hot words in short videos, or hum the Internet Divine Comedy while writing homework."
Also troubled by children's addiction to short videos is Ms. Hao from Handan, Hebei. Ms. Hao's daughter is now in high school, "her math scores were not satisfactory, and her grades in other subjects were good, but after indulging in short videos, her grades in all subjects dropped a lot."
Ms. Hao told reporters that her daughter now lives in school and only goes home on weekends, but as long as she comes back from school, she lies in bed and brushes her mobile phone. "I was more worried about her physical and mental health than the decline in grades. As soon as the holiday is over, I brush short videos at home, and I don't go out with my classmates, people have become a lot more introverted, their eyesight has seriously decreased, and their weight has soared to 160 pounds, what can I do if I go on like this? ”
The child of Chen Dan (pseudonym) in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, is only 3 years old this year, and after being fascinated by short videos, he didn't even watch his favorite fairy tale books and cartoons. "Once upon a time, as soon as I came home, she asked me to accompany her to read books and build blocks, but recently I have been making a fuss, and I don't pestered me to play with my mobile phone, which is really worrying."
According to the "Youth Blue Book: Report on the Internet Use of Minors in China (2022)", the Internet penetration rate of minors is nearly saturated, and the Internet penetration rate of minors has reached 99.9% in the past six months, which is significantly higher than the national Internet penetration rate of 73%. Among them, in addition to playing games and online classes, brushing short videos is also the main content of minors' Internet access.
In the investigation, the reporter also found that most minors do not turn on teen mode when browsing online short videos, and some minors have tried to open teen mode in order to "quit" short videos, but it didn't last long to stop it.
"Because it limits the time I can watch, it's too short, and the content in it doesn't look good after turning on teen mode." I memorized my parents' ID numbers, and dodging teen mode wasn't hard for me at all. A junior high school student from Baoding, Hebei Province, told reporters.
After bypassing the teen mode, some age-appropriate, violent, vulgar short video content has a negative impact on the physical and mental health of minors, and there is even a risk of being scammed.
Short videos have a lot of bad content
Serious impact on physical and mental health
Why do minors become addicted to short videos?
According to Liu Deliang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, addiction to short videos is a very common social phenomenon, because short videos themselves are short and concise, which can capture the interests of different people in creation and make targeted recommendations according to algorithms. It is attractive not only for minors, but also for adults.
Zhang Xin, associate professor at Peking University's School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, said that the main reason why minors are addicted to short videos is that in real life, certain needs are not met, such as not feeling supported or warm in peer relationships, and brushing short videos makes up for this gap to a certain extent. At the same time, short videos have the characteristics of timely feedback, and learning is a long process and will not get timely feedback. Over time, this can lead to a greater willingness to focus on short videos.
So, what impact does watching a short video for a long time have on the mental health of minors?
Zhang Xin said that long-term short videos will make minors accustomed to timely feedback, and they can't bear delayed feedback, which will have a greater impact on minors' attention. In addition, minors may not be able to identify some inappropriate content, which makes them more susceptible to short videos and thus their values.
Yang Min, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, believes that watching short videos for a long time will immerse minors in this comfortable and simple environment, rather than studying hard. At the same time, creators of short videos often create eye-catching themes and content for more traffic, and a large number of short videos, the production level is uneven, the amount of information is large, large, and miscellaneous, and in the long run, it will affect minors to establish correct values.
Liu Ji, head of Dentons' global technology, media and communications industry group in China, said short videos often use fast-paced and stimulating content, which tends to make minors addicted and neglect other beneficial activities such as learning and sports. At the same time, long-term viewing of short videos may cause people's attention to be difficult to concentrate, affecting study and work.
"Overindulgence in short videos and neglect face-to-face socialization and interaction can lead to disconnection from the real world and make minors withdrawn. In addition, short videos may contain violent, gory or pornographic content, which can seriously affect the mental health of minors. Liu Ji said.
"Parents, schools, society and social platforms should unite and work together to protect minors from inappropriate content." Liu Ji said that the protection of minors has been further strengthened at the institutional level, supervision has been strengthened, and violations must be prosecuted. Social platforms should strengthen self-regulation and formulate stricter rules to limit the spread of undesirable content and reduce harm to minors. Schools and communities should strengthen education for minors to help minors better understand the harm of indulging in short videos. The most important thing is that parents should set an example, read more, look less at mobile phones, do not brush vulgar short videos, and guide minors to choose suitable content.
Liu Ji suggested that parents should carefully supervise the time and content of their children's viewing of short videos, and guide them on how to choose suitable content when necessary. For example, set a specific viewing time slot in the family to avoid excessive use of mobile phones and other digital media by children. At the same time, utilize various tools to limit your child's screen time, such as setting up mobile apps, browser plugins, and more. The core is to cultivate children's self-control, teach children how to control their impulses, and better manage their behaviors and habits.
Jiang Qialei, associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University and deputy director of the Intelligent Media Research Center, also believes that in the cultivation and improvement of minors' media literacy, it is not only necessary for schools and professionals to participate, but also needs to play the role of the family as an important environment for the growth of minors, and parents need to pay attention to cultivation and guidance in daily life.
The teen model needs to be improved
Parents should lead by example
The reporter learned that in order to ensure that the content of the platform is conducive to the healthy growth of minors, major platforms are also actively launching corresponding measures.
The relevant person in charge of Douyin told reporters that the special working group for the protection of minors on Douyin is engaged in strict monitoring and prevention in pre-prevention, in-event supervision, post-event disposal, etc., and through the launch of a variety of risk control model strategies, deeply excavate and clean up illegal content, topics and accounts that infringe on the rights and interests of minors and endanger the physical and mental health of minors, punish relevant content and topics in advance, remove and delete relevant content, punish relevant accounts accordingly, and strictly deal with adverse content that may affect the physical and mental health of minors. In addition, at important nodes such as winter and summer vacations, Douyin also carries out special governance actions against content such as bad values, bottomless star chasing, and inducing rewards, to ensure that minors surf the Internet healthily and safely.
As early as July 2018, Douyin launched an experimental version of Teen Mode. Since September 7, Douyin has launched the strictest anti-addiction measures in the history of the platform, and all real-name users under the age of 2021 have entered the youth mode. Since then, exclusive features such as collection function, age-appropriate recommendation, voice search, recognition of all things, and eye protection reminder have been launched successively to meet the needs of minors' physical and mental development and exploration of the world.
WeChat Channels Teen Mode can quickly turn on "Teen Mode" by searching at your fingertips. Now, just send "#微信青少年模式" or "#青少年模式" on the chat page, click the blue word to jump to the special page of WeChat "Teen Mode", so that you can turn on Teen Mode with one click.
After turning on teen mode, WeChat has the capabilities of full pop-up windows, guardian authorization, independent passwords, duration restrictions, prohibition of consumption, and restriction of interaction, covering all scenarios of Channels and adding multiple protections for minors. The "time lock" is automatically opened by the platform to prevent minors from indulging in the Internet. At the same time, Channels has also innovatively launched the "live broadcast authorization" function in the industry, that is, under the WeChat teen mode, children only need to submit an application to their guardians, and after obtaining "consent", they can enjoy sunny and rich live broadcast content.
Other teen models with short video platforms are similar to Douyin and WeChat Channels. The reporter opened the short video platform one by one and found that the page would prompt whether to turn on teen mode. After entering the youth mode of the short video platform, the recommended content is very different from the content of adults, and it can be seen that the platform recommends age-appropriate content such as cartoons and education.
However, the reporter's investigation found that many children use the mobile phones of their elders in the family to brush short videos, which greatly reduces the effect of teenage mode.
"Many minors use their parents' devices and parents' accounts to go online, and if parents do not do a good job of controlling this, then the platform's initiatives are difficult to use." The problem now is that even parents are addicted to short videos, and parents' words and deeds play a bad role in demonstrating minors, and parental control is the most effective. Liu Deliang said.
"To increase the attractiveness of teen mode, it is fundamentally about understanding the use habits of minors for short videos." Jiang Qiaolei said that minors are not young adults, and teen mode should not be a "simplified version" of short video applications. For the sake of protection, most of the existing youth models adopt a "subtraction" thinking model, removing content that may be risky to minors from existing content, and retaining healthy content suitable for minors. However, white water, while healthy, can also be tasteless.
Jiang Qiaolei believes that protection does not mean limitation, and protection should pay equal attention to development. Therefore, instead of "doing subtraction" and constantly saying "no" to minors, it is better to change to the thinking mode of "doing addition", tailor-made and specially customized more high-quality content for minors to meet the diversified use needs of minors. Only in this way can the attractiveness of adolescent mode be truly enhanced.
"It is expected that the youth model will be further iteratively improved and become an audio-visual creative learning and growth space that attracts minors to love to use, parents actively open, and parent-child families to share." Jiang Qiaolei said.
(Rule of Law Daily)