Netizens call for removal of online 'scam' educational videos

As primary and middle school students' summer vacation is around the corner, a series of similar and repetitive short videos promoting extracurricular trainings has recently raised public disgust, and was accused of reaping profits from parents' anxiety.

Chinese students usually have summer vacation and winter vacation, with the summer vacation, being the longer of the two, lasting more than one month.

The long days without classes have fuelled the anxiety of many parents who worry their children would play all day during the vacation and will not be able to keep up with other children in their academic performances when the new semester begins in September.

The commercials, disguised as regular everyday short videos, shared the same message. They have similar headlines, all written in the form saying that the summer vacation of a particular grade is "the most fearsome" — from Grade 1 in elementary school all the way to high school.

They all begin with "advice", primly saying that students shouldn't relax during the vacation as it is a vital time dividing students from having "good grades" and "bad grades", adding that those who don't study hard during the vacation will lag behind. Finally, they ended with a promotion for training courses or exercise books.

The videos were distributed onto various platforms. Taking advantage of the algorithm in short-video platforms, if a parent has ever viewed similar content in the past, there is a large chance that the video will appear in the recommendation list.

Although such videos can be identified right away as they were evidently mass-produced with little changes among different clips, the content has been accused by many of profiting from parents' anxiety, as many netizens said that parents and students already have enough to worry about these days, calling video platforms to take down the videos and shut down the accounts.

"Selling anxiety is a common way of marketing, and has been proven successful especially during the digital age when platforms use algorithms to recommend similar content to earn data traffic and advertisement fees," the Hebei Youth Daily said in a commentary piece. "But as a result, parents couldn't get answers they were searching for when they watch the videos, instead they get new problems to worry about."

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education released a notice requiring lower-level educators to keep cracking down on academic tutoring and regulate non-curricular training during the summer vacation.

Educators should cooperate with information and cyberspace administrations to bust illegal online training and advertisements, the ministry said, adding that they should deal with and make public each and every case to deter potential perpetrators.

Meanwhile, parents should beware of these videos and not get tricked into paying for such courses or study materials, the China Central Television said in a report, adding that video platforms should not turn a blind eye to the "selling" of anxiety for profits.