Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

The latest trend to take Sina Weibo by storm has been a "hot mom" competition that invites mothers from the "post-95 generation" to post photos with their children.

The mothers, many of whom claim they were born in 1996 or 1997, wear makeup and fake eyelashes in the photos, giving them the creepy appearance of high-school students playing dress up.

The series of photos created an online buzz and made headlines overseas. At first, people were bemused that these girls were having children despite the growing number of "leftover women" in the country. But comments soon adopted a more suspicious, critical tone.

Many questioned the legality of teenage girls having children. One mother claimed she was born in 1997 and had a 3-year-old son, suggesting she gave birth at 13.

A couple of "hot moms" later confessed that they weren't really mothers. A 17-year-old wrote on Weibo that she liked the idea of being a "sexy mom," and borrowed her neighbor's baby for a photo shoot.

Although we can all breathe a sigh of relief at the revelation of these fake "hot moms," I still question the notion that it is "sexy" to have children at such a young age.

This idea most likely developed because there is so much hype about "leftover women" and fear about not being able to marry and have children in time. The prevailing mentality appears to be that women who marry and have children before 30 are successful.

But this is just bizarre.

The truth, little girls, is that giving birth early in life doesn't necessarily make you cool, sexy or successful. If I have a daughter, I hope that when she is 14 she is reading novels, playing with friends and enjoying her adolescence. I don't want her to be sexually active and popping out babies.

The world is changing so fast. Children nowadays have access to much more information and advanced technology. When I was in middle school, I had no idea what porn was and didn't learn sexual education.

China's online world was just opening up when I was a teenager, and mobile chat service QQ was only used to communicate with business partners out of town.

For better or worse, children nowadays know much more than my generation did.

I might not be a parent, but I think I can speak on their behalf in passing on this message to kids: don't grow up too fast.

I'm a firm believer that life comes in stages. Even though children nowadays might have some idea about sex, marriage and having children, they certainly aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility so young in life.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.