A new trend on China’s social media platforms that allows users to lift the skirts of young women during live-streaming, is causing widespread concern.
A simulated beach setting with sand on the floor, a virtual sea, and palm trees in the background, includes barefoot women hosts wearing skirts or tight trousers.
The women are sitting on beach chairs and are surrounded by toy vehicles, such as excavators and road rollers.
Mainland reports revealed that viewers can download an app that allows them to remotely control the vehicles during the live-streams – so they can move them around, operate the arms and use them to dig in the sand.
A live-stream account called Xianshan Remote Control Centre, posted on its social media account: “We want to showcase our self-developed system, allowing people to enjoy the fun of remotely operating an excavator.”
However, some viewers move the excavators so they are touching the women hosts’ legs and stomachs, and some even attempt to lift their skirts.
One online user said there is also a first-person perspective, which makes them feel as if they are sitting in the driving seat of the toy vehicles.
The live-streams can attract up to 3,000 viewers at a time, according to NetEase News.
Despite being harassed by the viewers operating the excavators, some female hosts continue to interact, patiently correcting the “naughty” vehicles by repositioning them on the sand.
“It feels quite comfortable when being grabbed, like being tickled,” one female live-streamer said.
There were also reports of “gift-giving” interactions, in which a female host does a 10-second split on the sand if a viewer sends a virtual rocket gift worth 1,000 yuan (US$140).
The bizarre form of entertainment has sparked criticism on mainland social media for its potential to exploit women.
“These young female live-streamers are absolutely being exploited – it’s softcore harassment. These accounts should be banned immediately,” one online observer said.
“The frightening thing is that the women are allowing the men to control the toy cars and touch them. They have become numb to being exploited,” said another.
Such accounts have been permanently banned from live-streaming, and the relevant apps have been removed from social media platforms.
In recent years, live-streaming in China has grown dramatically, with millions of aspiring hosts joining the lucrative industry.
Statistics show that the market size of the country’s live-streaming industry exceeded a staggering 200 billion yuan (US$28 billion) last year.
Hosts seeking quick profits are using sexually suggestive audio for videos or narrating stories with explicit language during live-streams to entice viewers to click on porn site links.
China has been making efforts to crack down on such content.
This year, the country’s popular short video and live-streaming platform Douyin has reportedly helped police arrest 11 people and banned more than 2 million accounts for including pornography or using offensive language.
In 2022, Kuaishou, the second-largest live-streaming platform in China, also helped police arrest 148 people for redirecting live-stream viewers to pornographic content.
