Watches from Xiaotiancai, or Little Genius, a leading children's smartwatch brand, allow users to create their own homepages, add friends, give "likes" and receive a popularity ranking. These metrics are increasingly becoming a way for kids to gauge each other's social status. Within the Xiaotiancai community, accounts with over 600,000 likes are referred to as "big shots." Not only does this elevate their social status, but it also attracts a large number of followers. Having a "big shot" as a friend has become a form of social capital for many children. 

On online platforms, a Xiaotiancai account that has hundreds of thousands of likes can fetch a price of several hundred yuan (dozens of dollars). A series of grey- market activities have proliferated from this: buying friends, artificially boosting likes, buying and selling "hot" or "high-follower" accounts, and so on.

Should limits be placed on the influence Xiaotiancai has over children's social lives, or should there be more tolerance toward this way of children expressing themselves? Commentators offered different views.

Xiong Zhi (Chengdu.cn): Minors are immature in mind, with limited self‑control. Becoming engrossed in these activities not only is harmful to their physical and mental wellbeing, but also disrupts their normal studies and can ruin their childhood. Simply blaming parents for inadequate supervision will do no good. As a smart electronic product expressly designed for children, Xiaotiancai has failed to take on its due social responsibility. Several of its built-in features, including counting "likes" and giving popularity rankings, have turned a safety-oriented gadget into a driver of peer pressure and online addiction.

Xiaotiancai might think that adding social features to children's smart watches can boost user stickiness and expand its market share, but it overlooks the fact that the core mission of a children's watch is to ensure children's safety, not to create anxiety or lure users into online addiction.

To bring the product back to its original purpose, a concerted effort from all parties is essential. Regulators must tighten scrutiny and set clearer limits on the features of children's smart devices. The Xiaotiancai brand must redesign its products to prevent children from becoming addicted. E-commerce platforms, including secondhand markets, also need to dismantle the grey market chains around children's watch accounts. 

Xia Yan (Gmw.cn): Children may not necessarily be addicted to the "likes" or the rankings, but they are likely to be striving to find ways to be noticed and recognized within the limited digital space available to them. With parental controls and anti-addiction systems in place throughout the digital realm, Xiaotiancai is one of the few platforms on which they can showcase themselves.

Is this need for social interaction really unacceptable? Not necessarily. Even if they are minors, their instinct to seek social connection and recognition is no different from that of adults. Are these desires currently being met? For instance, do children have enough time for extracurricular activities? Is there a free environment where they can express themselves without being ridiculed?

Nowadays, children's schedules are packed to the brim and offline socializing is less common. It is no wonder they look for a bit of fun on their watches. Parents and schools should ponder over the phenomenon carefully, and then find ways to create more tangible, accessible social settings for children. Let them make friends, express themselves, and experience collaboration and competition in real life, rather than forcing them to have all these life and learning experiences through one small screen. BR

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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