兒童app該如何監管 這家上海公司引出個難題
In the folklore of the startup world, few figures loom larger than the teenager.
在創業界的傳說中，沒有誰像青少年這個羣體那樣令人關切。
Teenagers see the future, set trends and spend money, or compel parents to spend it for them.
他們能預見未來、引領潮流、花錢或迫使父母爲他們花錢。
Their behavior has become an obsession for entrepreneurs.
企業家癡迷於他們的行爲。
This would seem to bode well for , an app that is young in every sense of the word.
對應用程序媽媽咪呀()來說，這似乎是個好兆頭。
The Shanghai-based company founded in 2014 claims more than 100 million users, most of whom, the company says, are in the 13-20 age bracket.
從各種角度講，它都是一個年輕的應用。這家上海公司創立於2014年，號稱擁有逾1億用戶。該公司稱，他們大多在13歲至20歲這個年齡段。
In August, the company teamed up with MTV for a promotion tied to the Video Music Awards.
今年8月，該公司與MTV合作，與音樂錄影帶大獎(Video Music Awards)捆綁推廣。
What is striking about the app, though, is how many of its users appear to be even younger than that.
不過，這個應用引人注目的一點是它的很多用戶似乎比它所宣稱的還要年輕。
has not just found the coveted teenage audience — it may have gone lower.
媽媽咪呀不僅找到了這些令人豔羨的青少年觀衆，而且還可能找到了年齡更小的用戶。
And it points to a growing tension between younger users, technology companies, and the norms and laws that regulate them both.
而且它展現出更年輕的用戶、技術公司以及管控他們雙方的規範與法規之間的緊張關係。
The app encourages a youthful audience in subtle and obvious ways.
該應用以巧妙、明顯的方式鼓勵年輕觀衆。
It lets users create short videos in which they can lip-sync, dance or goof around to popular songs, movie scenes and other audio sources, and then post the videos to an Instagram-style feed.
它讓用戶創作短視頻，他們可以在裏面跟着流行歌曲、電影畫面或其他音頻資源對口型演唱、跳舞或玩鬧，然後把視頻發佈到一個類似Instagram的訂閱源。
Its featured feed includes stars popular with young listeners, including Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez, as well as lesser-known talent and social media personalities who have crossed over from services like Vine.
它以年輕聽衆喜歡的巨星，比如愛莉安娜•格蘭德(Ariana Grande)和塞琳娜•戈麥斯(Selena Gomez)，以及一些從Vine等網站轉過來的不太出名的明星和網紅髮布的視頻爲號召。
And its tool for posting videos includes an entire category for songs from Disney films and TV shows.
其發佈視頻的工具包括從迪士尼電影歌曲到電視節目等各種分類。
The app does not collect or show the age of its users, but some of its top-ranked users, whose posts routinely collect millions of likes, called hearts, appear from their videos and profile photos to be in grade school.
該應用不收集或顯示用戶的年齡，不過從它的一些頂級用戶（他們發佈的視頻通常能得到好幾百萬的心型贊）發佈的視頻和頭像來看，他們都是小學生。
Until recently, the app had a feature that suggested users to follow based on their location.
直到前不久，該應用推出一項功能，建議用戶根據自己的位置進行關注。
In New York, that feature revealed a list composed largely not just of teenagers, but of children.
在紐約，那項功能顯示出大部分用戶不僅有青少年，而且有兒童。
This is no question the youngest social network we’ve ever seen, said Gary Vaynerchuk, chief executive of VaynerMedia, an advertising agency that focuses on social media.
這無疑是我們見過的最年輕的社交網絡，專攻社交媒體的廣告公司VaynerMedia的首席執行官加里•維納查克(Gary Vaynerchuk)說。
Vaynerchuk, who has helped clients produce campaigns for the platform, said he first spotted the app in the iTunes App Store charts, and through videos reposted to other services like Instagram.
維納查克幫助客戶爲該平臺製作廣告。他說，他最初是通過iTunes的App Store列表以及轉發到Instagram等網站上的媽媽咪呀視頻注意到這個應用的。
I would say that Snapchat and Instagram, they skew a little bit young, he said.
我得說，Snapchat和Instagram的用戶偏年輕，他說。
But with , you’re talking about first, second, third grade.
不過，媽媽咪呀的用戶都是一年級、二年級、三年級的學生。
This puts in a strange position.
這將媽媽咪呀置於一個奇怪的位置。
Websites and online service operators that target users under 13 must meet federal requirements regarding the collection and sharing of personal information, which is defined broadly to include names, photos or videos, or persistent identifiers, such as usernames.
以13歲以下的兒童爲目標用戶的網站或在線服務運營商必須滿足聯邦政府關於收集和分享個人信息的要求，包括名字、照片、視頻或長期身份，比如用戶名。
The restrictions are part of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, often called COPPA, enacted by the Federal Trade Commission.
這些限制是聯邦貿易委員會(Federal Trade Commission)制訂的兒童網絡隱私保護規定（Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule，通常被稱爲COPPA）的一部分。
Services that are more openly marketed toward children often stringently adhere to COPPA’s privacy rules.
更公開地向兒童進行推廣的服務商往往會嚴格遵守COPPA的隱私規定。
Vine Kids, for example, is a limited and largely passive service with no usernames or video posting capabilities; similarly, YouTube Kids is essentially an app full of streaming children’s programming, walled off from the rest of YouTube’s ecosystem.
比如，Vine Kids是一個有限的、很大程度上非常被動的應用，它沒有用戶名或視頻發佈功能。同樣，YouTube Kids本質上是一個兒童節目在線播放平臺，與YouTube生態系統的其他部分隔開。
In contrast, , like Snapchat or Instagram, is a full-functioning social network, popular with young people but not openly marketed to them.
相比之下，媽媽咪呀和Snapchat或Instagram一樣，是一個功能齊全的社交網絡，在年輕人中很受歡迎，不過不是公開向他們推廣。
Such discussions about privacy can feel strained against the backdrop of technological change.
這些關於隱私的討論在技術變革的背景下顯得有些勉強。
The first version of COPPA became law in 1998, almost a decade before the iPhone was introduced.
COPPA的第一版是1998年通過立法的，那幾乎是在iPhone推出10年前。
Last year, the research firm Influence Central said that, on average, parents who give their children smartphones do so at age 12.
去年，調查公司Influence Central稱，平均來講，父母在孩子12歲時給他們智能手機。
And once they have a phone, they get apps.
孩子們一旦擁有手機，就開始接觸應用。
In a study of the law published in 2011 by the academic journal First Monday, researchers suggested that COPPA created intractable issues.
在學術期刊《First Monday》2011年發佈的一項關於該法律的研究中，研究者認爲，COPPA製造了一些棘手的問題。
To remain compliant, tech companies either cut off young users or claimed ignorance of their presence, while parents, for whom the law is meant to provide guidance and comfort, often ended up helping their children circumvent sign-up rules.
爲了遵守法律，技術公司要麼不讓年輕用戶使用，要麼佯裝這些用戶不存在，而父母們雖然認爲這項法律是爲了提供指導，讓人安心，結果卻往往是幫助孩子們繞過註冊規定。
Increasing the current style of enforcement, the report concluded, would only encourage firms to focus on denying access rather than providing privacy protection or cooperating with parents.
這份報告認爲，強化目前的執法形式只會鼓勵公司把注意力放在拒絕訪問上，而不是提供隱私保護或與父母配合上。
In short, children are using their smartphones much like the rest of us, whether or not they are comprehensively addressed by regulations or by broader cultural conventions.
簡而言之，兒童使用智能手機的方式和我們其他這些人很像，不管他們總體來講是否受到法規或更廣泛的文化傳統的關注。
Alex Hofmann, president of , said the company tries to be mindful of its popularity with younger users.
媽媽咪呀的總裁亞歷克斯•霍夫曼(Alex Hofmann)說，該公司努力關注它在更年輕用戶中的流行。
One of the differences to other apps, he said, is that we don’t only talk to the musers — the company’s term for users — we talk to the parents.
我們與其他應用的一個不同之處在於，他說，我們不僅與muser（該公司對用戶的稱呼）交流，還與他們的父母交流。
He keeps close counsel with a network of a few dozen top users, and some of their families, and frequently asks for feedback from both regarding everything from user safety to new features. (The company’s support page contains an entire section directed toward parents — one that notes the app is intended for 13-plus only.)
他與幾十名頂級用戶和其中部分人的家庭保持密切聯繫，經常徵求從用戶安全到新功能是否好用的各種意見（該公司的支持頁面有一部分內容完全是寫給父母的，點明該應用僅面向13歲以上的用戶）。
Ultimately, Hofmann said, he expects the app to diversify its audience.
霍夫曼說，他期望該應用最終能讓自己的用戶更多樣化。
We really see ourselves as a real social network, and as a network for different age groups, he said.
我們真的認爲自己是一個真正的社交網絡，面向不同的年齡層，他說。
For now, the company will have to navigate a peculiar if widely envied situation — capitalizing on its apparent popularity with an audience that it cannot fully acknowledge, watched over by wary but increasingly complicit parents.
目前，該公司將不得不在一個獨特而廣受豔羨的境況中前行——利用一個它不能完全承認的用戶羣對它的明顯青睞，而這羣用戶受到警惕而又越來越串通一氣的父母的監視。
A year ago, there was basically nobody who was 40 years old on Snapchat, Vaynerchuk said. If can hold on, they will age up.
一年前，Snapchat上幾乎沒有40歲以上的人，維納查克說，如果媽媽咪呀能堅持下去，用戶們也會慢慢長大。
