Crying Baby Swiping Tablet While Asleep

About

The Crying Baby Swiping Tablet While Asleep is a viral video purportedly showing a baby crying and making hand motions as if swiping on an iPad or tablet while asleep. The video went viral on Twitter and Facebook in June 2023 as users reposted it as an example of the harm that giving young children technology like tablets does (in reference to "iPad Kids") with many using a version of the same phrasing, "The baby cried in his sleep and made movements as if he had a tablet in his hand. These moments caused anxiety in the parents." Later that month, it was suggested that the video is an AI generated deepfake based on the way the baby's hands look in the video, although this is unconfirmed and has been refuted by some.

Origin

On June 1st, 2023, Weibo^[10] user Kanye said posted a video titled "Poisoned mobile phone? ? ?" showing a crying baby supposedly making hand motions as if swiping on a tablet while sleeping. This is the earliest known upload of the video. On June 21st, 2023, Twitter^[1] user @voiceofworldco posted a lower quality version of the video, writing what translates to, "Images of the boy playing with a tablet in his sleep became the agenda on social media. While the little boy was crying in his sleep, he acted as if he had a tablet in his hand. Those moments caused anxiety in parents," garnering over 1,300 likes in six days (shown below).

A higher quality version of the video, taken directly from the Weibo page, was later uploaded to Twitter by @lorgair (shown below).

Spread

The video gained viral spread over the following days as users reposted it, framing it as an example of the harm technology like iPads can do to young children. On June 21st, 2023, Twitter^[2] user @TansuYegen reposted the video, garnering over 56,000 likes before deleting his tweet. On June 22nd, the Facebook^[3] page Insane Typewriter posted it, garnering over 21,000 views in five days.

That same day, Twitter^[4][5] users @cctvidiots and @LauraPowellEsq shared the video, the latter writing, "This video of a baby apparently scrolling a tablet in his sleep while crying is incredibly disturbing. Parents, don’t let your kids get addicted to screens," garnering over 25,000 likes and 75 likes, respectively, in five days. On June 23rd, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @WifeyAlpha also shared the video (shown below).

Debunk Attempt

On June 25th, 2023, Twitter^[7] user @unvarnishedvoid made a post attempting to debunk the video, suggesting it is a deepfake made with AI. They begin by pointing out how it's suspicious that many of the people sharing the video use variations of the same caption, reading, "The baby cried in his sleep and made movements as if he had a tablet in his hand. These moments caused anxiety in the parents." In the thread, the user shares links to articles on The White Hatter^[8] and Observer^[9] explaining how someone might create the deepfake. The poster also shares graphics claiming that babies can't bend their wrists in the way shown in the video (shown below). The post gained over 65,000 likes in two days.

Finally, the user shares comments by other users pointing out what they believe is evidence of the video being fake (shown below).

Later that day, Twitter^[11] user @lorgair retweeted @unvarnishevoid refuting the belief that the video is fake and criticizing the assumption that it was made with "AI" or is a "deepfake, writing, "We have so many resources to determine if something is real or not, and yet we get threads like this. Handwaving with the magic words, 'AI,' 'Photoshopped,' 'deepfake.'" They go on to share the higher quality version of the video, writing, " There doesn't appear to be any evidence of deepfake manipulation or editing of any kind on this video." They also write, "Why would someone use a highly experimental piece of technology for something so mundane? Just to mislead people? That's a lot of effort for some trolling."

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References