Friday, January 7, 2011

Dear Parents … Social Networks



Do You Know what your child is viewing?

Dear Parents … Social Networks
Written By: Jayi Kemp

Social networks are fun, most of us use them, they are convenient and a great way to stay in touch with the ever evolving world. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, have become the common link that keeps people in contact. These websites have truly become the must have in communication, so much so that we do not mind allowing our children to wonder on them at times without supervising them.


And that perhaps has to be the biggest blunder of al!!!l I am not so much concern with the teenagers as much as I am concern with the age group 12 – and below when I refer to the children. I feel teenagers have a greater understanding of right and wrong then an 11 year old, if they come across some inappropriate behavior on YouTube, they either know how to laugh at it (which in most cases it was intended to do) or turn off the video all together.

But not so much so for the younger children, I have an 11 year old and a 10 year old brother, and they are at an impressionable stage in their life, and what they see as reality will ultimately shape the opinion of my youngest brother who is 7. So how am I to safeguard them on the internet from seeing these things they should not be viewing, easy, not allow them to explore the World Wide Web freely?

Call me old fashion, but I do not feel it is or ever been appropriate for children to be on the same social network as adults, they are not mature enough to handle, grasp, or understand everything that is going on. When I was a child my mother allowed me to watch Roseanna with her, I enjoyed the show just because I was allowed to stay up later, but I did not appreciate Roseanna’s comedic style of acting until I was adult and had shared some of her storyline experiences.

And that’s my feelings on these social platforms, sure we all want to be the “cool parent” and trust our children to do things in a responsible manner, but the only problem is, they are children. Children wander, explore, and experiment.  If my father and mother would had allowed me to do everything I wanted as a child, I am scared to think of the individual I could have become, but because they said no to several things, by families prayers, and a hard upbringing I am still here.

And that is the same outcome I would like to see manifest for our children, but with parents not aware of what their children are retweeting, sharing, and recommending to their peers, it is hard to exactly know what they are watching. Not every video on YouTube happens to be a story of hope and redemption like the “man with the golden voice” in fact; most YouTube videos are completely the opposite.

I typed “Toledo” as a keyword in the search bar on YouTube and saw videos ranging from news clips to “hood fights”, “Woodstock Crips” and so on and so forth, so just like a silly kid I clicked on the link and watch the video clips to see what they were talking about. Disappointment is not a word that could accurately define how I felt, I was piss, mad, enrage, some of the videos I watch were a direct reflection of a previous video I watch.

I witness a GROWN MAN from the north say “I will kill your family” and then I watched a video clip of a group of children throwing down (disrespecting) that mans set, and guess what, that was not the worst. I watch GROWN MAN after GROWN MAN go from a decent guy on the streets to an internet nuisances in my opinion. All these local rappers sole purpose in their videos was to flaunt their wealth, rep their hood, bang easy women, and make idol death threats to anyone who opposed their views on society.

I was upset, disappointed and disguised in these examples of men on YouTube from my city, they embarrassed me, look I been to jail, I been in handcuffs, I have had the gavel pounded on the Judges desk and sent upstate, and yet in still I know what I say in these blogs or publish in these videos will influence a child if they get a hold of it. So instead of talking violence, I encourage love, instead of spreading hate, I promote openness. I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BLACK ON BLACK CRIME, last year I lost a friend to a bullet and lost a friend because he chose to use bullets.

Life is not a game, but these guy do not care (or have not shown) that they care about humans in general; instead it’s about a color, a block, a hood, that they have no ownership over. These are the individuals that are influencing our children for us when they sit in front of the computer screen.

Parents the time is now, we need to become more aware of what our children are doing in front of us, or on the web. It is not the responsibility of these individuals to do our job, they want to entertain, brag, and garner more money for their videos. I took time to put together a little video so you can get a better idea as to what I am talking about, I apologize for the language but I felt you should hear what our children are hearing as they watch …



                                          Warning, Explicit Content, No Nudity, Just Language






No comments:

Post a Comment