As National Night Out (NNO) celebrations rolled out in more than 440 cities across Southern California starting Aug. 1, startup social media platform Gan Jing World—which literally means “clean world” in Chinese—was warmly welcomed at these educational events by local residents joining NNO’s mission of building safer communities.
Gan Jing World has enlisted its users to share their photos and videos taken at the NNO events to celebrate law enforcement’s contribution to local communities and strengthen public safety awareness. According to its website, the U.S.-based platform is dedicated to creating “a truly positive, vibrant digital community” and providing content for all ages that are “free from violent, erotic, criminal, and harmful material.”
Numerous parents at the NNO event at the Pomona Civic Center were excited to learn about the new platform, saying it’s “not just the children that need a clean world, we adults need it as well.”
Renata Mangutova, a local resident who works in children’s medical services, told The Epoch Times that she resonates with the platform’s mission.
“Sometimes I’m on social media and just trying to watch regular content like makeup ... and then all of a sudden, a video that’s very inappropriate comes up,” she said.
With the general public having developed a dependency on social media, Ms. Mangutova said those kinds of platforms could easily undermine users’ well-being. The big data algorithms are also quite alarming, she said, and could be targeting children with those problematic content.
“I’m an adult, but I can only imagine young kids [would also] come across so much harmful media and ... bullying on social media,” she said.
She expressed her concern about social media’s normalizing of alcohol and drug use, saying she hopes Gan Jing World could help reverse such trends.
A mother who brought her young daughters to the event said that the platform’s concept brings peace to her mind.
“She’s six and she already knows so much,” Jennifer Burkhalter told The Epoch Times, referring to one of her daughters. “She knows how to go on the phone, and she knows about TikTok and all that stuff.”
Ms. Burkhalter said she’s especially worried about sexual content and sexual exploitation of children on social media.
Attendees also thanked local law enforcement agencies for their protecting the community.
Ms. Burkhalter said that it is important for children to learn the importance of cooperating with the police in promoting public safety.
Also in attendance are Pomona Police Department, the city’s fire department, first responders, and other community safety groups.
Families that brought their little ones had opportunities to capture moments with their local law enforcement officers and their equipment, including the armored SWAT truck. Children also heard from officers about their day-to-day work—and their K9 companions.
“Sometimes we hear bad things about police officers on the news, but it’s just a minority.” Ms. Burkhalter said. “It’s important for people to know there are a lot of good cops ... and I want to thank them for their service to the community.”
Linda Jiang contributed to this report.
