Children’s smartwatches, which are designed to keep children safe, have become increasingly popular in recent years amid the boom in smart hardware. However, Germany’s federal Internet agency has banned the sale of children’s smartwatches in the country due to security concerns, according to huanqiu. The news sparked a heated debate among parents about the safety of children’s smartwatches.
Children’s smartwatches are riding high
According to IDC’s “China Wearable Device Market Quarterly Tracking Report, Q1 2017”, China’s wearable device market shipped 10.35 million units in the first quarter of 2017, up 20.3% year on year. In addition to smart wristbands and watches, China’s children’s watch market shipments reached 3.51 million units, up 64.9% year on year. In fact, the reasons for the rapid growth of children’s smartwatches are as follows:
First, the gradual improvement of artificial intelligence technology has promoted the development of smart wearable products. According to the 2017 China Intelligent Hardware Industry Market Research Report by China Business Industry Research Institute, the market size of China’s intelligent application industry in 2016 was 331.5 billion yuan, up 21.16% year on year. With the upgrading of technology, the improvement of associated infrastructure and the continuous maturity of the application service market, the product form of intelligent hardware extends from smart phones to smart wearable products, and children’s smart watches have become the convergence point of information technology and traditional industry.
Second, the new generation of post-90s parents have a higher understanding and acceptance of smart products. Children’s smartwatches have various functions such as real-time location, safe area, history track and two-way call. It is convenient for parents and children to communicate with each other, to ensure the safety of children, and easy to carry, so children’s smart watches soon captured the hearts of parents and children. Earlier, a media survey on children’s smartwatch consumption showed that more than 90% of parents are willing to buy children’s smartwatches, of which 17.44% have already bought one.
Third, the children’s consumer market is the big giants to contend for. Data from the 2016 Statistical Bulletin of National Economic and Social Development released by the National Bureau of Statistics show that the population between 0 and 14 years old in China is more than 230 million. In 2016, the market size of children’s consumption is about 2 trillion yuan, and it shows an increasing trend year by year. In the broad prospect of the children’s market, more players join the children’s smart watch market, and driven by capital, the product forms and functions of children’s watches become richer, and they get rid of the human devices of smart wristbands and begin to develop to diversified ecology.
The smartwatch industry has developed rapidly thanks to the efforts of manufacturers such as Little Genius, 360 Children’s Watch and Sugar Cat. However, when children’s smartwatch brands are making crazy money, the news that Germany and the United States ban the sale of children’s smartwatch makes domestic children’s smartwatch brands unprepared. In a word, the information security problem has been exposed, who can guarantee the safety of children?
Security loopholes highlighted, small genius, sugar cats and other manufacturers how to face?
The news that Germany has banned the sale of children’s smartwatches has made many headlines recently, after CCTV’s Focus Program published a news feature titled “Hidden dangers of safety devices”, which also pointed out that a small number of children’s phone watches may be unsafe.
Both Chinese and foreign media pointed out that: Children lack of information security smart watches, hackers can not only accurately grasp the watch’s position, also can complete line for children’s daily walk, hacking the children’s dialogue and the surrounding sound, and the average watch not of the associated with parents’ mobile phones to encrypt information between parents, hackers can use this black into the watch publishing false information, Privacy issues, all kinds of security issues that make parents uneasy.
So, in the face of information security problems, sugar Cat, 360, small genius and other leading companies, how to say? How to do?
As we all know, 360, the largest Internet security company in China, has the most advanced security system in China. Sun Hao, product director of 360 Children’s Watch, said that 360 children’s watch is based on “security”, combined with the accumulation and application of artificial intelligence, big data and cloud services, which can not only make children feel happy, but also make them safer.
After children’s smart watches were exposed to safety risks, the Sogou Sugar Cat team quickly released a statement that “started from the safety of their own products, analyzed the safety guarantee that children’s watches should have, and called for the development of industry norms.” In fact, Sugar Cat children’s phone watch is the use of Sogou’s private cloud server, Sogou’s own map positioning technology, plus encryption algorithms, dynamic keys and secure information transmission channels, which can effectively prevent data leakage and illegal access.
Xiaogenius, which focuses on the Chinese children’s market, also said it has its own technical team and independent servers, which can protect it from malicious hacker attacks to a certain extent. According to the 2017 Terminal Quality Report recently released by China Mobile, the quality test results of children’s smartwatches are as follows after passing the safety, experience and communication tests: Xiaotiancai phone watch Z3 ranked first, and readulang, KIDO, Sogou and other brand products ranked second to 10th respectively, which also verified the safety of children’s smart watches produced by big manufacturers.
As for the safety problems of children’s smartwatches, industry insiders have said that children’s smartwatches produced by small brands are the black sheep of the flock, because small companies of children’s smartwatches do not have the ability to repair the vulnerabilities themselves, and their children’s smartwatches have security vulnerabilities. In addition, there are major problems in the design and production of most domestic children’s smart watches, and there is a lack of unified standards for detection and specification.
On the one hand, as a new technological product, children’s smartwatches lack relevant and clear standards and specifications for design, manufacturing, production and process at the industry level. Currently, the children’s smartwatch market is mixed, resulting in a flood of copycat products, uneven quality and a lack of industry standards. According to the statistics of Sina Technology in 2016, there are more than 350 brands in the children’s smartwatch product database on a website, and there are more than 150 models for sale at present. Prices vary from 100 yuan to 2,000 yuan. Fake and shoddy products are flooding the market, ruining the “brand” of children’s smartwatches.
On the other hand, the poor user experience of children’s smartwatches can not be ignored. Watch part of children’s intelligence have been slow with poor positioning accuracy and positioning problem existed, in addition, most of the children’s intelligence hand exists the shortage of the life time is short, but the CCTV also exposed a defective watch children intelligence positioning function high radiation problem of poor households experience, security is not high is intelligent children watch industry failed to help resolve the pain points.
Some schools have banned children’s smartwatches from being used in school after a series of safety breaches, while parents who have previously bought children’s smartwatches say they should avoid products that could endanger their children. In the public opinion, the growth of children’s smartwatch sales slowed down, and information security issues to the limelight of children’s smartwatch manufacturers a blow.
What’s next for children’s smartwatches after safety scare?
As soon as the news of Germany banning the sale of children’s smartwatches came out, some netizens commented that “the whole brand new industry was banned after discovering that some fake and unlicensed products could be hacked. Then any industry can be banned”, while others thought that “children’s safety cannot tolerate any slight”. There is no doubt that information security breaches have damaged the credibility of the children’s smartwatch industry. But in the national goal of improving the overall quality of life, children’s smartwatches are the key to unlocking children’s intelligent life.
With the development of information technology, we have shifted from the Age of the Internet to the age of the Internet of Things, and intelligent life is what people want to achieve. As a new lifestyle, smart life adopts mainstream Internet communication channels and rich intelligent product terminals to build more convenient, safer and healthier specific scenes. In the future, children’s smart life may need to connect various smart terminal products with one click through the widely used children’s smart watch.
The realization of smart life needs to take into account the habit needs of different age groups, and different from experienced adults, children have certain difficulties in operating complex smart home system. In a family with an old man and a young child, it is not a small problem how to adapt the old man and the young child to the intelligent life.
Statistics show that there are about 300 million children under the age of 12 in China, among which 85 percent of children’s consumption reaches or exceeds 30 percent of the total family expenditure. At present, intelligent products have become a major trend, and intelligent products for children have been widely accepted by the public. For example, the Honor Play Tablet 2, a smart lifestyle product, has built-in user-friendly functions such as a children’s playground mode. In order to enable children to adapt to the intelligent life more quickly, children’s smart watch will also become a smart carrier for children and intelligent life.
The future smart life is a comprehensive smart service life, and children can operate smart home products through children’s smart watches, communicate with their families through children’s smart watches, and use smart watches to connect a series of smart life services. Therefore, as the first entrance to children’s intelligent life, it is necessary for children’s smartwatch brands to assume the responsibility of education, ensure safety, enrich product functions, introduce more advanced intelligent technologies, and make children’s smartwatches the first intelligent playmates of children.
Overall, accelerating global information technology innovation, make intelligent products become increasingly active consumption hot spots, and the wisdom of the efficient, comfortable, convenient life has become people pursuit of life goals, but smart industry along with the rapid development of rage and fake and inferior products, irregular products of the flood our industry. The news that Germany banned the sale of children’s smart watches tore away the mask of profit seeking of the domestic smart product market for children and became the fuse for the rectification of smart products. The essence of smart products should be taken and the dross should be discarded. The still standing brand will also become the driving force to promote the realization of children’s smart life.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110