China's Censors Target Teen Behavior
Shanghai High School student Fan Di is a "Super Girl" groupie. Whenever a particular finalist on the smash Chinese television show -- a knockoff of the popular U.S. show "American Idol" -- comes to town, Ms. Fan greets her at the airport with her fan club.
Ms. Fan's mother, Liu Yi, is alarmed to see her daughter searching online for news and pictures of the Super Girls, and has started to warn Ms. Fan that "she shouldn't indulge herself. Her priority is studying and going to college." It's a classic parent-child conflict, and Ms. Liu has tried to lay down the law.
But now, she has a leg up: In China, it has become the law.
As commercial television, the Internet and videogames become growing influences in Chinese kids' lives, Beijing is racing to put parents, schools -- and the government itself -- back in charge. Last week, the government announced the latest in a raft of recent media regulations, this one taking aim directly at "Super Girl," China's biggest commercial TV success.
The new measures, which are technically regulations rather than laws, make it harder for the show to broadcast beyond the province of its producer, Hunan TV, and stipulate that contestants on all future talent shows must be at least 18 years old. They prevent judges from "embarrassing or heckling" contestants and require that talent programs "avoid vulgar or gross styles."
By the contest's final round, "Super Girls" was pulling in more than 25% of viewers in Beijing and Shanghai, according to Nielsen Media Research. The show raised eyebrows because it promotes an instant celebrity culture and seems to encourage some of its 100,000 or so participants to skip school to try out. Moreover, it allowed young people to vote, via cellphone, for winners, and the show's hosts regularly made pointed comments about contestants. The new ruling is kryptonite for "Super Girl" as it gears up for what would be its third season.
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television says the latest rules weren't designed just to take down "Super Girl," but rather to ensure that TV is safe for kids who exercise weak judgment.
"We got so many complaints from scholars, the Ministry of Education, parents and schools saying that many kids started to skip class and have been distracted to do all sorts of unimportant things except study," says Zhu Hong, a spokesman for the radio, film and television administration, which is headed by a former school principal. The Ministry of Education had no comment.
This year for the first time, the government made it illegal for anyone under 18 to buy alcohol -- which five of the "Super Girl" finalists have been peddling in advertisements. One ad, for the Liuyanghe brand of baijiu spirits, shows the teenage girls belting out: "Sing when you want to sing, drink when you want to drink," a reference to the show's theme song.
Hunan TV declined to comment on the new regulation. Local Chinese media reports say producers are scrambling to find a way to get the program back on the air this season.
TV isn't the only evil. Several government agencies have begun lecturing parents, teachers and teens on how to spend their time online, publishing a guide called "Youth and Internet Morals." Now, as part of an experimental effort to treat kids that it worries are addicted to online videogames -- a $650 million business in China this year, by some estimates, and growing rapidly -- the government is asking the gaming companies responsible for 80% of the market to change their software so that minors will be limited to five hours of play a day. After the third hour, the game's rewards are slashed by 50%. China will require players to use their national I.D. numbers to sign onto games. Kids seeking to feign adulthood by faking their I.D.s will find all their equipment and experience points deleted.
"You can't just take a put-out-the-fire approach and help those who are already addicted," says Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of General Administration of Press and Publications, which has regulatory responsibilities for a variety of media. "You have to help build good habits among young users."
Chinese game players may not really be any worse off than American kids with "Nintendo thumb," and the excesses of "Super Girl" pale compared with the abuses regularly hurled at contestants on the Fox network's "American Idol." But both are novelties in China, where all media is still owned and censored by the Communist Party. Western-style programming has arrived only in the past 10 years, and is just starting to get down and dirty.
Beijing's alarmed reaction to these new influences is more than just Communist paternalism. Parents and educators all over the world are trying to teach children how to use and interpret TV, advertising and the Internet. China worries that it may have opened its media sector to market forces and international content too quickly and too soon. Some in the media industry, citing the "Super Girls" alcohol ads as an example, say Beijing may be right to worry, and that without the media literacy and infrastructure found in other cultures -- movie ratings systems and so forth -- Chinese kids are easier prey for marketers.
At the same time, being sensational and occasionally gross is arguably what makes kids' programs successful in China and the U.S. alike. Even Ms. Liu, the Shanghai teen's mother, understands the appeal of the new, brash programming. "When I was young, I also loved popular music and went to concerts," she says. Zhou Bichang , the Super Girl whom Fan Di reveres, "has a similar personality as my daughter... it's understandable that my daughter likes her so much."
The new regulations are a sign of the paradox afflicting Chinese media: the government wants media companies to be commercially self-sufficient, but doesn't want to give up control over what gets said. That already is spelling trouble for China's burgeoning domestic media companies as well as international giants like Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc., all scrambling to make money off of the country's 290 million kids under the age of 14.
Meanwhile, game makers like Nasdaq-listed Shanda Interactive Entertainment are testing the system that would require all players to sign on to games with their national I.D. numbers.
But kids will be kids. "If they use fake I.D. numbers, we can do nothing," says Shanda representative Liang Xiaodong. Mr. Kou, of the General Administration of Press and Publications, warns, "There will be a way to make sure your name is real. We are working with the police departments."
中国新法规直指“超女”现象
对湖南电视台模仿“美国偶像”(American Idol)制作的娱乐节目“超级女声”，上海高中生范迪的迷恋已近乎疯狂。每当有某位特殊的“超女”选手到上海，她都要集合她的“粉丝”团到机场迎接。
看著范迪整日在网络上浏览“超女”图片、捕捉“超女”的消息，母亲刘怡不由得愁上心头。她警告范迪：“你不要太放纵。你的主要任务是学习，是考大学。”这种冲突在中国两代人中间很典型。母亲尝试过对范迪发号施令，但效果并不明显。
不过现在她有了强有力的后盾：在中国，这方面已经有法可依了。
随著商业电视、互联网和视频游戏在青少年生活中逐渐占据越来越大的空间，中国政府正抓紧制定法规，为父母、学校以及政府赋予更大的控制权。上周，政府颁布的最新媒体管理规定将矛头直指“超级女声”这档中国最成功的商业电视节目。
这些新举措从理论上说还不是法律，只属于管理条例的范畴。中国国家广播电影电视总局的新规定限制了“超级女声”在其出品方湖南电视台所在的湖南省以外播出，并要求所有参赛选手年龄必须超过18岁。他们要求评委点评时不搞令参赛选手难堪的责难，播出的节目要力戒庸俗、低俗的现象。据Nielsen Media Research的调查，“超级女声”选赛最后一轮在北京和上海的收视率高达25%以上。这一节目之所以受到有关方面的关注是因为它助长了一夜成名的风气，客观上在鼓励10几万参赛选手逃避学习、尝试其他机会。此外，它允许年轻人通过手机为选手投票，主持人也经常对参赛选手指指点点。在第三届“超级女声”即将拉开帷幕之际，新规定无异于给了主办方当头一棒。
广电总局表示，推出新规定并非要打击“超级女声”，而是为了确保电视节目有益于尚缺乏足够判断力的青少年。
广电总局发言人朱红表示，他们收到了来自学术界、教育部、父母和学校的多方反应，称很多孩子开始逃课，被学习以外的很多无关紧要的事情分散了精力。教育部没有就此发表评论。
今年，中国政府首次规定禁止向不满18岁的青少年出售酒类产品，而“超级女声”的5名决赛选手却堂而皇之地为酒类产品代言。在浏阳河酒的广告中，这些二十岁左右的女孩齐声唱起了根据节目主题曲改编的“想唱就唱，想喝就喝。”
湖南电视台拒绝就新规定发表评论。据中国本地媒体报导称，制作方正四处奔忙，想办法让节目顺利播出。
电视并不是中国政府在娱乐业著力整顿的唯一领域。很多政府机构已经开始对家长、老师和孩子们进行宣传教育，引导青少年正确安排上网时间，并发布《全国青少年文明网络公约》。眼下，为了防止青少年沉迷于网络视频游戏，政府还试图要求那些占据80%市场份额的游戏生产商对其软件进行改编，将青少年每天玩游戏的时间限制在5个小时之内。3个小时后，游戏积分将降至50%。政府将要求玩家使用真实的身份证号码登录游戏。对于通过伪造身份证号以成人身份登录者，一经发现，其所有设备和游戏积分将被全部删除。据部分人士估计，今年网络游戏市场的规模已达到6.5亿美元，并仍在迅猛增长。中国国家新闻出版总署音像电子和网络出版管理司副司长蔻晓伟指出，对于那些已经沉溺于网络游戏的孩子来说，不能只像灭火似的应一时之急，而是要在这些青年玩家中培养起好习惯。
中国游戏玩家与迷恋“Nintendo thumb”的美国孩子相比或许真的是小巫见大巫，而针对“超女”的过激行为与美国人对福克斯(Fox)电视网“美国偶像”节目中的参赛者肆无忌惮的辱骂也难以相提并论。然而，在所有媒体仍为共产党所有或接受共产党管制的中国，这两种现象毕竟属于新鲜事物。西式的游戏在10年前刚刚进入中国，现在刚刚开始走向泛滥。
北京对新娱乐方式的警惕不只体现著共产党的“家长作风”。全世界的父母及教育人士都在教导孩子们如何正确使用和理解电视节目、广告以及互联网。中国政府只是担心向国际市场敞开媒体大门可能为时尚早、步伐过快。媒体行业的部分人士以“超女”代言的浏阳河酒广告为例指出，政府的担忧是正确的，中国媒体不像在其他一些国家那样有成熟的规范和制度框架──如电影分级制等等，因此中国的青少年很容易成为商业的牺牲品。
与此同时，像在美国一样，追求轰动效应并夹杂以一些粗俗的内容被认为是中国乃至美国节目吸引青少年的成功所在。就连范迪的母亲刘怡也对这种新颖、热辣的节目所具有的吸引力表示理解。“我年轻的时候也酷爱流行音乐，喜欢去听演唱会，”她说。范迪最崇拜的“超女”周笔畅“与我女儿有很多相似之处，女儿喜欢她也是可以理解的。”
新规定凸显出中国媒体所面临的矛盾。政府一方面鼓励媒体公司在经济上自给自足，另一方面又不愿意放弃对媒体的控制。在这种情况下，方兴未艾的中国媒体行业以及垂涎中国2.9亿14岁以下儿童市场的包括迪斯尼(Walt Disney Co.)和维亚康姆(Viacom Inc., )在内的众多国际巨头难免受到种种限制。
与此同时，在那斯达克上市的盛大互动娱乐有限公司(Shanda Interactive Entertainment)正在测试让所有玩家以身份证号注册的系统。
但孩子毕竟是孩子。“如果他们使用假冒的身份证号登录，我们也没办法处罚，”盛大公司代表梁晓东表示。但国家新闻出版署的蔻晓伟警告说，会有办法确保实行实名制。他们为此将求得公安部门的合作。
