Who is hyping up "the scariest summer"? Investigation on the phenomenon of "selling education anxiety" online and offline among students, teachers, institutions, courses, advertisements, sales, children, and parents
Whether online or offline, many educational and training institutions are selling anxiety during the summer. Training teachers sincerely tell students and parents that "XX stage is the most important", and they need to study quickly during the summer, otherwise children will not be able to keep up when school starts, or they may be quickly overtaken by their peers
On short video platforms, this type of "selling anxiety" video has become a hot topic, covering almost every grade from the transition from kindergarten to primary school, and from elementary school to junior high school. In the eyes of short video bloggers, the summer vacation of each semester is a key node for a "comeback". The tutors in these videos may belong to different institutions but use the same language, and often have links to purchase teaching aids or training courses in the lower left corner of the videos
Parents of students should approach and enhance their identification skills rationally, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their comprehensive development, and enable them to truly have a healthy and happy summer life. At the same time, regulatory agencies should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure the implementation of the "double reduction" policy is in place
"The summer vacation in first grade is the most terrifying, as the time difference between two months widens. I didn't grasp the difference step by step during the summer vacation."
"The summer vacation in third grade is the scariest. If you don't do this, your child will fall behind by a big step when school starts."
"The summer vacation in sixth grade is the most terrifying. Students who do not perform well in elementary school will have better grades after the summer vacation, so it is necessary to do a good job in connecting them."
……
With the arrival of summer, similar videos are emerging in large numbers on the internet. The tutors in these videos may belong to different institutions but use the same language, and often have links to purchase teaching aids or training courses in the lower left corner of the videos. "The more you look at it, the more anxious it becomes. It feels like this summer, if your child doesn't focus on studying, they won't be able to keep up anymore," said Mr. Wang, a parent from Beijing.
A recent investigation by a reporter from the Legal Daily found that both online and offline, many educational and training institutions are selling anxiety during the summer. Training teachers sincerely tell students and parents that "the XX stage is the most important", and they need to study quickly during the summer, otherwise their children will not be able to keep up when school starts and may be quickly overtaken by their peers.
In response to this, multiple experts interviewed by reporters believe that as the target audience of such advertisements, parents of students should approach them rationally, enhance their recognition ability, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their comprehensive development, and enable them to truly have a healthy and happy summer life. At the same time, regulatory agencies should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure the implementation of the "double reduction" policy.
Unable to handle the most videos
Actually promoting book courses
In a short video released by a certain video account in June this year, almost three-quarters of the screen was occupied by the face of the "teacher" - he was wearing glasses, his palm was swinging to the rhythm of his speech, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he looked like a "senior teacher". The big character on the forehead is particularly eye-catching: "I usually want to turn my grades around, but I do this during the summer vacation in fifth grade.".
In the video, he said solemnly, "Your grades in fifth grade are average. After you reach sixth grade, you will still be average, and in first grade, you will be even more average." What should you do to turn the tide? This "teacher" compares learning to a race, stating that the grades of "entering elementary school" are the ultimate reflection of a child's "good or bad performance in elementary school".
Many children start preparing for the junior high school entrance exam in the second semester of sixth grade. This "teacher" suggests that they should start reviewing early from fifth grade. Then he changed his tone and began to promote a certain textbook and tutorial book
On short video platforms, this type of "selling anxiety" video has become a hot topic, covering almost every grade from the transition from kindergarten to primary school, and from elementary school to junior high school. In the eyes of short video bloggers, the summer vacation of each semester is a key node for a "comeback".
From the perspective of curriculum categories, "Chinese is the watershed", "English should be learned in advance", and "Olympiad mathematics is the key"... all subjects must attach importance to it. However, when the video is about to end, the blogger will immediately give suggestions for buying books and courses.
Not only that, in some promotional videos, there are also slogans such as "XX grade is the scariest", "Stop playing during summer vacation, XX grade is the watershed", "If you don't make good use of this summer vacation, you will basically miss out on high school", etc. The exaggerated tone, coupled with tense music, made some parents who watched the video exclaim: feeling extremely anxious.
If you don't manage this period well, will your child really become useless? A netizen roast that in the past two years, during summer and winter vacations, a large number of such videos or live broadcasts can always be painted on the short video platform. Every year, from grade one to high school graduation, it is a "watershed", as if the success or failure of children's studies is at this point.
The reporter saw that most of these accounts have opened shopping windows, and clicking on the link in the lower left corner of the video shows sales of various learning materials and tutoring courses. The prices of textbooks vary, some sell for 30-50 yuan, while others sell for over 100 yuan. The summer preview materials for a certain elementary school show that 380000 pieces have been sold. The purchase of tutoring courses is more complex, with seemingly low prices, but in reality, it is only a consultation registration fee, and a certain fee needs to be paid later to start the formal course.
On June 28, Tiktok released the fifth notice to combat "hype by hot events", and selling "educational anxiety" during the summer became the focus of governance. Accounts that create "educational anxiety" such as "the summer vacation of second grade elementary school students is very dangerous" and "the most terrifying", "failure to prepare well during the summer vacation of second grade leads to a sharp drop in grades in third grade", and "summer vacation is here, don't waste 60 days" have been strictly punished for violating platform rules. At present, Tiktok has handled 961 relevant illegal videos, and 81 accounts have been punished by prohibiting publishing and restricting e-commerce's right to take goods.
The reporter noticed that experience sharing posts have also become a new way of spreading anxiety. A netizen named "Xixi Mama" shared her experience of taking care of children online, saying that unnecessary courses really don't need to be taken. She told other parents not to be overly anxious, but then the conversation changed and said, "My child is reading XX tutoring books, which are very useful.". At the end of the post, there are also purchase links for various tutoring materials directly attached, and many parents have contacted her to make purchases.
A user left a message in the comment section saying that enrolling their child in seven or eight tutoring or interest classes at once is actually relieving their anxiety and increasing their stress. Some users have pointed out that while it may seem like sharing experiences, it actually leads to "selling anxiety" and unsightly eating habits.
How effective are the courses and textbooks in the shopping links of the bloggers in the "Selling Anxiety" video?
Many parents claim that when they see various recommended textbooks from bloggers online, they don't know which one is better, so they simply buy them all for their children. However, they find that although many textbooks are written for national use, the actual content and progress do not match the local teaching content, making it difficult for children to adapt to learning.
Training institutions find people to entrust
Deliberately creating group anxiety
Selling education anxiety is not only prevalent online, but also offline.
Shen Zhou, from Pudong New Area in Shanghai, used to work in the education and training industry. He told reporters that the language of "selling education anxiety" online has long existed, all of which originated from offline training institutions. "First, exaggerate the anxiety and then guide parents to enroll in classes and buy books. The rest of the offline training institutions play on short video platforms, and then deceive a group of parents.".
Shen Zhou revealed to reporters that there are some training institutions near Chuansha in Pudong New Area, Shanghai where he is located that suffer from "selling education anxiety". These tutoring institutions cover various stages from primary school to high school, and can teach subjects with exam requirements here. Exam anxiety is the main enrollment method of these institutions.
Shen Zhou said that educational and training institutions usually mobilize parents of students to promote the institution among family and friends. Some institutions also promise that for every student recruited, the referrer can receive a commission, or the referrer's children can enroll at a discounted price. As a result, many "institutional childcare" groups have infiltrated the student parent community.
"These 'institutional childcare' will use idle chat time and parent teacher meetings to spread anxiety to other parents. In this way, the anxiety of surrounding parents is greatly aroused, and they are asking how to do it. At this time, when the name of the institution is mentioned, some parents will be very convinced and quickly pay to enroll." Shen Zhou said.
The anxiety of parents is magnified several times during winter and summer vacations. It seems that if they don't take advantage of this period to make up for it, their children will be left behind by their classmates' academic achievers after the start of school, and even be overtaken by other classmates in corners.
The reporter found that this type of anxiety even spreads among some parents from the kindergarten stage, and there are many online and offline tutoring classes, ranging from talent and expertise to subject guidance. Parents are anxious and their children are busy.
"The second child was promoted to primary school. Yesterday, the Pinyin class' sold anxiety 'and asked my child to make up for both Chinese and mathematics. I suppressed the urge to enroll and decided to only teach him basketball and swimming. If these young age groups don't learn, they won't have time anymore," said a parent in Shanghai.
Jasmine from Xuhui District, Shanghai is attending a kindergarten senior class, appearing out of place with the children around her. Jasmine's father, Mr. Ma, told reporters that parents around her are already discussing how to choose remedial classes for their children before elementary school, and should hurry up to attend English classes, art classes, etc. A wave of anxiety is spreading among parents.
Faced with the "educational anxiety" that parents are trapped in, students are even more "distressed". Xiao Song from Suzhou, Anhui, complained to reporters that at school, teachers would say that "if they do not prepare in advance, they will not be able to keep up with the teaching arrangements of the next semester", and asked parents to help students use the holiday time to teach their own courses in the next semester in advance, so students will have two sets of teaching materials, one for self-study in advance, and one for official school use.
"If my grades dropped a bit, my parents would have to enroll me in tutoring classes, one-on-one tutoring, evening self-study tutoring, and after-school tutoring. I used all the available time, and holidays hardly existed." Xiao Song recalled, especially during the summer vacation after the middle school entrance examination, she seemed to seamlessly transition to the first year of high school without any summer vacation. Parents have more severe anxiety than their children, they cannot digest it on their own, and it can be transferred to their children.
In short video platforms, some warning videos of so-called "senior teachers" will also be shared by parents in family and friend groups, creating group anxiety.
At the same time, offline tutoring institutions are also facing the problem of mismatched products.
During the interview process, students generally reported that there were many problems with offline courses: the course was too basic, there was no explanation throughout the entire process, and the teacher only read PPTs... Moreover, the teaching staff was difficult to guarantee, and some "private tutors" and "famous teachers" did not even obtain teaching qualifications, while some were still college students.
Xiao Yang from Qingpu District, Shanghai worked as a "black tutor" during the summer vacation, providing on-site tutoring for elementary school students' coursework. When asked about the reasons for her employment, Xiao Yang said that some parents have difficulty tutoring their children's homework due to their educational level, but they are afraid that their children's summer homework may not be easy to complete. Therefore, they seek help from teachers outside. As a result, their high school grades were relatively good, and college students charged lower fees, so they were hired by their parents.
Actively implementing regulatory responsibilities
Boycott selling anxiety behavior
The reporter found that "selling anxiety" during institutional sales courses has become the norm. Is this promotional activity legal?
Sun Wei, Senior Partner of Beijing Zhongzheng Law Firm, believes that it is not a problem for institutions to increase exposure through advertising in order to achieve better sales results. However, seeking marketing effects through "sales anxiety" in advertising is not appropriate.
Sun Wei said that Article 24, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Advertising Law stipulates that "Education and training advertisements shall not contain the following content: express or implied guarantee promises for further education, passing exams, obtaining academic degrees or certificates of qualification, or for the effectiveness of education and training.". Although "selling anxiety" is not directly reflected as a guarantee commitment, it reversely indicates the necessity of its educational and training courses, textbooks, and books in terms of further education, passing exams, obtaining academic degrees, etc. through the way of "if not... will...", which is essentially an implied guarantee commitment that violates the provisions of advertising law.
Meanwhile, Article 3 of the Advertising Law stipulates that advertisements should be truthful, legal, and express their content in a healthy form, in accordance with the requirements of socialist spiritual civilization construction and the promotion of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation; Article 4 stipulates that advertisements shall not contain false or misleading content, and shall not deceive or mislead consumers. Strictly speaking, "selling anxiety" belongs to an "unhealthy form of expression", and its content is somewhat deceptive and misleading, which does not meet the requirements of advertising law for advertising content.
What responsibilities should online platforms fulfill in this regard? How to standardize the advertising of "selling anxiety" in offline training classes?
Sun Wei said that according to Article 2 of the Advertising Law, online platforms belong to advertising publishers, and they should bear the regulatory and review responsibilities stipulated by law for the advertisements they publish. Article 34 of the Advertising Law stipulates that "advertising operators and publishers shall establish and improve registration, review, and archive management systems for advertising business in accordance with relevant national regulations. Advertising operators and publishers shall inspect relevant proof documents and verify the content of advertisements in accordance with laws and administrative regulations. For advertisements with inconsistent or incomplete proof documents, advertising operators shall not provide design, production, or agency services, and advertising publishers shall not publish them.".
"If it is determined that certain educational and training advertisements violate the provisions of Article 24 of the Advertising Law, and the advertiser knowingly continues to publish them, the regulatory authorities have the right to impose administrative penalties such as fines, suspension of advertising publishing business, or revocation of business license on the advertiser based on the severity of the circumstances and in accordance with the Advertising Law." said Sun Wei.
Sun Wei believes that advertisements should have recognizability in accordance with the law, and the advertising content of offline training institutions should be able to help parents and students distinguish that it is an advertisement, rather than attempting to explain the necessity of educational courses and books from a "scientific" perspective, leading to misunderstandings among consumers through guiding content such as "selling anxiety". In this regard, administrative agencies should actively fulfill their regulatory responsibilities and further regulate the behavior of offline training institutions in publishing advertisements.
How should training institutions address the issue of "selling anxiety" during the summer vacation?
Sun Wei said that on the one hand, regulatory agencies should actively implement their regulatory responsibilities, do a good job in publicity and guidance, and ensure the implementation of the "double reduction" policy in place; On the other hand, as the target audience of such advertisements - parents of students, they should approach and enhance their recognition abilities rationally, pay more attention to their children's physical and mental health, promote their comprehensive development, and enable them to truly have a healthy and happy summer life.
"Rome wasn't built in a day, and the reason why the method of 'selling anxiety' was successful was simply because it took advantage of parents' long-standing desire for their children to succeed." In the view of Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, using holidays to overtake on curves is certainly a choice, but it would be a bit counterproductive to use all of this rare vacation to improve grades. Instead of suffering students and becoming poor parents, it's better to temporarily put aside grades and find the correct way to open holidays together.
Meng Qiang said that during summer vacation, relaxing and having fun are important, but children should also receive certain learning and cultivation, such as reading books and learning new skills. Parents should provide their children with sufficient support and encouragement, so that they can feel the warmth of the family during the holidays. At the same time, he reminded relevant video platforms not to allow this kind of "selling anxiety" chaos to occur due to the pursuit of commercial interests. More people should be aware of the harm of this behavior and firmly resist this kind of "selling anxiety" behavior.
