Chinese tech company exploits baseless superstitions with ‘pregnancy safe’ wifi router

Let’s get this out of the way up front: wifi is not going to hurt your baby. First of all, scientists say that exposure to everyday radiation will not have any negative affect on a pregnancy. Even routine x-rays are safe. Studies like this 2010 article in Radiation Research have uncovered no evidence that wifi signals have a negative impact at any stage of pregnancy.

But many Chinese mothers-to-be are still concerned about radiation. It’s so bad, in fact, that ugly, heavy anti-radiation garments for pregnant women sell like hotcakes despite having no demonstrable effect.

But now a major Chinese tech company is getting in on the act of exploiting ignorance and superstition, too. Qihoo 360 launched its new P1 router last week, and it comes with an adjustable signal strength. The three available settings, according to the company’s website: “wall-penetrating”, “balanced”, and “pregnant woman.” According to the router’s wifi app, the “pregnant woman” setting “reduces wifi radiation by 70 percent.”

Qihoo’s router is clearly aimed at competing with Xiaomi, which has also recently announced a new router. Xiaomi’s doesn’t allow for adjustable signal strength. Xiaomi has accused Qihoo of using “scare tactics” to market its router, and with good reason. Qihoo CEO Zhou Hongyi has said himself, “We are targeting people who are afraid of radiation.”

Science fail

From a business standpoint, it’s hard to argue with Zhou. People who are afraid make great customers. His router isn’t any safer for pregnant women than a regular wifi router, but it’s likely to fly off the shelves anyway – the lack of effectiveness hasn’t stopped China’s more superstitious mothers-to-be from buying radiation-shielding garments, after all. I’m sure that by this time next year, plenty of Chinese homes will be equipped with the P1. And to be fair, it’s worth pointing out that the P1 may be an excellent router that’s worth buying even if you don’t buy into the safe-for-pregnancy marketing hype.

But there’s something deeply troubling to me about a technology company using its products to propagate the scientifically-baseless notion that wifi is somehow harmful during a pregnancy.

More than almost any other industry, the tech industry owes its past, present, and future to scientific research. For that reason (among others) we expect tech companies to produce forward-looking products based on good science. The technology in Qihoo’s router is based on good science, of course, but its marketing has been based on a lie.

“We aren’t scientists. We haven’t done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-fi can cause,” Qihoo told the South China Morning Post. “We leave the right of choice to our customers.”

But that’s bullshit. By naming the low-signal-strength mode “pregnant woman,” Qihoo is sending a very clear message to its customers, and that message isn’t ‘we aren’t scientists.’ The message is ‘pregnant women should use this setting,’ with the added implication that women who don’t might be putting their children at risk. Even the ass-covering “we’re just letting the customer decide” PR line is misleading. Qihoo shouldn’t be talking about “how much damage” wifi signals can do, it should be talking about whether wifi does any damage at all. Which it doesn’t, as far as we can tell.

There is simply no excuse for this kind of misleading marketing. Qihoo may not be scientists themselves, but it doesn’t take that much effort to check the WHO’s website and learn that – surprise! – electromagnetic fields (like wifi) below the recommended limits “do not produce any known adverse health effect.”

There’s money to be made in this market, true. But Qihoo should be ashamed of itself for exploiting unfounded, baseless, superstitious fears about technology just to give itself a competitive leg up.