The Internet is so big that it is all kinds of strange. It is no longer a new thing for a child who is a beauty blogger.
#The smallest blogger on the entire network teaches online#, #learning cat makeup, peach makeup, Frozen makeup from elementary school students#... Similar topics are spread across major platforms on the Internet, and children's beauty bloggers have also gained thousands of attention because of this. Although they are not very old in the video, they are familiar with various cosmetics and skillfully use makeup eggs, eyeshadows, and mascara. Sometimes due to funding limitations, they even use red pen and other tools to assist in finishing their makeup. In the comments, peers often express their amazement and envy, asking for makeup steps, or asking how to buy the same cosmetics, some elderly people also expressed their concerns: Is it okay to wear contact lenses at such a small size? Are cosmetics harmful to children's skin? ...
different comments and views of children's beauty blogger video
On September 15, Xinhua News Agency published an article criticizing the "5-year-old children's pure desire to make-up" , which mentioned:
First of all, unqualified children's cosmetics endanger the health of children.
Secondly, the beauty style of young people affects children's healthy aesthetics and encourages the psychology of comparison.
What’s worse is that some children’s beauty videos convey soft pornographic information.
At the same time, the article stated that children's endorsement of beauty products is suspected of violating the Advertising Law provisions. The competent departments should further strengthen supervision and call on the platform to strengthen inspection and guidance.
Then, the topic of #The trend of beauty bloggers becoming younger is about to stop being a hit# has become a hot search and has sparked widespread discussion.
Now, is it time to "removal" these children's beauty bloggers?
The Internet set off a trend of beauty bloggers as a young age
Two years ago, a beauty blogger named "Teacher Xiaomei" became popular on the Internet.
She seems to be in the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, and her teeth are a little leaky, but she always introduces various cosmetics to the audience "seriously" and often shares her makeup "skills".
She will use cotton as a makeup egg, brush as a brush, use scissors to trim eyebrows, occasionally apply a little inferior lip gloss as a concealer, or use a whiteboard pen to draw eyeliner.
video screenshot of "Teacher Xiaomei"
Many people watched her videos and left messages to tease her makeup, which set off a wave of "learning makeup from elementary school students" at that time. Until later, her plastic best friend exposed her real name, school, grades and other information, and was forced to delete the video and withdraw from the Internet.
"Teacher Xiaomei" is like a microcosm of some children who love beauty . They are influenced by the Internet and yearn for the exquisiteness of beauty bloggers, but because they don't have much pocket money and lack a systematic understanding of makeup, they can only work hard to get close to their imagination.
is different from these children's makeup videos that focus on the whole network's jokes. In recent years, more and more children are serious and professionally doing beauty videos . Most of the products are big brands, and their technology is not bad, which has attracted many viewers to leave comments and praise.
A trend of beauty bloggers becoming younger is sweeping major platforms at home and abroad.
Search for "kidsmakeup" on YouTube, and you can find a large number of children's makeup videos, and it is amazingly popular. Some videos can play as much as 280 million times . Aima, the protagonist of
YouTube channel "Aimalifestyle", is 8 years old this year and has 516,000 followers.She has posted beauty videos on the Internet since she was 4 years old and is known as the "world's smallest beauty blogger."
As of now, the number of beauty videos released by Aima four years ago has reached 25.14 million . YouTube also closed her video comment section for the need to protect her underage.
And on major domestic platforms, there are also a large number of children's beauty bloggers active.
A blogger of Xiaohongshu who is in the sixth grade of elementary school once publicly shared the makeup steps: concealer, eyebrows, eyeshadow, mascara, contouring, lipstick, and highlights without falling off. He also revealed that he is all using samples of big-name products, and if he goes out to play, he will put on full makeup.
There is also the UP host "Youxi_Fairy" with 170,000 fans on B station, who has released beauty videos on B station since the second year of junior high school. A video of "Platelet Makeup" in 2018 has nearly 600,000 views, and the comment section is an online gathering for a group of peers. According to reports, there are already thousands of people in the fan group of "Youxi_Fairy", including children around 10 years old and adult fans. Many people began to try to put on makeup after watching his videos. Under the traffic, the controversial "new business opportunity" Although the children are having a lot of fun as beauty bloggers, the controversy surrounding their makeup behavior has never stopped.
Zhihu big V "Dr. Fat" mainly studies makeup and skin care issues. In his related answers, he mentioned the skin care issues of children, such as not over-cleaning to avoid damaging the skin barrier. Skin care needs to avoid fragrances, chemical sunscreens, soaps and synthetic surfactants, etc.
Many people have questioned whether most cosmetics on the market can use them for children, and children's makeup and skin care brands have also gained the opportunity to develop rapidly.
According to data released by Koala Haigou, children's makeup consumption increased by 300% year-on-year in 2020 compared with 2019. Euromonitor survey also showed that the total domestic market for children's skin care products reached 19.7 billion yuan in 2018, and is expected to reach 40 billion yuan by 2023.
Open the shopping platform and search for "children's cosmetics". You can find various petals and princess carriage-shaped makeup boxes, including mirrors, blush, lipsticks and other products, with prices ranging from 20 to 30 yuan to 500 yuan and 600 yuan.
And on major content platforms, you can also see many little girls happily sharing their makeup boxes and demonstrating how to use them.
Little girl shows her beauty box
In foreign countries, the children's beauty industry is moving faster, with professional children's beauty brands such as Townley Girl, Miss Nella, Diel, and other professional children's beauty brands, as well as brands such as Shiseido and Nivea and voluntarily launching beauty and skin care activities for children.
. Currently in China, this industry is still in its early stages of development. Many products of have not been registered for cosmetics. It is more like a children's toy than children's cosmetics, and it is more like a children's toy .
Some industry insiders mentioned that many of these products may contain high-risk allergenic substances. Xinhua News Agency's article also emphasized that "unqualified children's cosmetics endanger the health of children" and stated that some manufacturers only display "cosmetics" and delete words such as "children" when submitting for inspection and filing, which are used to avoid inspections by relevant departments. In addition to the development of the industry, the traffic and income of children's bloggers have also been targeted by many people.
Children's bloggers who achieve the top position have great commercial value. Ryan Kaji, a 9-year-old boy from abroad, topped the YouTube celebrity income list, with an annual income of more than 180 million yuan . There are also cute kids on major platforms in China that have led to millions of fans gaining fans in a week, and their accounts quickly rank among the top of the platform.
Under the temptation of money and interests, there have been many cases of sacrificing children's rights to attract attention, just like the soft pornographic eye-catching phenomenon mentioned by Xinhua News Agency, or some " gnawing small clan ".
There are also some beauty brands who want to use this wave of traffic to advertise themselves.
In various videos, some children are often seen happily showing "This is a blush sent by the XXX brand, it is very cute", or hanging links such as children's skin care sets in the video.
Children and parents have earned income, the brand has been promoted and voiced, and it seems to kill two birds with one stone. , however, this behavior is very likely to be illegal in China, especially when the child is young.
Lawyer said that Article 38, paragraph 2 of the " Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China" has clear provisions, and shall not use minors under the age of ten as advertising spokespersons .
In addition, the Advertising Law also stipulates that "medical, medicine, health food, medical devices, cosmetics, alcohol, beauty advertisements, and online game advertisements that are not conducive to the physical and mental health of minors should not be published in mass communication media targeting minors."
Children's beauty bloggers, how should they grasp the boundaries?
In fact, not everyone has doubts about children being beauty bloggers, and there are many supporters, including many parents of children.
On various platforms, there are many parents who take the initiative to show off their children's makeup and put on the tags similar to #The smallest beauty blogger on the entire network. They may not rely on such videos to gain attention and make profits, but they just think this is a happy thing that can be shared.
Most of the parents of this generation of children are senior Internet netizens, and many of them are the main target audiences of professional beauty bloggers.
They believe that loving beauty is human nature. While they are constantly pursuing beauty, they will also buy makeup and skin care products for their children. According to the data related to Koala Haizhuang report, "post-85" mothers are the main force in purchasing cosmetics for their children .
But at the same time, many trends in the adult world will also affect these children prematurely. For example, the anxiety of appearance is younger, over-addicted, and even soft porn.
As mentioned in Xinhua News Agency's article, some children in beauty makeup videos are "materialized" to attract attention. Five-year-old children also begin to put on "pure desire" makeup, and they will also wear off-shoulder outfits, pout and glancing.
It may not be a bad thing for children to be a beauty blogger out of curiosity or interest in makeup, but it involves too many difficult to control or even gray areas, which will cause so much controversy.
Therefore, Whether it is the parent guardian, the platform party, or the regulatory authorities should maintain an open but vigilant mentality to children as bloggers , so that children can share content with safe products based on their personal wishes and interests. They cannot be made a tool to attract attention, and they should firmly say "no" to all behaviors involving soft pornography or damage to health.
Xiaohongshu wrote down their opinions on makeup for children aged 0-6. She called this period a child’s “aesthetic sensitive period” and said that mothers should teach their daughter how to put on different makeup according to different occasions.
In her opinion, "Children's makeup is not scary. It can cultivate color matching and confident and optimistic personality. The most important thing is to choose regular cosmetics, and then you must remove makeup and cleanse the facial cleanser to not harm the tender skin of children."
related specification measures have also been continuously upgraded.
From July 13, 2020, the National Cyberspace Administration of issued an announcement to strictly prohibit minors from serving as anchors ; on November 13 of the same year, the Cyberspace Administration of 1998 issued another relevant regulations, proposing that "live broadcast marketing personnel or live broadcast room operators are natural persons, they should be over 16 years old."
More and more platforms have also launched the minor model and deal with minor accounts that violate regulations. Now if you search for keywords such as "primary school students' makeup" directly on some platforms, you will no longer be able to search for related content.
On the products used by children's bloggers, on June 18, 2021, the National Medical Products Administration publicly solicited opinions on the "Regulations on Supervision and Administration of Children's Cosmetics (Draft for Comments)", which clarified the definition of children's cosmetics and put strict requirements on safety evaluation.
Of course, there are still many vulnerabilities that need to be solved urgently, such as whether it is necessary for adults to use their own account to bring children to the scene? What are the supervision and punishment measures for illegal children's cosmetics on the market?
However, despite the controversy in the outside world, it will not dispel children's yearning for becoming a beauty blogger or being an internet celebrity, and the traffic and attention have not faded.
A foreign survey agency conducted a career interest survey on children in China, the United States and the United Kingdom in 2019. The results showed that 30% of American children and 29% of British children wanted to become video bloggers. At the same time, video bloggers are also the top five popular occupations among Chinese children’s choices.
Do they really love doing this? It may not be, perhaps it is more about being influenced and guided, and gradually embracing this as a part of life.
As American scholar Neil Pottsman mentioned in his book "Having of Childhood in ": "Our children are more informed than ever, and they know everything their elders know. They have become adults, or at least like adults."
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Reference:
1. Jumei: "Start from the doll? A wave of "children's beauty makeup" has set off", author Yafei
2. New Weekly: "I can't laugh after watching the makeup video of elementary school students", author Zheng Yini
3. Southern Weekend: "Children's makeup growth wildly: claiming to be a toy, but the ingredients are the same as adult cosmetics", author Cui Xueying
