无现金社会，给孩子零花钱也得“移动化”了 Forget piggy banks. Kids are using mobile apps for pocket money

还在用“小猪存钱罐”？随着网络支付和移动支付的普及，不少父母连给孩子零花钱都要通过手机来支付了。一些商家抓住商机，开发出了手机应用程序，不仅能帮父母支付零花钱，还能帮助孩子学会理财，但也有人担心这会让孩子养成过度消费的恶习。

Children may not be stashing coins in piggy banks for much longer; with the move towards a cashless society, pocket money is moving digital.

孩子们今后可能不会再把零花钱存在存钱罐里了。随着无现金社会的发展，零花钱也在数字化。

To reflect this trend, a flurry of mobile budgeting apps for children has sprung up worldwide: GoHenry, Osper and Gimi to name a few.

为了紧跟潮流，全球出现了多个儿童移动理财应用程序，比如GoHenry、Osper和Gimi等等。

These apps offer a simple money management service for children, often for a monthly subscription fee paid by the parents. Parents can add money to children's accounts, set limits and monitor transactions, while children can choose to save their money or spend it using a prepaid card that works like a debit card. The apps suggest minimum ages ranging from six to nine for the prepaid card.

这些应用程序为孩子们提供简单的理财服务，通常由父母每月支付费用。父母可以将钱存入孩子的账户，设定限额并监控交易，而孩子可以选择存钱或使用类似借记卡的预付卡消费。这些应用程序建议预付卡的最低使用年龄为6至9岁。

负责任的消费

The companies behind the apps argue that in an increasingly cashless society, they can be a valuable way of teaching young children about money.

开发这些应用程序的公司称，在一个越来越无现金化的社会里，这些程序可以成为一种教育孩子理财的宝贵方式。

Two thirds of adults globally are financially illiterate, according to Standard & Poor's Global Financial Literacy Survey, and one in four teenagers are unable to make even simple decisions on everyday spending.

根据标准普尔的全球金融素养调查，全球三分之二的成年人没有接受过金融教育，四分之一的青少年甚至无法对日常支出做出简单决定。

These apps aim to overcome this, claiming to teach children financial concepts, such as budgeting, interest rates and income.

这些应用旨在解决这一问题，声称能教会孩子们理财的概念，比如预算、利率和收入。

For instance, the Swedish app Gimi -— with 1.2 million users globally — has virtual savings jars where children can deposit money; parents can pay children interest as they save; and there is a chores feature, where parents can pay children for completing household tasks.

例如，瑞典的应用程序Gimi在全球拥有120万用户，它拥有虚拟存钱罐，孩子们可以在里面存钱，父母可以给孩子支付储蓄利息。它还有一个“家务”功能，父母可以付钱让孩子完成家务。

The account is attached to a prepaid card that is currently available in Sweden only, but expected to launch elsewhere in Europe in 2020.

该账户附带一张预付卡，目前只能在瑞典使用，但预计将于2020年在欧洲其他国家和地区推出。

"Cash was the best way to teach financial literacy because it's so tangible and so easy to grasp," Philip Haglund, CEO of Gimi, tells CNN Business. "Now money is being transferred through some kind of cyberspace, which is really abstract and hard for anyone to understand."

Gimi的首席执行官菲利普·哈格伦德在接受美国有线新闻网商业频道采访时说：“现金是教授金融知识的最佳方式，因为它是有形的，容易掌握。现在，钱通过网络转账，这真的很抽象，人们都很难理解。”

Haglund believes the app can teach responsible spending habits, whereas schools tend to focus more on economic theory.

哈格伦德认为，这款应用可以教会学生负责任的消费习惯，而学校往往更关注经济理论。

"You don't become better at money management just because you have a degree in economics. It's more about the attitude and the relationship you have with parents' money when you're six to 12 years old," he says.

他说：“你不会因为拥有经济学学位就变得更擅长理财。更重要的是6到12岁期间，你对父母的钱持什么态度，以及跟这些钱的关系。”

But Catherine Winter, managing director of financial capability at The London Institute of Banking and Finance, warns that while digital tools can help there needs to be a more structured approach to financial education.

但伦敦银行与金融研究所金融财力部门总经理凯瑟琳•温特警告称，尽管数字工具可能有所帮助，但金融教育需要一种更结构化的方法。

The area should "have regular, dedicated, classroom time and ideally should be taught as a standalone subject," she said. "Children would then have the right context and foundation to get the most out of both the apps and their money."

她说，这个领域应该“有固定的、专门的课堂时间，最好是作为一个独立的学科来教授。这样一来，孩子们就有了合适的环境和基础来最大限度地利用这些应用程序和他们的钱。”

带来巨大商机

The growth of digital banking has affected how parents doll out pocket money, with one in three parents in the United Kingdom doing it digitally, according to a recent report by the financial comparison website Money.co.uk.

金融比较网站money.co.uk最近发布的一份报告显示，数字银行的发展已经影响了父母们给孩子零花钱的方式，在英国，三分之一的父母用数字方式给孩子零花钱。

As a whole, kids aged 13-19, are estimated to contribute £1.7 billion into the UK economy each year, according to the Teenage Finance Report from financial services providers OneFamily.

根据金融服务提供商“一家人”发布的《青少年理财报告》，13-19岁的青少年每年为英国经济贡献约17亿英镑（约合人民币157亿元）。

"There's a big opportunity," Aurelian Guichard, the product owner for Revolut Youth, tells CNN Business.

应用程序Revolut Youth的产品负责人奥雷利安·吉查德告诉美国有线新闻网商业频道说：“这蕴藏着巨大的商机。”

"We have an app for adults ... so we will be able to build a transition from being a Revolut Youth user to becoming a normal user."

“我们有一款针对成年人应用……因此，我们能让儿童用户逐渐过度为成人用户。”

This could translate to customers for life, as according to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority only 3% of personal customers switch to a different bank in any year.

根据英国竞争与市场管理局的数据，这些应用程序的使用者可能会转化为终生的客户，因为每年只有3%的个人客户会转到另一家银行。

鼓励消费还是借债？

One concern is that introducing digital money apps to young children could help to encourage irresponsible spending habits.

有人担忧称，向儿童推出数字货币应用程序可能会鼓励不负责任的消费习惯。

"If children don't have a good foundation in financial capability, there's a risk that money apps could be seen as just another game," says Winter. "There's a risk that they won't learn about the real value of money and might develop bad money habits."

温特说：“如果孩子们不具备良好的财务能力基础，那么这些应用就有可能被视为另一种游戏。他们有可能不了解钱的真正价值，并养成不良的消费习惯。”

However, Haglund says children are protected from this as parents can monitor their spending habits and none of the services offer an overdraft so children cannot go into debt.

然而，哈格伦德说，孩子们不会受此困扰，因为父母可以监督他们的消费习惯，而且没有任何一项服务提供透支，这样孩子们就不会负债。

overdraft [ˈəʊvədrɑːft]：n.透支；透支额

Plus, it is important for kids to learn and make mistakes, says Guichard.

此外，吉查德说，对孩子来说，学习和犯错都很重要。

"We want to help kids and teenagers gain financial skills for life, and the earlier you do that the better, because if you're going to make a mistake of £10 at eight, it's better than making a mistake of £1,000 when you're 28," he says.

他说：“我们想帮助孩子和青少年获得终生的理财技能，越早越好，因为如果你在8岁时犯价值10英镑的错误，总比你28岁时犯价值1000英镑的错误要好。”

英文来源：CNN

翻译&编辑：yaning