Discussion keeps the worldturning.
This isRoundtable. Your listening to Randtable, if I'myoung, I'm joined by Yushun and Gajanya in thisstudio.
Comingup, while some parents view smart watches as a safer alternative to smart phones forkids, offering location tracking without the additionalrisks.
A full-fledgeddevice, there's acatch.
These watches can become quite addictive that children struggle to put themdown, even during meal times or even when it's time forbed.
So let's talk aboutit. Our smart watches forkids, convenience or cause forconcern.
And you can always find us on Apple Podcast at RoundtableChina.
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And now onRoundtable, as we move on to the next topic oftoday, we're diving into the world of smart watches and why they're causing quite a stir among elementary schoolkids.
These watches have evolved from basic GPS trackers to many computers on yourrest, offering everything from video calls to onlineeducation, but with all thesefeatures, some kids are finding it hard to focus on anythingelse, even staying up late to chat or playgames.
And we've probably beenthere.
The relentless competition to own the latest model is hardlybeneficial.
So let's take a lookat, first ofall, lots of parental complaints and what are they centeredabout?
Yeah, so recently there have been some reports saying that many parents are very distressed because their children are very addicted to their little smartwatches.
And their watches can playgames,chats, send posts on social media and engaging socialactivities.
And parents are worried that this will affect their children's studies andeyesight.
Indeed, Iactually, I have noticed that smart watches have become kind of an essential for many children rightnow.
Sometimes when I was in a touristattraction, I see children using their watches to takephotos.
Yes, they have built in cameras on theirwatch.
Sorry, when you mentioned kids watches and aiming atsomething, I was thinking about detectiveConan.
Exactly. And that soundscool.
Yeah, Ialways, when I was akid, I wish I had one of those watches that had that needle thing that you point and then you shoot and then Anna'sC.C.
S.S.T. Somebody wouldbe, butanyway, that's completely offtopic.
So,Junya, I want to check withyou.
With these smart watches forkids, are they different from smart watches foradults?
Ofcourse, those smart watches forkids, they actually come at different prices and offer different function thanfeatures.
Forexample, they would be the basicones, maybe cost you99, or199, just basic functions like the positioning and phonecall.
But there would be those who come at199, a lot oftimes.
Yes. But kids can useit.
It's pretty like asmartphone.
Some people are saying it's actually smarter than the AppleWatch.
I'm not sure aboutit.Yeah, some people are saying likethat.
And kids actually can goonline.
And you said onlineeducation, it will help withthat.
And they can get a lot ofinformation.
Soyeah, then also they lookdifferent,right?
These smart watches targeting kids are a bitchunkier.
They come inpink. They arecute.
You can tell it's for akid, not for anadult,right?
So, from the product designaspect, these folks behind the product have really put their thoughts into this and makingit, youknow, somehow it's become cool forkids.
And I've heard a few parents witha,well, kindergarten to maybe elementary school kids say that they feel pressured if they don't buy this thing for theirkids.
Their kids could beostracized.
Theycould, just to get the kids to fitin, they feel compelled to shell out for thisdevice.
And that's just terrible a place tobe.
But,okay, just justa, this might be a little bit of a sidelinething, but let's just quickly go throughit.
But don't you think that for all kids at thatage, there's bound to be something of a coveted or prized item that you and your classmates sort of are engaged in this silentcompetition.
And we all hope to like getone, so you to appear cool in front of yourkid, yourpeers.
I remember in my schoolyears, but this was when we wereteenagers.
I remember AirJordan's, youknow,the,the,the,yeah,lots, I think all such an expensivecomparison.
Iknow.Well, I actually don't know how much they costnow, but backthen, I remember all of the boys in myclass, theywere, they all wanted the AirJordan's, but not everybody could getit.
And then that was sort of the point ofcompetition.
Butanyway, here it'sthe, the kid's smartwatch, thatis, is thething.
So I think it's not only about the pricethings, also about the functions that they are developing on these smartwatches, because they actually developed some of these social functions inthere, youknow, the integration of social functions and the creation of closed ecosystem by thesebrands, because maybe you can only make friends with the same brand we talked about itbefore.
And you canbasically, youknow, touch each otherby, youknow, touching the screen of thesewatches, so you can makefriends.
So you andI, if we were thesekids, thenwe, andwe, if we both had the watch of the samebrand, then we'd be able to tap each other'swatches.
Yeah. And we'd befriends.
Okay.So, so it's like a seal of approval ofconsumerism.
Gotcha. And that also leads to kind of peerpressure.
Oh, you guys arefriends.
Well, I amnot.Oh, you have that kind ofbrand.
I amnot. So they feel the need to own a smart watch or certain brand of smart watch to fitin.
Right. This reminds me of back in theday, a few yearsago,when,okay, remember when iPhone users could send each othermessages, I messages without paying forit.
And also was there like a blue tick or a greentick?
I can'tremember. Blue bubble for Imessages, green bubble for just normal textmessages.
Youknow, just to make you match with your peers or people who use the same product that has always been atactic, youknow, forthese,yeah, these are pretty smart tactics touse.
But also we've seen that withinChina, specifically that these smart watches forkids, they've developed veryfast.
Ever since 2015 orso, could you also give us a little bit of an update on how this industry has quickly sort ofenthralled, youknow, all these kids and getting their parents feel compelled to buy theseproducts?
So the Chinese market forsmart, wearabledevices, including children's smartwatches, has beenrapid, has seen rapidgrowth.
And with significant market share increases due to maybe price competition and the social functions oreverything, the wearable device research report released by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology shows that China's market of intelligent wearable devices was worth more than 12 billiongrand.
That's about 1.7 billion US dollars in 2015 as a branchdirection.
Children's wearable devices are developingrapidly.
And we can see data showed that children's smartwatch that cost under 99 yuan took up only1% of the market in2015, but the figure reached80% in2017.
Many white brand manufacturers sold a lot of children's smartwatch through franchise stores with three major teleconoperators.
I think that is why they are called whitebrand.
Being children's smartwatches were free if they applied for new SIMcards.
I think that's the same scheme that they are when a lotof, youknow, franchise or manufacturers are trying to sellsmartphones.
You can get a free phone by signing up for a whole package of telecom or telecommunicationsservices.
Sign up for the telecom plan and you get the smartphone and actually that's a pretty common practiceinternationally.
So do you think this is more of creating convenience and maybe necessary learning material or is this just way too much problems that people areexperiencing?
I think that competition among kids is onething, but forparents, I think it's necessary because necessary to have these models for their kids because they help them to keep an eye on their kids where theyare, where they've been travelingto.
And forexample, actually I've been traveling around with my friends and mycousins, all of them who havekids, their kids have smartwatches because they have to locatethem.
Sometimes, you sound like a discipline talking about acriminal, acriminal.
We need to bring that personin.
Put him behindbars. Where ishe?
Because thekids, youknow, they runaround, they disappear for quite a while and then parents getworried.
I think I can totally understandit.
So if it's forme, if I'm going to be aparent, I would buy one for mykid.
Yeah.Yeah.Right. This isreally,okay, this is gettingextreme.
And I'm just putting some ideas outthere.
Nobody needs to follow them just to spur somethought.
Why not just put a tracker on one'sankle, youknow, you're putting a tracker on the wristanyway?
Yeah.Okay. Probably not the kind of place we want togo.
Put an airattack. Youshouldn't, what do youthink?
Is this a convenience or a point ofconcern?
Yeah, I think first ofall, youknow, more children now have these watches and parents are the one that buyingthem,right?
And so they are willing to buy them for theirchildren, possibly as areward.
Maybe theygot, youknow, 100 for their exams and they can get a watch or new watch or because they hope to have a device that allows them to contact their children at any time because these watches are able to make phone calls or videocalls.
Right. So basically thereis, Ithink, a demand in themarket.
That's why it is getting sopopular.
Right. But both of you are articulating the industry'sargument.
And now the problem arises when there are all these fancyfeatures.
And then with the fancy featuresof, youknow, at the socialfunction, that'slike, youknow, being connected with friends and also with thegames, with the various things you can do with the smartwatch, which is similar to yoursmartphone.
And parents aren't getting their kids the smartphone because they're afraid ofaddiction.
But now if the smart watch is evolving towards thesmartphone, then isn't thatthe, where all this problem or complaint issurrounded?
Actually, Idon't,maybe, of course that's only just my personalopinion.
I don't think it's a problem with these smart watchthemselves.
But more an issueof, youknow, family education oreducational, we're allbecause, youknow, regarding the psychology of comparison and the phenomenon of excessiveuse, expectingan, youknow, electronic product manufacturer to control this is quitedifficult, Ithink, because they are just trying to develop and putting more intelligent or sound fancy functions into their products and appeal you to buythem.
And parents or eventeachers, I think theyare, they should also take more responsibilitieson, youknow, guiding children not to overly rely on these electronicproducts.
Andmaybe, and I heard that there are some functions that you can turn off some ofthe, you think that is useless functions on the smart watch so that the kids won't be able to get addicted to their smartwatches.
Yeah, I think nothing isperfect.
Those smart devices definitely is doubleedged.
Forexample, how many of us have been indulged with our smartphones everyday,right?
Especially thoseparents, I think they needto, first ofall, they need to set a good example for theirkids.
And instead of immersed themselves with thesmartphones, maybe they can interact with their kids and take the kids out for some outdooractivities.
So I think this is the same story when it comes to smart watches forkids.
Ofcourse, I don't think kids can control themselves thatmuch.
Sodiscipline, supervision from the parents are veryimportant.
And instead of complainingabout, youknow, making all those complaints about thosemanufacturers, parents definitely have their own own role in guiding kids how to use smart phoneswatches.
Yeah. That is a validpoint.
Butalso, let me just respond toyou,Shun, what you said earlieron.
Sure, if your kid is a kiddo who's like under the age ofsix,maybe, if you turn off the function and then they'll go withit.
But once the kid gets a yearolder, if you'll still figure itout, my friends have told me all these stories of howthey've,well, not necessarilyjailbreak, but do stuff so that they could play on the computer when their parents strictly prohibit them from doing so one of my dear dear friends even figured out how to unlock the lock using a toothpick because the laptop was locked in a briefcase by herdad, but she managed to figure it out how to break into the suitcase and play games on thatcomputer.
So my point is that kids will know their way around all of these parental supervision or parental patrol kind of features on the smartphone, smartwatch, or I'm not surprised if they managed to figure itout.
And when it comes to products that are targetingkids,sure, we can always argue and I do agree that parents have a huge role to play here and maybe the school does as well can get into in depth a little bitlater, but for the manufacturers of kidsproducts, Isomehow, maybe this is me beingidealistic, I feel that they should hold extra corporate responsibility because you're facing agroup, you're facing a customer base that are different from adults and also if you place the cookiejar, the candy jar without the lid in front ofkids, you can't blame them for reaching for too much candy orcookies.
I feel that maybe there should be an extra layer of protection that should be in the design or at least in the thoughts of these manufacturers before they put the product out and also given the fact that we'vebeen, or these parents orkids, they've been living with these products almost like generation aftergeneration, if three years count as a generation and for quite some time and you've heard all these customerreviews, then isn't there something you could do or you shoulddo?
I also actually saw some of the news saying that these companies like LittleGenius, the smartwatchescompany, finally that name cameup.
Yeah, they tried to use some kind of marketing strategies such as pointsystems.
What's thepoint,sister?
You make friends with your classmates maybe and then you can accumulate a certain amount of points and then you can use that point to be a kind of different identity or you can level up in your socialcircle.
Oh,okay, tell me more aboutthis.
So how does thiswork? Do you need to have more friends to each friend is one point and then once you have more friends or they tap withyou?
Well, I perceive it will happen once likethat, but I think they're just running asa, they try to create a social circle for the kids so that they can socialize with each other and then accumulate certain points or maybe recommend to your classmates to buy a watch so that you can get extrapoints.
How is this notbanned? This is a businesstrick,right?
Yes, to actually retain children'sinterests.
So I think of course they are designing a lot of these functions in thesmartwatches.
That is not necessarily need to bethere.
So I was thinking of course they have that function to bend certain functions and you need to use an adult phone to actually unlockthem, ofcourse, children can find a way to get their parents phone and unlockit.
Butanyway, in thiscase, these manufacturers they do need to thinkabout, youknow, are these socializing functions arenecessary?
Do they really need to maybe when they're at the age of need asmartwatch?
Do they really need to contact their classmates that veryfrequently?
I think maybe a function that only can contact their parents is goodenough,right?
Soyeah, we need to consider that aswell.
But alsoI,okay, thisis, I agree with you on this one once we doagree.
But there's one function which is actually reallygood.
I saw this study from an American pediatrics journal that said for kids with the smartwatches that trace their physical activity such as heart rate steps theytake,etc.
This is apparently a really beneficial feature to have because they motivate kids to be more physicallyactive.
I think that potentially could begood, but a lot ofthis, youknow, the social functions and the extra razzle dazzle stuffseriously, I think parents could do without them or kids could do withoutthem.
Yeah, I think what you should point out is that it'sjust, youknow, thosebusinesses, thosemanufacturers, they are driven byprofits.
I wasoriginally, I was thinking about maybe they can limit the time every kids can usethem, they aresmartwatches.
But now I think maybe we need the regulations and forceful regulations from the government and from certain institutions that ask those manufacturers to set up this limit of certaintime.
Andafter, let's say maybe twohours, three hours a day and then they can only use the basic functions like make phone calls and securitypositioning.
So you think that regulatory efforts should be in place aswell?
Ofcourse. Maybe it istime.
It'sbeen, youknow, almost 10 years as we've seen this market sort of enjoy explosivegrowth.
And maybe there are some of these functions that the watches could do without and especially if you're targetingkids, you know specifically who are usingthem.
What about theschool? Because we've seen in some college classrooms or maybe even highschools, apparently the teachers sometimes would ask thekids,well,no, the students to put their smartphones aside or outside of theclassroom.
Maybe there's like some kind of device to collect all thesesmartphones.
And then so during the day atschool, you're not supposed to use these smartphones and outside of the classroom youcan.
And I wonder if this is something they could do with the smartwatches?
I think it needs these kindof, youknow, cooperation between the family and theschool.
Because ofcourse, teachers cansay,okay, smart watches are not allowed in myclass.
But maybe it's because theparents, they want their kids to have smartwatch because they want to have aclose, youknow, look at their kids whenever it is so that they know what is going on with their kids when they're in the school atschool.
Imean, so they tryto, so I think they need to have a goodcommunication.
Imean, the school and the family and then they can agree on that the usage of smartwatches.
And ofcourse, I saw some teachers sayingthat,okay, in myclass, the smart watches are notallowed.
But some parents are saying that it's just awatch.
Andum,parents, some parents have not read or maybe they have the basicmodel.
So they thinkit's, it'sokay.
I'm surprised that parents don't see the risk inthis.
BecauseI, youknow, when they are tryingto, I think they are in a quite difficult position because they tryto, youknow, give time for theirchildren.
They,they, maybe sometimesthey, they bought a smart watch as a gift and they try to make it as an reward for theirchildren.
But the important thing is thatyou,they, theywant, they want to know how their childrenis.
Yeah, they want to locate theirkids.
Yes. And that is why they bought these smart watches in the firstplace.
And but the most important thing is that you needto, Ithink, trust the school canactually, youknow, do a good job in protecting yourkids.
Or at least when they're atschool, it is good enough for them to actually stay by themselves or stay with their teachers or stay with theirclassmates.
And that is why I think the parents shouldalso, youknow,be, youknow,a, youknow, knowledgeable on that on their children are stiff enough atschool.
I think smartwatches, they're just atool,right?
It's just how we can make use ofit, either make better use of it or worse use of use ofit.
Okay. Soyeah,well, how can parents strike a healthy balance between allowing their children to enjoy the benefits of smart watch technology while preventing excessive views or addiction and also in a world where technology is increasingly integrated into dailylife?
How can we teach children the importance of digital detox and disconnecting from devices whennecessary?
Did you only have less than a minute toanswer?
Yes, technology isthere.
We haveto, we have to be embracing those newtechnologies.
And smart watches actually are a good tool to get us exposed to those new technology and new information and alsoincrease, I think to somepoint, they can increase the study efficiency of certain kids and also their socialinteractions.
Well, I would say establish clear guidelines and boundaries around any kind of techusage.
And if you're aparent, you kind of got to regularly monitor and teach your kids how to be a smart techuser.
