This may not be news to most of you, but I still feel like I need to get it off my chest: We need to teach children good etiquette before giving them freedom on the internet. No, Im not talking about older teenagers. (Although, they should know better.) Im talking about kids. I know it may sound shocking, but I see an alarming amount of 6-14 year olds on Instagram, Twitter, etc. who are desperate for attention and think that there are no consequences to the things they post/say on social media. Its not something that I havent noticed before (If you check celebrities profiles, like JB, or Miley, youll find a lot of kids throwing harsh slurs and derogatory statements at one another.), but I saw it more recently when I drew a young Disney channel star and she promoted my art work. I expected to get a lot of younger kids attention, so I didnt get upset when a lot of them wanting their own drawing. Theyre kids. I wouldve asked the same thing! The problem is when kids start making fake accounts and spamming my profile to the point that I have to block them because, after repeatedly asking them to stop, they only urged on more. Not only is this rude, and invasive, but its a horrible habit to pick up at such a young age. Kids will be kids, but we should teach our children that harassing strangers on the internet is never a good idea. Ive had children trying to contact me via my business email, asking for free work for their birthday, or pretending to be interested in buying art, only to retaliate when I asked to do business through their guardian or parent. Ive seen children obsessively argue with strangers online over silly things. Ive seen children making hate accounts towards one another, just so they can anonymously bully someone they dont like at school, etc. I even had a young girl(I can only assume it was a girl) change her Instagram name to get credit for something I drew for a band member. When confronted, she claimed to be the artist and harshly retaliated. Eventually, I had to notify the staff that she was committing art theft, and her profile name was removed. Everyday, I get notifications from suicide/self-harm/pro-ed/depression profiles, and when the owner chooses to display their age, its usually as young as 11-14. That alone is enough to make me want to make social media apps restricted from minors. How horrifying is that..? What if that was one of ours? Im glad I didnt have constant access to the internet at that age, because I honestly would have embarrassed myself. Its okay for kids to use social media and apps, as long as they understand that there are consequences to what they post online. Honestly, it breaks my heart to see a generation so desperate for attention from the world, that they go through desperate measures to get it. I hate seeing preteen girls running hate blogs about other girls, or pro-ED blogs because they think theyre ugly. It makes me sick to think that children are making these fake profiles, cyber bullying, and living an entirely different life online that their friends and family are unaware of. I know that most of my personal Facebook friends dont have this problem with their kids, because I know how they were raised. But maybe they know someone at school, or have friends who do this. Teach your child to spread positivity, and respect. We should all be aware of what children are being exposed to in social media. Even if their profile is private, theyre still able to interact with a world of people they dont even know.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 01:37:51 +0000
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