AI生成的“卖惨少年”近期席卷中国短视频平台，据称利用情感操纵骗取老年观众的积蓄。
AI-generated “sob-story boys” have recently taken Chinese short-video platforms by storm, allegedly using emotional manipulation to cheat elderly viewers out of their savings.
这些数字化身统称为“小孩”，通常以穿着校服或素白衬衫的青少年男孩形象出现，在镜头前含泪讲述贫困生活。
Known collectively as “Xiaohai”, these digital avatars typically appear as teenage boys in school uniforms or plain white shirts, tearfully describing their poverty-stricken lives on camera.
在一段视频中，一个“小孩”化身手捧馒头，对着自称“大姨、妈妈们”的观众哀诉：“同学都去食堂吃饭了，我躲在教室吃这个。”另一段视频中，他被展示因学费未交而在雨中“被霸凌”。他恳请观众购买荞麦片，以便完成销售指标、避免遭受嘲笑。
In one video, a Xiaohai avatar holds a steamed bun and laments to viewers, whom he addresses as “aunties and mothers”: “All my classmates went to lunch. I’m hiding in the classroom to eat this.”In another, he is shown being “bullied” in the rain over unpaid tuition. He begs viewers to buy buckwheat cereal so he can meet his sales target and avoid being ridiculed.
“小孩”化身还推销保健品和日用品，声称需要赡养单亲父亲。这些产品往往溢价极高：据报道，“小孩”以99元（约合15美元）售出的一瓶食用油，别处仅售60元。
Xiaohai avatars also promote health supplements and household goods, claiming they need to support their single fathers. The products often carry steep mark-ups: one bottle of cooking oil sold by Xiaohai for 99 yuan (US$15) reportedly costs just 60 yuan elsewhere.
佣金高达55%，运营者可获暴利。《新京报》援引业内人士消息称，利用公开的AI提示词制作“小孩”视频的创作者，日入可达2000至3000元。
With commissions as high as 55 per cent, operators can make substantial profits. An industry insider told The Beijing News that creators who use publicly available AI prompts to produce Xiaohai videos can earn 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a day.
这一风潮在中国短视频平台迅速蔓延，相关话题播放量已超过6亿次。大多数粉丝为中老年用户，评论区充满了母性关怀的表达。“为什么只吃馒头？大姨妈心疼死你了。”一条语音评论写道。
The trend has surged across Chinese short-video platforms, where topics related to Xiaohai have attracted more than 600 million views. Most followers are middle-aged or elderly users who fill comment sections with expressions of maternal affection. “Why are you only eating buns? Auntie-mummy’s heart breaks for you,” read one voice comment.
另一用户下单后留言：“乖儿子，妈妈买了四件。永远爱你。”部分老年粉丝甚至不惜极端行动。5月，乌鲁木齐警方拦截了一名独自乘火车出行的79岁文盲老人。
After placing an order, another user wrote: “Darling son, mummy ordered four items. Love you forever.”Some elderly fans have gone to extreme lengths. In May, police in Urumqi intercepted a 79-year-old illiterate woman travelling alone by train.
她坚持要去中国北方的山西省见“小孩”，称对方在直播中邀请她去吃蘑菇、赏花。警方联系了她的家人，在解释男孩是假的后将她送回家中。法律专家警告，故意编造故事以推动电商销售可能构成诈骗。与此同时，北京大学教授马亮指出了更深层的社会危机。
She insisted she was going to Shanxi province in northern China to meet Xiaohai, who had invited her during a live-stream to eat mushrooms and admire flowers. Officers contacted her family and sent her home after explaining that the boy was fake. Legal experts warn that deliberately fabricating stories to drive e-commerce sales may constitute fraud. Meanwhile, Peking University professor Ma Liang points to a deeper social crisis.
“许多老年人在线下面临极度孤独。他们转向数字消费来填补情感空虚，”马亮对《中国新闻周刊》表示。
“Many elderly people face extreme loneliness offline. They turn to digital consumption to fill an emotional void,” Ma told China Newsweek.
截至发稿时，涉嫌诈骗的总金额细节尚未披露。中国大陆短视频平台上大多数与小孩相关的视频已被下架。
At the time of writing, no details of the alleged fraud’s total value had been disclosed. Most Xiaohai-related videos on mainland Chinese short-video platforms had been taken down.
对此，一些懂技术的网民正利用AI制作“邪恶小孩”视频，以警示父母并让他们回归现实。
In response, some tech-savvy netizens are using AI to create “Evil Xiaohai” videos to warn their parents and bring them back to reality.
在这些恶搞视频中，小孩身穿囚服向粉丝道歉，或身着名牌服饰吸烟，吹嘘自己如何利用“大姨和妈妈们”。
In these parodies, Xiaohai appears in prison attire, apologising to fans, or dressed in luxury clothes and smoking as he boasts about exploiting “aunties and mothers”.
但根本问题更为深层，正如一条网络评论所言：“一些孤独的老人知道这是假的；他们只是更愿意相信这是真的。”
But the underlying issue runs deeper, as one online comment observed: “Some lonely elders know it is fake; they just prefer to believe it is real.”