Nairobi News

I am deeply disturbed by the things that people are sharing these days on social media, especially those that are featuring children.

I do not understand how people can take those videos and spread them, even using them as statuses for their WhatsApp profiles.

One of the videos is of a little boy and girl dancing in a very sexual manner and another is of a couple of men sharing a joint with a toddler.

Another has been making the rounds on social media depicting rowdy teenage boys in a van, obviously home for mid-term, singing and shouting as they display bottles of alcohol and other drugs.

At the beginning of the year, a viral video of a very drunk young girl in school uniform was spread, after she was unable to take herself to school.

How and why would you want to spread such videos on your social media platforms? Of what use is this information, if not for catching the perpetrators that are sexualizing children and introducing them to drugs at such an early age, as the Directorate of Criminal Investigations did on their Twitter handle?

My problem is not only with social media. It is with society at large, especially parents.

FRIGHTENING PROSPECT

At the bus stop in the area where I live, there is a very popular bar and meat restaurant (if I can call it a restaurant). It is busiest over long weekends and public holidays. On Sunday evenings, I am usually surprised at the number of revelers, even late into the night. The most shocking thing for me is the number that has small children with them.

I have watched from a far what these parents do with their children during those weekends out. They sit around with their friends as the little ones fidget and whine, tired and bored as they cannot wander off on to the sidewalk that is turned into the joint’s parking area. There is no building, just a big tent, so the evening breeze does not spare the little ones. They look on and listen to their parents’ conversations and are sometimes treated to a sip of the drinks that the grownups are partaking.

It is obvious that even as one alights from the bus at the stage and hurriedly makes their way to their houses, this is a ritual – it is the norm.

It is because of scenarios such as these that I am scared to death of and for the generation that we are bringing up. For those of us that prefer the children to stay at home and play with their age mates rather than hang out in bars with adults, my heart bleeds for our young ones. These are the people they will meet in the future, when they are no longer in our care and are out in the world.

ROTTEN MORALS

Will our teachings on morals and values hold water then and get them through all the challenges and temptations that life throws at them? I pray so.

My message is to the men who gave the little boy a joint to smoke, the one recording the boy and girl in an explicit dance and all the ones that let them take a sip of their beer and listen to profane adult conversations. It is your fault that these children are turning our so rotten.

If they picked the habits from you, it is little wonder that you cannot discipline them and bring them back to the straight and narrow. A child’s first teacher is his parent, it is up to them to ensure they are a good example to follow.

The new generation of parents cannot bother to stay home to raise children. My advice to those who have yet to get children, if you really feel that they will be infringing on your freedoms to go out and hang out, then you would rather stay without.