Photo: screenshot of video posted on social media platforms

The trend of children wearing mature and sexy makeup, even teaching other kids how to use cosmetics, has been making waves on Chinese social media platforms. However, despite the trend's growing popularity, it is damaging children's physical and mental growth and should be stopped as soon as possible. 

It seems that the age for pursuing beauty is getting younger and younger. 

When searching key words about beauty products or lifestyle on social media platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, it is easy to find numerous videos with millions of views of children in heavy makeup giving tips on how to apply various cosmetics. 

One of the videos shows a little girl saying: "I just celebrated my fifth birthday. Let me put on a kind of sexy pink makeup. All pretty girls should use eye shadow. This is my eighth one." 

Sweet music plays in the background of one video as a child, wearing an off-the-shoulder outfit and a mature hair style, skillfully puts on layers of foundation and eye shadow blinking at the camera as she introduces beauty products with her childish voice to persuade netizens to purchase them.

Some Chinese parents even found that their kids, who are still in the kindergarten, asked them to purchase sets of cosmetics and put on makeup like elegant adult women.

Kids beauty bloggers are very popular now among kindergarteners and children rush to buy cosmetics recommended by these underage web celebrities. They use lipstick and eye shadow and some are keen to imitate and shoot similar videos to become vloggers themselves.

Some kids in these streaming videos talk about products with a touch of eroticism such as talking about "conquering men" and being "both pure and sexy." Many parents have expressed concerns about such adult content is coming from the mouth of a child and may be heard or imitated by other children.

The rapid development of the children's beauty industry in recent years is one of main reasons behind the popularity of these child beauty bloggers, Xinhua News Agency reported. According to data released by an e-commerce platform, the sales of children's cosmetics in China increased by 300 percent year-on-year in 2020.

While companies are sure to be happy with this growth, they are not considering the cost that comes with it.

The trend of putting on makeup is sure to cause some social problems, like objectifying women and appearance anxiety, if it passes on to young children. 

Government authorities should step in as soon as possible to guide the industry away from this trend as the excessive use of cosmetics can harm both a child's body and mind.

According to Sun Xuemei, one of the founders of the Beijing-based Girl's Protection Foundation, cosmetics containing chemicals can damage kids' skin.

Sun did not completely oppose children becoming bloggers as a hobby, but she said that since they are at an important phase of their intellectual growth, if they place too much attention and time on beauty streaming and cosmetics, they may to focus on outer beauty and ignore inner beauty.

While the adults behind the scenes are making great sums of money, the minors performing or watching these videos might become lost and develop unhealthy views on beauty or money at an early age.