Parental Control or Platform Control?

Growing up, I’ve always been that kid who is less interested in having a lot of screen time. You’d always find my head buried in a book and you’ll only find me in-front of a Tv or tablet because I’m being forced to by my siblings. But, this wasn’t the case for my siblings. They always wanted to watch action movies and cartoons or play games.

source
Even in those days when there wasn’t much digitalization, one thing I realized was how our parents didn’t allow them sit before the Tv all day. It’s either they are given chores along the line or they’re simply asked to turn off the Tv cos they’ve had enough for the day. Due to this nature of upbringing, I think it has become more of a thing for them to not spend all day staring at screens.

Fast forward to todays world where there are so many screens everywhere, it’s surprising to see our gen z parents doing the total opposite of how our parents raised us. Now, there are a billion mobile phones, tablets for adults and kids, laptops and televisions around. I’ve walked into homes to meet kids spend all day before the screens and even when they are being called by their parents they refuse to move. If it was in my day, you go hear am.😂

source

I’m not saying giving your child access to the digital world is a bad thing, it’s not. But I believe that even in doing that, you should be concerned about what content your kid is being fed online. Most of these people who provide content online are out there to make money. They don’t really care about you or your kids and so I believe all the weight is left on the parent to carry,even though some online contents are being made with kids in mind.

In an ideal world, I would say it’s the responsibility of both the parent and the owners of the online platform to sensor some of the content kids have access to but if you ask me, it does not work this way. Aside YouTube which allows parents control what their kids watch , I’m get to discover a social media platform that does that. Let’s take TikTok for instance, since it’s one of the most used social media platforms in the world today and even kids are accustomed to it now. I really haven’t seen any option on there with kids in mind. In a case like this, be sure that your kid is most definitely going to come across some inappropriate content which wouldn’t be fit for their eyes.

source

Now, everyone is out to make their money online. But as a parent ,you have the responsibility of raising responsible kids which means you need to tighten your belt and pay for attention to them since no one online really cares about them. But, I really do hope that in the future, we have a safer space for kids in the digital world.

---

---