Living in a world surrounded by technology can be a blessing as it makes our day-to-day lives easier. But at the same time, technology can negatively affect us if we get addicted to using certain gadgets. Lately, smartphone addiction has become an alarming problem as it not only affects adults but also children. However, this Chinese family knew exactly how to deal with their 5-year-old son who has been addicted to smartphones for a while now.

According to South China Morning Post, a Chinese family opted for a unique way to rid their kid of his phone addiction by drawing dark circles under his eyes while he was asleep. This effectively gaslit the youngster into thinking that using the phone for too long has caused the darkening underneath his eyes. The rest of the family members also joined in the mission to separate the boy who stays hooked to the phone for long hours. 

The mother of the kid pretended to be deeply concerned and an uncle even impersonated as a doctor to give the boy a false but convincing consultation on his condition. The unidentified kid has apparently started playing around with his parents’ phone in recent months, causing the family to worry that the youngster is getting addicted to the device. The kid’s aunt whose surname is Wang came up with the plan to gaslight the boy into giving up the harmful habit by convincing him that using a phone for long hours is taking a toll on his health and appearance. To draw in the visibly noticeable dark circles, the boy’s mother used a dark shade from her eye shadow palette while the kid was sleeping.

The kid woke up to shock and horror with his fake eye bags and dark circles and then his mother informed him that if he continues to play on the mobile phone then his eyes will be damaged. “He cried and was very frightened. At first, he thought it was because he had not completely woken up, but later he came to believe his mother’s warning and began to reflect on his phone use,” said his aunt Wang. The mother did her absolute best to convince her son by lightly touching his dark circles and asking him if it was painful or not. “No, it’s not painful,” the boy said. “Then you should have enough rest. Let’s see whether it will be relieved within a day,”  the mother said while giggling in the viral video which was posted on a Chinese social media site.

Wang’s husband, who was playing the role of the fake doctor, gave the boy some ‘medical’ advice and said, “Use some eye drops as a temporary treatment. We will do further treatment if they don’t disappear in several days.” Thankfully, the kid did not recognize the doctor as his uncle when he gave his consultation over the telephone. The trick was effective in the end, according to Aunt Wang as the boy stopped using the mobile phone the very next day. A survey carried out by Wuhan University which was released in April 2023 addressed how phone addiction among youngsters is “nearly out of control.” The survey concluded that 70% of phone time was spent watching videos and the rest on games, per the outlet.