CCTV report reveals minors forced to eat worms, stage fights, and overfeed—3-year-old Peiqi weighs 35kg. New rules effective March 1 ban harmful content. Parents, platforms urged to protect kids.
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A blurred screenshot of a three-year-old girl who was reportedly fed to a body weight of 35 kilograms. Photo: Screenshot from CCTV.com's Weibo video.
China’s national state broadcaster CCTV released a report Sunday exposing multiple cases where minors are exploited for online traffic on social media, sending the topic straight to the top trending list on Sina Weibo and sparking widespread public calls for stronger regulatory safeguards for underage internet users.
In a viral Weibo post published via CCTV.com, the outlet noted that the boom in short-video streaming has driven a sharp rise in so-called “child influencers”, many of whom are pushed onto platforms by their guardians for clicks and commercial gains.
The report laid out a catalogue of harmful, exploitative content targeting minors: forcing young kids to swallow worms, snails and weeds for shock value; staging vicious sibling fights to fabricate dramatic family conflicts; dressing up child models as romantic couples for live-stream sales and brand promotions; and coaching minors to utter vulgar, age-inappropriate lines for views.
One widely condemned example centers on a three-year-old girl named Peiqi. Her parents overfed her until she weighed 35 kilograms (70 jin), nearly twice the standard healthy weight for a child her age. Every video on her account carries clickbait captions crafted to grab traffic, such as “70-jin chubby girl needs custom oversized outfits”, “70-jin chubby girl only ate six meat buns today and is still hungry”, and “70-jin chubby girl polishes off a bottle of drink, half a chicken and a full bowl of vermicelli in one sitting”.
The CCTV exposé ignited heated online debate. Many netizens argued that parents and legal guardians must bear primary liability for exploiting children for online fame. Others demanded stricter pre-release content reviews for any footage featuring minors. A large number of users also stressed that short-video platforms share joint responsibility and must strictly self-censor inappropriate child-related content.
As Xinhua News Agency reported back in January, eight central authorities led by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission jointly rolled out new rules classifying online content detrimental to minors’ physical and mental well-being. The regulatory document, which officially took effect on March 1, clearly identifies harmful content categories and their specific forms across four core dimensions: material that encourages dangerous imitation; content that distorts minors’ values; the improper commercialization of children’s likenesses; and unregulated disclosure or misuse of minors’ personal data.
Per the official rules, binge-eating challenges and sexually suggestive or provocative footage both qualify as content that lures minors into harmful imitative behavior.
Liu Xiaochun, Director of the Internet Law Research Center at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, offered expert commentary in an attached CCTV video. He reminded parents to reject excessive commercialization and adultification of children, and stop treating kids as mere tools to chase online traffic.
Liu drew a clear line between sincere, casual sharing of a child’s daily life and creating content solely for clout and profit. While moderate online popularity can bring minor positive experiences for children, massive internet exposure carries tangible long-term risks, and guardians must fully weigh all potential adverse impacts before building child influencer accounts.
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Editor: Crystal H
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