PARENTS: Take responsibility, protect children from harmful content
Irresponsible sharing of sexual content on social media should just be punished. It goes without saying that children nowadays are exposed and watch movies with high adult content, the music they listen to and even the games they play have explicit sexual content. BUT, when parents teach their children, right and wrong, even in their parents’ absence, they will choose the right.
Parents are increasingly becoming lax and irresponsible where their children are concerned. While we claim to love and care for them, we do very little to ensure that the innocence of their childhood is preserved, and that their little minds are not corrupted by such damaging content. When we are this irresponsible, why do we get shocked when our children act out certain bad behavious?
Some parents have a tendency of going to bed leaving their children to watch late night-television programming, with little care of what they are exposed to. It goes for those who allow their children to freely surf the internet without any parental guidance. This is bad parenting, not love. Parenting cannot be left to chance. Children need to be taught, guided, disciplined and restrained from certain things. It is a fact that the more of a particular kind of content we watch, both adults and children, the greater the level of desensitization we experience. What was once shocking eventually becomes normal. Sexual content is damaging and will definately affect our children’s behaviour, whether we like it or not. Their behaviours will be impacted by what they have seen; their empathy will be reduced. Objectification will be increased and their morality erodes. The biggest down fall of all of this is that the sex they see and are exposed to is casual, consequencefree and glamorised to a point that they believe they cannot resist it. That is why we have children who engage in sexual activities earlier.
Some even grow to develop an intimacy disorder or sex addition. Exposing children to sexual content may also cause trauma and impair children’s social and interpersonal development. They may even potentially act out sexually against other people, commit an act of rape, molestation of sexual violence. In addition, it has been said that sexual exposure to children may in extreme cases encourage violence in future. One example is of the infamous American serial killer Ted Bundy, who murdered numerous girls in the 1970s. He was exposed to pornography at an early age and he admitted that such content ignited his evil thoughts and actions.
Sex talk has always been a taboo in Setswana culture, but there is no way around it in this digital age. It is better for children to get information from their parents than from elsewhere. Beyond modeling the best behaviour to their children, parents need to agree on rules around internet use and activity, and further discuss why sexual content can impact their mental and emotional health.