The summer holiday is meant to be a time for both students and parents to relax. But deliberately anxiety-inducing marketing content has proliferated on Chinese social media, exploiting parents’ fears about their children falling behind. Now one of the platforms where much of this is happening, Douyin, is taking action.

At the beginning of the summer holiday, which lasts from early July to late August this year, several education influencers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, posted videos about the importance of the summer holiday for children. A viral screenshot shows different influencers stressing the importance of the summer holiday for children of every grade.

“The summer holiday of second grade students is the most terrifying one,” an account named “Primary Student Parent” selling online classes and textbooks wrote in one video. In other videos, he explains why the summer holidays for fourth and fifth grade students are the most terrifying.

The “anxiety marketing” has sparked outrage online, with a related hashtag viewed over 66 million times on microblogging platform Weibo. It even elicited a response from China’s state broadcaster CCTV strongly condemning the actions of these “so-called education experts.” 

Earlier this month, Douyin launched a special campaign to protect minors throughout the summer, which, among other things, targets such “anxiety marketing.” The announcement came after Douyin deleted 961 offending videos and banned 81 accounts from posting and selling products on the platform. 

A search for “the summer holiday is the most terrifying” on Douyin now yields videos mostly criticizing the anxiety marketing videos. Several of the offending education influencers’ accounts now have no videos on their profiles, although the accounts are still running. “Primary School Parent” and other offenders that garnered the most criticism are no longer on the platform.

However, Douyin’s swift action has not entirely removed educational marketing on the platform. Several accounts that previously posted about the topic of summer being “terrifying” are still selling products, although their offending videos have been deleted.

Related hashtags are still pervasive on the platform, such as “summer holiday schedules,” “the secret to becoming a top student,” and “parent must-reads.”

On July 7, the Ministry of Education said it forbids training institutions and media from promoting “erroneous concepts” such as “summer holiday is the most terrifying” and creating educational anxiety.

Many parents in China are under huge pressure to provide their children with the best education resources in a highly competitive environment.

In 2021, the government introduced the “double reduction” policy to reduce the academic burden on children. The policy included various measures prohibiting off-campus learning programs for minors during national holidays, including the summer holidays.

Editor: Vincent Chow.

(Header image: VCG)