With these smartphone 'swinging cradles,' people are cheating to get to 10K steps

Rusty Blazenhoff 2:00 am Mon Apr 30, 2018

Apparently in China people can get discounts on their health insurance (and avoid punishment) if their phone hits 10K steps a day. That's nearly five miles of exercise they're expected to get every day.

Well, if there's a way to cheat something, someone will figure it out. And someone did.

Canadian-born Mark Rowswell, aka Chinese comedian Dashan, tweeted that a restaurant in China is offering a "swinging cradle" for its patrons to hit their daily steps quota while dining, drinking, and smoking.

Seen at a Harbin restaurant: swinging cradle for your phone, I'm told to cheat the "10k steps/day" test & qualify for health insurance discounts, presumably while you relax, eat & drink more, or have another cigarette. pic.twitter.com/LV0leTduAU

— 大山 Dashan (@akaDashan) April 28, 2018

I dug around a bit. It seems these clever devices (called "摇步器") have been around since at least 2016, as evidenced by this video:

https://youtu.be/gNAIUzN7PJI

Previously: Is China's social credit system becoming a Black Mirror episode?

(Super Punch)

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