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Two women locked a crying toddler in an airplane toilet to "educate her" during a flight from Guiyang to Shanghai on August 24, 2024. The incident, which occurred on a Juneyao Airlines flight, has ignited a heated debate on social media.
The incident came to public attention when one of the women, Gou Tingting, posted a video on Douyin, China's version of TikTok. The footage shows the distressed toddler crying and screaming to be let out of the small toilet cubicle, while the women watch on. According to Gou, the child's grandmother had given them permission to "educate" the girl, who was reportedly one year old.
In the video, one of the women can be heard telling the child, "You can only leave the bathroom if you stop crying". This statement, along with the video, quickly went viral, leading to a swift backlash. Many social media users criticized the women for their lack of empathy and accused them of bullying the child. One user on Weibo commented, "Children cannot control their emotions when they are one or two years old. What's wrong with crying? Didn't you cry when you were young too?".
Gou defended her actions by stating that she "prefers to take action rather than be a bystander." She explained that her intention was to calm the child down and allow other passengers to rest. "I just wanted to calm the child down and let everyone rest," she wrote on Douyin. She also mentioned that some passengers had moved to the back of the plane to escape the noise, while others stuffed tissue papers into their ears.
Despite her explanations, the backlash continued, and Gou's social media account was eventually set to private. Juneyao Airlines released a statement two days after the incident, confirming that the child's grandmother had agreed to let the two women take the girl to the toilet. However, the airline did not provide further details about the child's age or the exact circumstances.
In China, there has been growing concern over what are referred to as "bear children" – spoilt young kids who cause disturbances in public by screaming or damaging property. This term suggests that some people view these children as acting in a feral manner. One user wrote, "We should be thinking about how public spaces can better accept and accommodate young children."
