XiaoTianCai smartwatch misclassifies girl's weight, causing body image anxiety
XiaoTianCai's smartwatch health monitoring feature reportedly misclassified a healthy teenage girl as overweight based on flawed weight evaluation criteria. The company removed all evaluative content from the feature after criticism from users and medical professionals about the risk of body image anxiety in children.
What happened
A 167cm tall girl weighing 50.5kg was classified as 'overweight' by the XiaoTianCai smartwatch health monitoring function, with the notation 'weight exceeds 99% of same-age girls'. Multiple users and medical experts questioned the classification as inaccurate, noting that this height-weight ratio is within normal or lean healthy range.
The health monitoring feature used unscientific judgment standards and scoring language that directly labeled children as 'overweight', potentially causing psychological burden. A Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital expert noted that overweight classification for children must consider age and sex together, with over 85th percentile counting as overweight, and expressions like 'weight exceeds 99% of same-age girls' are not suitable to define 'overweight'.
Reported impact
Network users and medical professionals warned that the labeling and ranking-style expressions could foster body image anxiety in pubescent children and harm adolescent mental health. The feature's initial intent was to provide growth reference for parents, but the harsh terminology and improper standards created unnecessary psychological burden.
Index analysis
The classification used body metrics in isolation without proper age and sex stratification or developmental context, violating established pediatric health assessment standards. The presentation ranked children against peers in a way that could trigger anxiety regardless of actual health status.
Governance controls
XiaoTianCai completed emergency online optimization on August 25, 2026, removing all evaluative and judgmental content from the health monitoring function. The product page now displays only objective data: manually entered height and weight, and BMI calculated by standard formula. The company stated it would maintain the objective data-only approach in the short term and conduct further research on whether to iterate or update the feature.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.