Written by: Rushina Tamang - 26008, Grade IX
Posted on: 24 January, 2023
The majority of social media platforms have an age restriction.These age limits were created with the intention of preventing children from getting trapped in predatory acts and also because children cannot properly use social media. But some parents open an account in their name and post pictures and videos of their children. Because if the account belongs to an adult, who’s going to point out the things they post? Children are being exploited by their own parents or guardians.
This has become a very serious issue, especially in Nepali society. Nepali parents are basically using their children’s popularity to gain fame and money. Those innocent children, on the other hand, have no idea what kind of trap they are falling into. Parents just make their children lip sync to some type of audio, dance, sing, and show some type of talent they have, record a video of them, and post it. And it will certainly go "viral" due to the children being "cute" when they perform those acts. I have almost scrolled through 500 TikTok videos just of parents recording videos of their children doing something. And they get fame for it. After their videos go viral, they continue to post videos of their children one after the other.They do this all for the sake of some likes and follows. But they don’t care about how it might end up for their children.
I mean, some media is understandable, as some parents might just want to show how happy their families are to a certain group of followers. But when they post something with their children and the caption is "Please follow, like, and share," I swear my blood starts to boil. They’re basically putting their children’s faces in front of the camera, not even their own faces, and using them to raise followings and likes on the account of their names. But whether or not the child desires fame is unimportant to them.They don’t ask for consent because how could a child give consent? Parents have to be more aware that exploiting their children puts them at greater risk of being part of a predatory act. And what if the child grows up and doesn’t want fame? What if they hate having their face and name known by the world? The parent certainly can’t reverse that. That child will forever have to live with the tag "The tik-tok famous kid" or the "cute kid that used to do this." Not everyone likes fame. A child does not know what fame or social media are. These tik-tok and YouTube parents need to grow up and learn that they are ruining their own children’s lives.
For example, let’s talk about the famous child singer, Ashok Darji. I remember when my mother used to absolutely adore this kid. The kid had a great voice. And one of his songs that he sang for an interviewer went viral. The interviewer got what they wanted by getting lots of likes and follows, but led Ashok Darji down the path of exploitation. Everyone started going to Ashok Darji, taking one interview after another. For some weeks, there wasn’t one person who didn’t know him. His name became famous. All of the Nepali people’s YouTube feeds were filled with the kid’s name, but the videos were very strange. Ashok Darji was caught in public, Ashok Darji was in school, Ashok Darji's girlfriend, Ashok Darji got into a fight, and some people even went on to post YouTube videos with the title Ashok Darji is dead, as the titles suggest.They just announced that a very well-alive child had died for the sake of fame.Make a video and add Ashok Darji’s name, and they’ll get famous? And even after all that, the kid still ended up with a few songs and some fame. And now, most people don't care how he lives.This is the type of society we live in. a place where children are not safe from their own parents. And that is just one example. There are so many more cases on this topic.
What parents have to realize is that their children are not old enough for social media. They have to start acting like parents for their children and not their directors. I can’t even imagine how much pressure social media might have put on those kids. Parents have to let their children act like children and live like children. They must stop raising their children as if they are future superstar celebrities.And we, as viewers, have to stop promoting these types of videos. because children get exploited for fame. And by promoting those videos, we hope to encourage parents to share more content with their children.So, no matter how friendly those types of tik-toks seem or how "cute" the kids are, we have to scroll through that video or report it.
