Huawei, the leader in the Chinese smartphone market, is currently being widely criticized in its home market for a customized smartphone having applications that monitor activities of students and shares data with parents and school.
A report from Chinese media claims that the company has made two customized smartphones that comes with a “student management system”. The devices were introduced to parents during a meeting held at Liuzhou High School located in China’s southwestern Guangxi province.
One of those two smartphones, which is a customized version of the Huawei Nova 4, comes with a “time and content management functions” that enables tracking of time student spends on the smartphone and allows school authorities to lock the phone.
The report says that the student surveillance system was designed by a Huawei research arm based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The device can filter content and can recognize and report content that the school deems harmful.
A school official told The Beijing News that some parents had initially proposed the idea to restrict students from overusing their smartphones. The school official also added that parents and students are not compelled to buy or use these smartphones.
However, in a statement to TechNode, telecommunication giant Huawei denied having anything to do with the said student monitoring system. It added that it was a “publicity stunt” orchestrated by Zhongheyixun, a Guangxi-based information technology company.
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It seems that the student surveillance system was developed as concern about smartphone addiction among students is rising. Apple has also recently launched a Screen Time feature on iOS 12 as a tool to address the concern.
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