Tap to add friends, chat, take photos, and even compare appearances… The children’s smart watches on the market, priced at one to two thousand yuan, have gradually become the “social gadgets” for children born after 2010, thanks to the increasing richness of their built-in apps.
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However, some parents express mixed feelings about the overly entertaining features of these children’s smart watches. Mr. Su, a consumer from Shenzhen, originally planned to buy a 2000 yuan children’s phone watch for his 6-year-old son, but discovered that the watch had a built-in app for “comparing appearances.” “Using algorithms to define a person’s appearance does not consider the impact it may have on children,” he said. Additionally, several parents have complained to reporters that the game apps on the phone watch often induce consumption, leading to charges without their knowledge.
“As the functions of smart watches become more diverse, they cannot simply be regarded as a ‘watch’ to manage, bypassing relevant internet supervision,” said researcher Chu Zhaohui from the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences in an interview. The name and external form of the terminal are not important; what matters is its content and functionality. If a smart phone watch can make online payments and play games, it should be managed like a network terminal similar to a mobile phone.
01
Overly Entertaining Features Raise Parental Concerns
Nowadays, children’s smart phone watches have an increasing number of functions and a wide variety of apps, which worries many parents about the adverse effects of their overly entertaining features on children.
Mr. Su, who lives in Shenzhen, took his 6-year-old son to a Xiaotiancai store last September to buy a children’s smart phone watch. “I was interested in a watch priced at nearly 2000 yuan, but I found that the displayed watch had a built-in app for ‘comparing appearances with friends.'” Mr. Su told reporters that he believes this is a completely meaningless feature that uses algorithms to define a person’s appearance, encouraging children to compare with each other. Children may unconsciously be instilled with absurd aesthetic values and worldviews. “Some phone watches have overly entertaining features that do not consider the impact on children at all.”
Reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily found that the app management in the Xiaotiancai phone watch app center has age divisions. The older the age set, the more types of apps are available. The app center for children aged 12 and above has as many as 20 apps, covering stories, music, learning, and more.
In addition to basic function apps, Huawei’s children’s watch also includes music apps like K Song and various entertainment apps such as Farm Defense, Zhi Zhi Learning Garden, Dou Dou Long Synchronous Learning, Dream Manor, and Wukong Academy. Staff at Huawei’s offline stores told reporters, “These are all games.”
It is worth noting that the games built into children’s smart phone watches may be designed very discreetly. Mr. Su told reporters that his child discovered that by using certain apps’ secondary or tertiary menus, they could access another game application, “similar to opening a mini-program after entering WeChat. If the child does not inform the parents, they will hardly know.”
During visits to offline stores, most parents expressed that the most important functions of the phone watch are positioning and calling. Although some brands can set restrictions on downloading and using entertainment apps through app management, the overly entertaining content still worries them greatly.
The Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee previously conducted a survey on children’s smart phone watch consumption, finding that the complexity of functions distracts children’s attention, which is the main concern for 41.95% of parents; 28.48% of consumers worry that the complexity of the watch’s content affects children’s mental health.
Professor Shi Jiayou from the Law School of Renmin University of China told reporters that in recent years, the social and entertainment functions of children’s smart phone watches have gradually become a “selling point,” with some manufacturers continuously expanding the boundaries of related functions, attempting to turn children’s smart phone watches into miniature mobile phones, which actually deviates from the original intention of the product.
02
Multiple Apps Accused of Inducing Consumption
Reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily learned from the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee that several parents have complained on online platforms that without enabling password-free payment and payment confirmation on the parent end of the children’s smart phone watch, children can directly purchase game services from the watch end, leading to deductions from the parent end; some game software has repeated deductions and multiple charges, and children are easily attracted by advertisements or game content, even making large purchases.
Many parents believe that the apps within children’s smart phone watches have the potential to induce consumption. On third-party complaint platforms, reporters found multiple complaints about the Xiaotiancai phone watch’s built-in apps inducing recharge consumption and “automatically” deducting fees without parental consent, involving apps like Zhi Zhi Learning Garden, Dream Manor, and Dou Dou Long Synchronous Learning. Mr. Su reported that there are many places in the Xiaotiancai phone watch that require paid recharges, including not only games but also audiobook apps. For example, children can listen to stories for free for one or two episodes, but must pay to access the rest. “It’s like the Ximalaya app; even if you have purchased a membership on the mobile side, you still need to recharge separately for the watch side; the two are not interchangeable.”
In response, a representative from Xiaotiancai phone watch told reporters that the aforementioned apps Zhi Zhi Learning Garden, Dream Manor, and Dou Dou Long Synchronous Learning have all been removed. The representative explained that Xiaotiancai has strict control measures for built-in applications, mainly focusing on life tool and story categories, and game apps are not allowed to enter; in terms of technical access, all third-party apps within the terminal are not allowed to apply for password-free payment or continuous monthly subscription interfaces.
In fact, in addition to Xiaotiancai, other brands of children’s smart phone watches also face accusations and complaints of inducing minors to recharge.
Previously, some consumers claimed that the “Dou Dou Long Synchronous Learning” and “Brain Master” apps in the 360 children’s smart phone watch automatically deducted 199 yuan and 99 yuan without parental consent and without requiring a password. In response, the official WeChat accounts of Dou Dou Long, Brain Master, and 360 children’s phone watch stated that “there is no situation of automatic deduction without scanning the code.” Customer service personnel from 360 children’s smart phone watch told reporters that if customers report “automatic” deductions, they need to further verify whether such special circumstances exist and assist customers in contacting third-party software for refund processing.
Recently, reporters visited Huawei children’s watch offline stores and tested built-in applications like “Wukong Academy” and “Dou Dou Long Synchronous Learning,” finding that most of these games involve math calculations, knowledge quizzes, etc. The accumulated “coins” and other rewards can be used to purchase equipment, upgrade ranks, etc., and there are reminders for “opening a membership to enjoy privileges,” which include knowledge point tests, exclusive popular science stories, and multi-disciplinary resources. After clicking “open now,” a QR code appears, which needs to be scanned with a mobile phone WeChat to log in and recharge.
Additionally, many netizens have complained that the apps in Xiaomi’s Mitu children’s phone watch induce children to consume, with deduction amounts ranging from dozens to thousands of yuan. Some reported that the app only requires scanning a QR code to deduct fees, resulting in deductions of 5970 yuan within a few days.
In response, customer service from Xiaomi Game Center told reporters that the platform can only assist in processing refund services for minors recharging for Xiaomi Games and Beijing Wali Network Technology Co., Ltd., and for other platforms, they need to contact the corresponding payment party for refunds. Southern Metropolis Daily found that Beijing Wali Network Technology Co., Ltd. is an affiliate of Xiaomi Interactive Entertainment, established in June 2009, mainly engaged in internet cultural activities, film distribution, application software services, etc.
03
Low-Priced Watches Have Significant Positioning Errors
It is understood that there are still many unknown brands of phone watches priced under a hundred yuan, and their sales are considerable.
Recently, reporters purchased a student phone watch with over 100,000 sales on an e-commerce platform for a final price of 25 yuan, claiming to have multiple functions such as two-way calling, positioning monitoring, photography, and waterproofing.
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Reporters found that this phone watch came with a free SIM card, and after scanning the QR code, it led to a top-up page with options for 99 yuan and 139 yuan recharge packages, including 100 minutes of calls and dedicated data each month. Customer service explained that the provided card must be activated and paid for according to the instructions to function properly, and once activated, it cannot be refunded. If you do not want to activate the included package, you can also use your own mobile phone card.
Subsequently, reporters followed the operational prompts to open the back cover of the watch and found that this supposedly waterproof phone watch had its battery carelessly packaged and directly exposed under the back cover. Upon removing the battery, the SIM card slot was visible. During testing, reporters found that this phone watch had significant positioning errors; although the watch and phone were in the same location, the phone app displayed the watch’s position as being 1.3 kilometers away.
Concerns about the information security of children’s smart phone watches have long been widely discussed in society, and this issue is even more common in low-end phone watches.
On March 15 last year, the CCTV 315 Evening Show exposed low-end children’s smart phone watches that could access sensitive permissions such as location, contacts, microphone, and camera without user authorization, easily obtaining children’s private information and becoming walking “peeping devices.”
Subsequently, some consumers reported online that they purchased the same model of watch exposed by CCTV and were refused refunds by the store. Recently, reporters found that the store named “**Painfully Reformed Small Shop” has now closed.
The Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee’s investigation found that 17.11% of consumers reported experiencing personal information leakage from children’s smart phone watches.
Engineers from the China Electronics Standardization Institute demonstrated information security projects in children’s smart phone watches, testing that after entering facial information into the watch, a photo of the recorded face could unlock the watch just by taking a picture of it.
Senior engineer Liu Limin from the Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters that whether products have these issues depends on the technology adopted by manufacturers. Nowadays, obtaining personal photos is not difficult, and devices can be unlocked with photos, posing risks of device theft and information leakage.
“The risks of children’s smart devices can be exploited by malicious individuals, leading to significant harm,” Liu Limin explained. Some connected children’s smart devices carry the risk of personal data leakage, including biometric information, location information, etc. More frightening are the extended issues after information leakage; she explained that by analyzing personal data stored in children’s smart devices, such as location information and chat records, outsiders could easily grasp children’s whereabouts, posing safety risks.
04
“Cannot Simply Be Managed as a ‘Watch'”
To strengthen the management of children’s smart watches, reporters learned that in July 2022, the Central Cyberspace Administration and other departments jointly launched a special action called “Clear and Bright: 2022 Summer Minor Network Environment Rectification.” This special action not only strictly controls issues of infringing on minors’ personal privacy but also strengthens the information content management of smart devices specifically for minors, such as smart watches, smart speakers, tablets, early education story machines, etc., thoroughly investigating scenarios involving voice, video, text, images, games, and comprehensively clearing illegal and harmful information.
In November of the same year, the national standard GB/T41411-2022 “Children’s Watches” officially came into effect, making relevant regulations regarding illegal eavesdropping, personal information leakage, low system versions, forced permission requests, illegal access control, etc. For example, it should support updates and upgrades of the operating system of children’s smart watches; it should identify and verify user identities, and the identity identification should be unique, with no duplicate user identity identifiers; it should provide functions for handling login failures and timeout security processing, etc.
“As market demand expands, the functions of smart watches are becoming more diverse, so they cannot simply be regarded as a ‘watch’ to manage, bypassing relevant internet supervision,” researcher Chu Zhaohui told reporters. The name and external form of the terminal are not important; what matters is its content and functionality. If it can make online payments and play games, it should be managed like a network terminal similar to a mobile phone.
What obligations do various parties have? Professor Shi Jiayou from the Law School of Renmin University of China pointed out that manufacturers of children’s smart watches and developers of pre-installed apps should both assume responsibility. According to the “Minor Protection Law” and the “Personal Information Protection Law,” both parties have the obligation to provide safety guarantees for minors. “For example, if they discover non-compliant behavior, they should verify it immediately and take corresponding measures, such as requiring rectification or removal from the shelves.”
He explained that according to the “Minor Protection Law,” manufacturers and sellers of smart terminal products should install network protection software for minors on the products or prominently inform users of the installation channels and methods for such software. Providers of online services such as online games, live streaming, online audio and video, and online social networking should set corresponding time management, permission management, and consumption management functions for minors using their services.
Regarding issues of minors’ game recharges and other consumption, Shi Jiayou stated,according to the Civil Code, minors under 8 years old are considered to have no civil capacity, and their consumption behavior is not legally effective;minors over 8 years old are considered to have limited civil capacity and can engage in some behaviors appropriate to their age and intellectual status or purely beneficial behaviors, while other consumption behaviors require the consent of their guardians.
Source: Southern Metropolis Daily
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