A growing number of educators across China are turning their cameras on students, documenting classroom moments, disciplinary encounters, and campus life for social media posts. While some of these teacher-bloggers have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and lucrative commercial gains, this trend raises troubling questions: Is this practice legal? Does it align with professional ethics? And, perhaps most critically, what are the consequences for the children being filmed?

Under China's Personal Information Protection Law, facial data and other biometric information of minors under the age of 14 are classified as "sensitive personal information". The collection, storage, and dissemination of such data require the explicit and informed consent of their guardians.

Furthermore, the principle of data minimization, enshrined in the Law on Protection of Minors, mandates that only the minimum amount of personal information necessary for a specific purpose should be processed. This principle is clearly violated when a teacher films an entire classroom to capture a single "funny moment". Even for adult students, the legal barriers remain high. The Civil Code explicitly states that no individual may produce, use, or publicly disclose another person's portrait without their consent.

In the context of a classroom, obtaining genuine consent is very difficult. The inherent power imbalance between teacher and student renders most classroom consent invalid. When a teacher asks, "Do you mind if I film this for my video?", given the authority vested in their position, students and parents rarely feel empowered to say "no". And once some classmates voice approval, dissenting individuals feel even less inclined to stand out or disappoint their teacher.

Beyond the complex legal questions lies an even more fundamental ethical dilemma. Producing high-quality short videos is a time-consuming endeavor. The energy devoted to chasing "likes" and followers is energy diverted from lesson planning, student assessment and professional development.

Some teachers have gone further, livestreaming during school hours or soliciting tips and gifts from viewers — including students' parents. Such behavior violates the professional ethics outlined by the Ministry of Education. When a teacher's online persona becomes his primary focus, students are subtly transformed from pupils to props in the teacher's personal reality show. The risks to students should not be dismissed. Once a child's image is uploaded on a public platform, control is lost. Their faces can be harvested for AI manipulation or fraud.

To address this phenomenon, a coordinated and multipronged response is essential. First, educational authorities must establish clear regulations defining the boundary between "teaching scenes" and "private scenes". Second, schools should ban filming that disrupts educational order or commercializes students.

Third, and perhaps most critically, video platforms must not be passive conduits but embrace their responsibility as "gatekeepers" of the public sphere. They should implement robust identity verification for educator accounts, rigorously review content featuring minors, and mandate proof of guardian consent before allowing such videos to circulate.

Some argue that teacher-vloggers can be a force for good, sharing knowledge with students in remote areas and inspiring a love of learning. True. Knowledge sharing conducted outside of school hours, without exploiting students, and focused on educational content is a legitimate and valuable extension of a teacher's role. However, when the goal shifts from public welfare to personal performance — when classrooms become sets and students become actors — the line is crossed.

The classroom is a space for cultivating young minds, not a backdrop for chasing clicks. It is time teachers put the cameras down, respect students' rights to privacy and dignity, and let education return to its essence.