There are approximately 170 million children aged 5 to 12 in China. One in three of them owns a smartwatch.<\/p>\n
Originally promoted in the 2010s as an age-appropriate alternative to smartphones for preteens, children\u2019s smartwatches in China have quietly evolved into something far more complex: a platform where social ambition and a gray market intersect.<\/p>\n
Xiaotiancai, or Little Genius \u2014 the children\u2019s smartwatch brand known overseas as imoo \u2014 is facing mounting public scrutiny after Chinese media revealed that several of its built-in features, ranging from collections of \u201clikes\u201d to popularity rankings, have turned a safety-oriented gadget into a driver of peer pressure, online addiction<\/a>, and the buying and selling of smartwatch accounts and likes among children.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond calls and location tracking, Xiaotiancai smartwatches allow children to add friends and post status updates to earn likes or comments from their contacts, much like Instagram, WeChat, and other social media platforms, except everything happens on a screen the size of an Oreo cookie.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Xiaotiancai\u2019s largely unmonitored social media feeds, or online \u201cwatch circles,\u201d the number of likes on a child\u2019s homepage and the status updates they post serve as a social currency \u2014 both online and in real life \u2014 fueling competition and increasingly creating real-life social hierarchies and anxiety.<\/p>\n \u201cMy school rival has over 5,000 likes on her Xiaotiancai, and she\u2019s always bragging about it. I\u2019ve had my watch for a year and only got 100 likes. Who can help me?\u201d This plea, posted on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu in September by a 16-year-old from China\u2019s eastern Shandong province, lays bare the pressure and anxiety children feel in this digital world \u2014 where a few taps can dictate social standing and self-worth.<\/p>\n Dozens responded to the post and offered to connect with her on Xiaotiancai. Connecting with most of the people commenting, she gathered 1,000 likes in nine days, spending all her free hours outside of class glued to the screen, she told Sixth Tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within the Xiaotiancai community, accounts with over 600,000 likes are referred to as \u201cbig shots.\u201d Not only does this elevate their social status, but it also attracts a large number of followers. Having a \u201cbig shot\u201d as a friend has become a form of social capital for many children.<\/p>\n Given that each account has a friend limit of 150, children who don\u2019t \u201cactively\u201d engage in online interactions are considered low-quality friends and often get deleted from contact pages. To make space for active online contacts, real-life, in-person friends may also be sacrificed \u2014 only those who diligently give likes and interact stand to retain their friend status.<\/p>\n As these social networks have grown, so too has an underground economy around them. Students are adopting shadowy practices to circumvent the toil of leveling up their accounts by buying and selling high-ranking accounts online. One 12-year-old boy told local media that he recently sold an account with 242,000 likes for 80 yuan ($11).<\/p>\n On Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, sellers exist catering specifically to Xiaotiancai users. A former online store owner told local media that once the platform discovers them, Xiaotiancai account-boosting shops typically get shut down. \u201cGenerally speaking, the user base is very young, so prices can\u2019t be set too high,\u201d he added. \u201cThe principle is to make small profits but sell in large volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n