A recent report released by the Jiangsu Consumer Council revealed that the teenager mode in some live-streaming apps does not work effectively. The teenager mode was designed to protect adolescents by restricting their usage time and some functions, including reward, top-up and withdrawal. But the function can be easily disabled or switched to general mode.
In August 2019, relevant administrations evaluated the teenager mode on 20 live-streaming platforms and instructed them to optimize related functions to create a clean and exclusive channel for teens, but the tool did not work as well as expected. Some platforms claimed to have enhanced the technology to identify adolescent users. In fact, protecting teenagers was not the real motive of those platforms, it was an action taken under external pressure. Actually, those platforms want to attract more young users, who have now become a major customer group.
Now, it seems that such kind of regulation needs to be carried out to urge platforms to fulfill their social responsibilities. And since protecting teenagers is not the primary task of the platforms, parents also need to guide children to use the Internet rationally.
(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in China Youth Daily on April 14)
(Print Edition Title: Teenager Mode Online)
