In the adult world, there are WeChat friend circles; in the children’s world, there exists a “watch circle” formed by smart watches.
The “smart watch” is a new communication tool that integrates the functions of a watch, calling, and positioning. Due to its positioning feature, it is seen by parents who cannot be with their children at all times as a “guardian” for their kids. In recent years, smart watches have almost become standard equipment for children. As the functions of smart watches continue to expand, they have gradually become objects of comparison among some children, leading to a series of concerns for parents: smart watches can send micro-messages, leave comments in friend circles, take photos, and even video chat. As children’s social circles expand, what if privacy is leaked or they make inappropriate friends? With so many functions and a small screen, what about the risk of myopia? What about the impact on learning?
Phenomenon:
ComparisonSmart watches have become a “mini version” of smartphones
“Mom, all my classmates have smart watches, I want one too.” Tongtong, who has just been in the third grade for half a year, expressed her “shopping” needs to her mother.
Speaking of smart watches, Tongtong’s mom had long wanted to buy one for her child. Usually, after school or on weekends, Tongtong often plays in the neighborhood or visits classmates. When it was time to go home, Tongtong’s mom had to wander around the neighborhood looking for her or knock on others’ doors to find her. “Once, I spent a whole hour looking for her because I didn’t know where she was.” Hearing that children now wear smart watches that not only allow calls but also have positioning and anti-lost features, Tongtong’s mom was very tempted. With a smart watch, finding her child would surely be much easier in the future.
Before long, Tongtong’s mom found a smart watch online that could make calls, send micro-messages, and provide positioning, basically meeting all the parents’ needs, and it only cost a few dozen yuan. After buying it and inserting a SIM card, it was ready to use.
However, not long after wearing it, this “cheap” smart watch was rejected by Tongtong. “I can’t add friends with my classmates,” “I can’t video chat,” “there’s no friend circle,” “I can’t make electronic payments”… Tongtong listed all the shortcomings of her smart watch and demanded that her mom buy her a more powerful, larger memory, and cooler-looking “advanced watch,” “otherwise I can’t communicate with my classmates.”
During the interview, the reporter noticed that although called smart watches, many of them were sold in the children’s toy section. However, as the functions of smart watches continue to increase, salespeople no longer describe them as merely “watches” or “phones”; they have clearly become a “mini version” of smartphones.
In the toy city on the second floor of the Xidan Shopping Center, the counters selling children’s smart watches are placed next to toy counters. When the salesperson saw the reporter approaching and examining two models of smart watches, they immediately took out promotional brochures for children’s smart watches and began to promote them: “Don’t look at those two models; they are outdated and have no functions, long eliminated. Check out this brochure; this is the latest model of smart watch, it can play music, video chat, and swipe public transport cards…” The salesperson pointed to the reporter’s phone and added, “Now, children’s smart watches are just like adults’ phones. Whatever functions are in a phone, smart watches basically have them too. Every child has one…”
Meanwhile, on the children’s book sales floor of the Beijing Book Building, the reporter also saw a dedicated counter selling smart watches. The salesperson picked up a “Little Genius” smart watch priced at 1998 yuan and began a live demonstration. With a snap, the salesperson stood the watch face upright, allowing it to rotate 360 degrees, and introduced that this smart watch has two cameras, one with a pixel count of up to 13 million, and it can take photos using voice control. Then, the salesperson took a catalog and used the smart watch to take a picture of it, saying, “The watch has intelligent object recognition features. For example, if you see a plant or an animal on the street but don’t know its name, you can take a picture, and the smart watch will immediately display the detailed name of the object photographed.” Moreover, the smart watch can download various apps and make purchases through Alipay. “It’s best to buy a multifunctional one all at once; otherwise, you will have to replace it soon. Smart watches update very quickly,” the salesperson advised.
Concerns:
Vision Damage: Small Watch Faces with Features Comparable to Phones
“Mom, I’m going downstairs to play for a while.” Second grader Xiaoyu greeted his parents and went downstairs wearing his smart watch. About an hour later, Xiaoyu’s mom, who was out buying groceries, “coincidentally” encountered Xiaoyu and his friends by the flower bed downstairs. Xiaoyu’s mom was surprised to find the two children huddled together, happily staring at the screen of a smart watch that was no bigger than a matchbox. It turned out that after meeting in the neighborhood, the two children took out their smart watches to communicate. “You send me a funny GIF, and I’ll send you a humorous picture, check the friend circle, listen to music, and before they knew it, an hour had passed.”
“I told you to go downstairs to play to get some exercise and relieve your eyes from fatigue to prevent myopia. But you, with such a small screen, stared at it for an hour. What about your eyes!” Xiaoyu’s mom angrily dragged him home for a lecture.
The reporter found that just like adults scrolling through their friend circles, children wearing smart watches now also have their own “watch circles.” Features like step counting rankings, friend circle comments, point upgrades, micro-messaging, and group chats, similar to those on adult phones, are highly attractive to children, even leading some to become addicted.
Years ago, the Ministry of Education issued an “Emergency Notice on Preventing Primary and Secondary School Students from Becoming Addicted to Online Education” and sent letters to parents nationwide. To protect students’ eyesight, ensure they focus on learning at school, prevent addiction to the internet and games, and promote the healthy development of students, the Ministry of Education also issued a notice on strengthening mobile phone management for primary and secondary school students. This year, the Ministry of Education reiterated its deployment, launching a spring semester myopia prevention education month in March, requiring strict management of mobile phones and urging parents to supervise and guide their children in the rational use of phones.
To prevent addiction and myopia, the use of mobile phones by primary and secondary school students is becoming increasingly strictly “managed.” However, despite the functions of smart watches becoming closer to those of smartphones, and the potential damage to eyesight from small screens possibly being greater than that of phones, it seems that children’s addiction and over-reliance on smart watches have not yet attracted enough attention.
Risks:
Privacy Leaks: The Unsafe “Friend Circle” in Smart Watches
When searching for “smart watches” on Taobao, the reporter found that there are numerous brands of smart watches with significant price differences. Cheap children’s smart watches cost only a few dozen yuan, while expensive ones can reach two to three thousand yuan.
Statistics have shown that as of February 2020, there were about 134 brands and 1057 types of smart watches available in the online market in China. Children’s smart watches accounted for over one-third of the smart watch category, and the market size continues to grow year by year.
However, in recent years, various vulnerabilities related to children’s safety watches have been exposed on domestic security platforms. CCTV has also reported that some small brand children’s smart watches have vulnerabilities that can easily lead to user privacy leaks. Most smartphones have security assistant software installed that can identify and eliminate viruses and trojans, but some small brand children’s smart watches may be at risk of being infected by trojans. This turns what should be a child’s “guardian” into a “leaker” of their privacy.
In addition to the potential “passive leaks” from smart watches, parents are also concerned about the “active leaks” that occur when children use smart watches.
“Mom, I added a new friend again.” Eight-year-old Zhezhe is very outgoing and often plays with unfamiliar children. Since wearing a smart watch, adding friends while playing outside has become a routine for Zhezhe. “Look at these; they are all friends she added while playing outside, most of whom I don’t know,” Ms. Li said, flipping through Zhezhe’s smart watch contacts.
Moreover, Zhezhe loves to post on her friend circle. Where she played in the park after school, which restaurant she ate at on weekends, and where she took tutoring classes all appear in her friend circle. Occasionally, she even mimics adults and takes selfies. Ms. Li is very worried; she usually pays great attention to not revealing her child’s whereabouts on social media and never posts pictures of her child online, but young children seem to have no concept of protecting their privacy and indiscriminately display their whereabouts and lives on unfamiliar social networks. “Parents sometimes cannot see their children’s friend circles and do not know what their children are chatting about. What if the content they inadvertently post is seen or exploited by someone with ulterior motives?”
Regulation:
Excessive Features: Products Overextending Towards Adult Functions
In December 2018, the first group standard for “Technical Requirements for Children’s Smart Watches” was officially released in China. This standard regulates the mechanical performance, material safety, electromagnetic radiation, performance, and reliability of children’s smart watches, attempting to address the chaotic industry standards, rampant counterfeit brands, and poor quality in the supply chain.
However, this standard only partially regulates the product performance of children’s smart watches and does not address the issues of unlimited feature expansion and alignment with adult smartphone functions. In addition to focusing on product quality, more and more parents are concerned about the excessive extension of features in children’s smart watches, which even align with adult smartphone functions.
“Some children’s smart watches come pre-installed with many mini-games, like the once-popular ‘Jump Jump’ and ‘Bubble Dragon’ on WeChat, which have been adapted for children’s smart watches. Buying a smart watch for a child is almost equivalent to buying a gaming console. Parents usually do not want their children to play too much on phones or iPads, but they can still play games on smart watches, which goes against the original intention of parents.” After repeatedly discovering that his child was secretly playing games on the smart watch, Mr. Zhao angrily confiscated it.
Some parents admit that for them, as long as the smart watch has parent-child communication features, it is sufficient; there is no need for excessive intelligence. The extra features of smart watches only increase the difficulty of management for parents.
Schools:
Rejecting Smart Watches in Schools: Advising Parents to Regularly Check Usage
How should smart watches be used? How to protect personal privacy? In response, consumer protection departments in many regions have issued reminders. Although children’s smart watches have many functions, consumers should not overlook the most basic functions when purchasing, such as calling, positioning, and battery life. Additionally, consumers should pay attention to information security and check or inquire whether simple passwords like 123456 are allowed; if so, it indicates that personal information may be easily leaked during use.
Since the beginning of this school term, the Ministry of Education has issued a document stating that primary and secondary school students are generally not allowed to bring personal mobile phones to school, and many schools across the country have spontaneously said “no” to smart watches in schools. A primary school in Chongqing even issued a “Notice to Parents” regarding the scientific use of smart watches, clearly stating that some criminals use smart watches to distribute pornographic videos and spread obscene images, which seriously affects the mental health of immature and curious minors.
With the development of technology, the market is flooded with smart watches with various functions. Especially, the ability to add friends and groups on smart watches is unrestricted. The inability to monitor the uploading of prohibited videos and inappropriate comments has created a regulatory vacuum. Therefore, the “Notice to Parents” advises against blindly comparing and pursuing fashion when purchasing smart watches; it is sufficient to meet the basic functions of calling, emergency alerts, anti-lost, and positioning to prevent the spread of inappropriate information from the source.
Furthermore, after purchasing a smart watch, parents must strengthen their supervision of their children’s browsing content. Regularly and timely check the usage of their children’s smart watches; guide and educate children to develop scientific usage habits. During use, they should be careful to protect their personal information and not easily disclose it to others. If any inappropriate behavior is discovered while using the smart watch, parents must guide and stop it promptly, and if necessary, report it to the authorities immediately.