Online voting through WeChat or QQ is nothing new in China, but these social media platforms are being increasingly used by parents to solicit votes for their children in various contests. The educational authorities in southeast China's Zhejiang Province recently issued a notice to discourage the use of chat groups by schools to solicit votes. All online voting related to students and kindergarten toddlers now must get approval from local educational authorities first. In addition, social training institutions will also have to get permission from authorities before holding any kind of online voting.

Whenever people are asked by friends, relatives or colleagues to vote, they are often torn by feelings of resistance and guilt. They don't want to say no to the children's parents, but they usually know little to nothing about the children and their performances in the contests.

Some think that Zhejiang's notice will do little to curb online voting, since most of these activities are nationwide contests that are not subject to local regulations. In addition, the notice is not a legally-binding document, giving it very little bite.

Good platform, bad practices

Chen Qinggui (Modern Express): Technically speaking, to use QQ and WeChat as a voting platform is not a bad choice. It is a convenient way for voting with huge and extensive coverage. It is supposed to be fair and transparent. However, in reality, most of the voters are actually asked to vote for a child they know little or nothing about. Their votes are not based on the virtue of a child's work in a certain contest, but totally on their personal connection with the child's parents. As a result, those parents with the most WeChat contacts will always prevail. A platform that is well placed to be fair and transparent, mostly due to the lack of effective supervision, is being abused by too many people, especially parents, to solicit votes for their children.

Yang Xinyu (China Youth Daily): Currently, many online voting activities spring up on WeChat Moments. The participants are mostly students whose parents try every means to persuade their friends and relatives to vote for their children in these contests. Many people find it disturbing when asked to vote since they are not interested in voting. But eventually they tend to participate for fear of hurting their friends.

The notice issued by the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province on online voting intends to regulate voting activities from kindergartens and middle schools to high schools and colleges. Online voting, which has deviated from its original aim, not only disturbs people's normal social life but also causes havoc on students' growth and values. As an unfair way of winning, vote buying will mislead students into believing that it is morally acceptable to reach a goal by cheating, which is against educational tenets.

The original purpose of online voting was to encourage democracy and transparency. However, for various reasons, online voting has become a competition of parents' social ability rather than students' talent. Parents tend to take all means to seek votes to win a prize for their children. Online voting is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can boost students' enthusiasm for self-improvement, but on the other, if used improperly, it can encourage students' vanity and selfishness. The education department of Zhejiang Province has set a good example for regulating unhealthy online voting activities and helping students achieve better educational campaigns.

A hidden money-maker

Bao Nan (Beijing Daily): From time to time, people are asked to vote for their friends' or relatives' children though WeChat or QQ links in various contests. Most people are tired of and even disgusted by this kind of vote solicitation, but they feel it would be unfriendly to reject their friends' requests. Actually, parents themselves are also tortured by these contests. On the one hand, they fear that if they do not turn to their friends for votes, their children will be left behind by their peers. On the other hand, they have to beg others to vote for their children, which makes them feel disgraced. Online voting, particularly vote solicitation is increasingly becoming a burden to more and more people.

But why is this form of voting prevailing since it is hated by so many people? Actually, it has become a game by which various sides get their respective needs met. A variety of social training institutions create numerous contests for children, claiming that these activities will showcase children's talent. But in reality, they promote these contests to boost their own fame, so that they can attract more children to take their courses and make more money. Behind them are voting software and vote-buying companies, and then vainglorious parents.

The voting is not so much a competition among students as a battle among parents who can't stand to see their children outshined by others. It's great that Zhejiang Province has issued the ban, but we must realize that voting is just a symptom. The big challenge is how to uproot the cause of such unfair voting. The contests involved really reflect most people's attitudes toward education: it's a competition among students and your success means my failure.

However, the major goal of education is by no means to play students against each other. Its purpose is to help the young be well-prepared for their future social lives and careers by equipping them with academic knowledge and social interaction skills. In this sense, in order to stop online voting, it's important to purify the minds of the whole society. It's more important to help students acquire knowledge than to throw them into countless so-called talent contests.

We can't deny the fact that children must encounter various competitions in the growing-up process, and competition is not necessarily a bad thing, but competition should be based on students' own capabilities and talents, rather than on their parents' capabilities.

Feng Haining (Legal Daily): In recent years, it is very common to see parents asking members on WeChat groups to vote for their children. Most people feel reluctant to vote but find it hard to refuse. Since the issurance of the notice by Zhejiang Province, many people in the region feel more relaxed. It is very wise for the province to stop online voting related to students and toddlers. It helps protect children from forming unhealthy values and encourages justice in social life.

In fact, few online voting activities are organized by actual kindergartens or schools; most are held by social training organizations. Their real purpose is not to select talents but to promote their training programs. It is important to regulate these training organizations, which were mentioned in the notice.

However, even though local education authorities have found that training institutions are organizing voting activities, they cannot punish them since the notice is a general document and not a legal regulation or law. It is unrealistic to rely on the notice then to completely stop these activities. Strict laws and regulations are thus needed to standardize online voting.

Gao Lu (Qianjiang Evening News): Too many people are now being asked to vote through WeChat Moments for children participating in certain contests, and such demands are gradually amounting to a public nuisance. People are complaining about various online voting activities because of their unfairness and many negatives.

First of all, whether a student is talented or not should be left to those who know them well, such as their teachers and classmates, or even perhaps experts. Most voters have neither expertise nor familiarity with the participants, and are thus not in a position to vote.

To ensure the fairness and validity of a voting activity, the audience mix must be as large and varied as possible. However, the audience attracted by a student-targeted voting activity is limited. In some cases, voters are even asked to download an app and register on certain websites. In many respects, it is really more of the marketing of certain programs rather than voting.

The downside of such voting is obvious: it has turned into a competition of parents' abilities, regardless of students' real talent. The results of these activities seldom make any sense. They are used by voting organizers to increase their own popularity and some training institutions to make big money. Parents are eager to see their children stand out in these voting activities; their desires are thus taken advantage of by some commercial institutions. But when this voting is used for commercial purposes, it is ultimately education that pays the price.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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