Photo: VCG

In the past four months of social unrest in Hong Kong, of 2,379 arrested so far, 750 were aged under 18 and 104 below 16, the city's Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said Thursday, calling the trend "shocking" and "heartbreaking."

It is indeed distressing to see that nearly one-third of anti-government protesters were unworldly teenagers. Hong Kong is hardly unique. As author Ian Buruma wrote of global trends in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail, "What seemed a trifle outrageous then is now painfully real. For the hooligan spirit is indeed being tapped." Teenage protesters are commonplace in the US, UK and Germany. To some extent, young Hongkongers are learning from their Western peers.

Growing up in the internet era, a great many adolescents observe the world through smart phones and computers. They live more in a virtual world than a real one. Compared with older generations, young people have access to a broader world thanks to the internet, but they are sometimes confined to a narrower mentality.

First, the internet tends to push teenagers to extremes. Information overload, as a result of the internet, makes it impossible for users to have an eye on all messages. Extreme ideas, under such circumstances, are more likely to catch people's attention. A 2017 Pew Research Center analysis illustrates that "posts that contained political disagreement and indignant rhetoric were far more likely to elicit user engagement than posts that did not." Further, the internet magnifies indignation. In the old days, negative emotions spread only slowly in a limited scope. But with the internet, an extreme post might be able to rally multitudes in a few seconds. It is so for adults, not to mention immature teenagers. They are more prone to radical ideas and can be easily incited by people with ulterior motives.

Second, the internet may "gamify" young people's actions. Growing up with computer games, some teenagers regard the world as a huge playground. Some juveniles in Hong Kong don't even understand what they are doing and only see protests as a real-life game and go to the streets for "fun." 

Third, the internet can be addictive and thus distance teenagers from the real world. The internet is now able to meet almost all kinds of needs for the young generation. In particular, making like-minded friends online is far easier for some teenagers than in real life. To link more closely with one another, members of many online groups tend to seek a common "enemy" and fight against it side by side. Some young people are indulging in such a sense of belonging in the virtual world and wrecking their judgment in the real one. For instance, certain young Hongkongers see other protesters in the same camp and regard the mainland and Hong Kong police as their common "enemies," but ignore what is happening in reality.

The internet's adverse influence on adolescents is growing into a universal problem on a global scale.

The New York Times published an article headlined "Racists Are Recruiting. Watch Your White Sons." The author analyzes how white supremacists instigate teenagers through the internet. Concerns over such a severe social issue can be observed in Western society.

But in terms of the Hong Kong unrest, some Western politicians and media change their tune sharply, claiming those teenagers and other violent protesters are democratic soldiers. Instead of criticizing China with such double standards, their deep reflection should be focused on how to bring these young people back to reality and back to normalcy.