(Photo/Shaanxi Daily)

Lately, Wang Ping from Hebei province has been worried about her daughter, who spends too much time watching short videos on her mobile phone. This habit has already affected her studies.

Short videos apps are very popular nowadays. By the end of December 2018, the number of short video viewers in China had reached 648 million. Along with this booming industry comes concerns about youngsters' addiction to short videos.

A survey conducted by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League revealed that 20 percent of teenagers said they "always" watch short videos and nearly 10 percent use these apps "several times every day".

Due to poor time management and self-control, teenagers are likely to spend too much time on these apps.

Liu Mengfei, a contract researcher on digital media at Beijing Normal University, pointed out that some short videos tend to recommend relevant content based on the users' preference.

However, parents have a right to be concerned, as unhealthy content has been found on a number of short video apps. Since teenagers haven't formed a sound set of values, this content may set a bad example for teenagers and mislead them. In addition, staring at a cell phone for an extended period of time is harmful to youngsters' eyesight.

To deal with this new obsession with short videos, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) introduced anti-addiction trial projects on some of the country's most popular short video platforms.

With the new in-app anti-addiction system, teenagers are guided to enter the "adolescent mode" whenever they open the short video app. Under the mode, certain functions of the apps are disabled, inappropriate content is blocked and the length and slots of a user's time online are both limited.

Kuaishou app has established a team of around 300 members to filter unhealthy content for adolescents.

However, the system has only been introduced on some major short video apps such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Huoshan, and other lesser-known apps are still available to teenagers. If teenagers don't choose the "adolescent mode", they can still access unhealthy content.