BEIJING — It was not Yang Qingning’s millions of social media followers¹ or her political beliefs that made the young woman the scorn of Chinese state media recently.

北京——最近，让杨清柠这个年轻女孩受中国官方媒体诟病的，不是她社交媒体上的数百万粉丝，也不是她的政治信念。

It was her tiny baby.

而是她的小宝宝。

Two of China’s most popular video platforms disappeared from app stores this week after the state broadcaster CCTV accused them of promoting underage pregnancy². A segment last week on CCTV featured what it said were teenage women whose videos — chronicling the joys and tribulations³ of motherhood, complete with images of swollen⁴ bellies⁵ — had attracted millions of followers and viewers. A stern but unspecific rebuke⁶ from China’s top media regulator followed a few days later.

本周，在被中国的中央电视台(CCTV)指责宣传未成年人怀孕后，中国最热门的两个视频平台在应用商店中消失了。央视上周播出的片段展示了几名据称靠视频吸引了数百万关注者和观众的少女，她们的视频记录着做母亲的快乐和痛苦，还配有肚子隆起的图片。几天后，中国最高媒体监管机构严厉但未点明细节的斥责随之而来。

The slapdown — which comes as China’s government extends its internet controls to encompass⁷ not only what it finds politically subversive⁸, but also what it deems unwholesome or pornographic — prompted quick declarations of remorse⁹ from the video apps’ creators.

随着中国政府对互联网的管控扩大，不仅包括被认定具有政治颠覆性的内容，不健康或色情内容也归入其中。这个时候的严打促使视频应用开发者迅速发表了自责声明。

“Content appeared on the platform that shouldn’t have been there, and it has had an extremely bad influence on society,” Su Hua, the chief executive of the company that operates Kuaishou, one of the apps, wrote in a statement. “I am very grateful to CCTV and other media for criticizing Kuaishou, so that I could clearly see my own deficiencies.”

“平台上出现了不该有的内容，对社会造成了非常不好的影响，”运营着其中一个应用的快手公司首席执行官宿华在一则声明中写道。“十分感谢中央电视台等媒体对快手的批评，让我清醒地认识到自己的不足。”

The company behind the other app, Huoshan, wrote: “Thanks to CCTV’s supervision¹⁰, Huoshan feels a deep sense of responsibility.” The creators of both apps said that they would strengthen their systems for screening videos.

另一个应用——火山小视频背后的公司写道：“感谢央视的监督，火山小视频深感责任重大。”两款应用的开发者都表示他们将加强自己的视频审查机制。

It was not clear whether or when the apps would be returned to stores. Spokeswomen for Kuaishou’s and Huoshan’s parent companies declined further comment.

这些应用是否或何时能重回应用商店尚不清楚。快手和火山小视频母公司的发言人拒绝进一步置评。

Online video has become a fierce battleground for Chinese technology firms. Kuaishou (pronounced KWAI-show) says its app is used by 100 million people every day. The parent of Huoshan (hwaw-SHAN) is Beijing Bytedance Technology, which says its flagship news app, Jinri Toutiao, has 120 million daily users. The attention of big-name Silicon¹¹ Valley investors¹² such as Sequoia¹³ Capital has helped Bytedance become one of the most highly valued tech start-ups in the world, with a recent valuation of $30 billion.

网络视频已经成为了中国科技公司的激烈战场。快手表示它的应用每天有一亿人使用；火山小视频的母公司——北京字节跳动公司称，它的旗舰新闻应用今日头条有着1.2亿的日活用户。红杉投资公司(Sequoia Capital)等知名硅谷投资者的关注，使字节跳动公司成为了全球最具价值的科技创业公司之一，最近的估值为300亿美元。

Kuaishou has a huge following outside China’s megacities. The platform, which shares features in common with Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope¹⁴, has become a way to exchange glimpses — often bawdy¹⁵ and free spirited — of ordinary lives in China. It has made celebrities¹⁶ out of people as varied¹⁷ as train conductors, ice fishermen, female welders¹⁸ in shipyards and would-be guitar heroes in ramshackle hamlets.

快手在中国的大都市之外有着众多追随者。在中国，这个近似Instagram、Snapchat和Periscope的平台已经成了互窥日常生活的一种方式——低俗而乖张的场面时常可见。它在普罗大众中成就了列车员、冰上垂钓者、造船厂女焊工或颓败村庄里自封的吉他英雄等等各式明星。

The democratizing possibilities of such services have not gone unnoticed by China’s censors¹⁹.

中国的审查部门并不是没有注意到这些服务趋于大众化的可能。

As they have taken a harder line on online discourse²⁰, media regulators have made targets of celebrity²¹ gossip blogs, ranting²² rappers and more. Updates to several sections on Toutiao, Bytedance’s news app, were halted for 24 hours recently after regulators accused it of spreading “vulgar information.” Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like forum²³, had to take several features offline for a week after it was scolded for similar transgressions²⁴.

随着媒体监管机构以更严厉的态度对待网络舆论，名人八卦博客、饶舌说唱歌手之类种种都被列为目标。最近，在监管机构指责传播“低俗信息”后，字节跳动公司的新闻应用今日头条几个板块被暂停更新24小时；类似Twitter的论坛新浪微博因相同的违规行为受到了批评，被迫将几个板块下线一周。

Adolescent motherhood is a subject that arouses special alarm in China. Even as economists²⁵ warn of a demographic emergency caused by the “one child” policy, which was ended in 2015, unwed mothers — even those of legal age — are stigmatized²⁶ and face legal bias²⁷. What is more, sex education has struggled to keep up with changing mores²⁸, increasing the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies²⁹.

未成年生子是一个在中国特别引人担忧的问题。尽管经济学家对2015年结束的独生子女政策所造成的人口紧张作出了警告，但未婚妈妈仍会背负污名并面对法律偏见——哪怕她们到了法定年龄。此外，性教育难以跟上变化的社会习俗，增加了意外怀孕的几率。

Last week’s CCTV segment begins with a young man and woman sitting together on a bed, their faces digitally blurred³⁰, as bouncy pop music plays in the background. “What do you think of when you see this video?” a narrator says. “Someone showing off their family’s cute children? Wrong. These two children already have their own children. This mother is not even 16.”

上周，央视播出的片段开头便是一对年轻男女一起坐在床上，他们的面部进行了模糊处理，背景播放着欢快的流行音乐。“看到这段视频你会想什么？”旁白说道。“有人在晒自家可爱的小儿女？你错了。这两个孩子已经有了自己的孩子。这位妈妈还不到16岁。”

Over images of another young woman with strawberries digitally superimposed on her cheeks, the segment continues: “Perhaps this sweet young girl is obediently helping³¹ her parents take care of her little brother. You’re wrong again. This is another 16-year-old young mother.”

视频接着出现了另一位年轻女子的图像，她的脸颊上数码叠加了几颗草莓：“也许这个甜甜的小姑娘正在乖乖地帮父母照顾弟弟？你又错了。这也是一位16岁的小妈妈。”

China does not allow men to marry before the age of 22, and women not until 20, the segment says. The young mothers on these apps, according to the segment, mostly live in rural areas and have dropped out of school. “Their lives are dull, and they crave³² attention,” the narration³³ says.

视频片段称，中国不允许男性在22周岁前结婚，女性则是20周岁。根据视频，这些应用上的年轻妈妈，大多生活在农村，并已辍学。旁白说，她们“生活单调，渴望被关注。”

The segment says that several such women had been vying³⁴, on the video apps, to be crowned the internet’s youngest mother. One went by the username “14 years old and already have my little cutie.”

该片段说，在这些视频应用中，有几个这样的女性正争抢着成为互联网上最年轻的妈妈。有人起了个用户名，叫“14岁就拥有了自己的小可爱”。

After you have viewed the Kuaishou account of one teenage mother, CCTV says, the app even recommends other teenage mothers whose videos might be of interest.

央视称，当你在快手上浏览了一个青少年妈妈的账号后，这个应用竟然还会向你推荐其他可能感兴趣的青少年妈妈视频。

An expert interviewed in the segment warns that such technology could cause young viewers to be drawn³⁵ into a self-reinforcing spiral of “negative influence.” “She will think that in her world, this kind of abnormal or illegal behavior is normal,” the expert says.

视频采访的一位专家警告，这样的技术可能会把年轻的观众引入一种不断自我强化的“负面影响”。“她就认为她的世界当中这种不正常的或者是违规的行为反而是正常的，”专家表示。