Time Magazine’s blog points out a disturbing trend. Young girls reaching out online trying to get reassurance. That spells disaster for a few reasons, including:
• Girls who post videos like this are already feeling unsure of themselves and are desperate for reassurance.
• Not feeling confident seems to make kids more of a target for others to bully them, online and off.
• Tweens and teenagers are more susceptible to drama and high emotion and therefore don’t have the emotional tools they need when they ask for reassurance and what they get is someone tearing them down to the ground.
It’s so dangerous. Parents beware. It’s bad enough for girls 13 (minimum age for Facebook) and up but some girls are even younger.
The story appropriately asks:
The fact that some of the teens can be young as 11 years old signifies something is definitely amiss. Does YouTube need to monitor these videos more closely, or is it part of the need for greater parent vigilance when it comes to their children’s online activities? When every action is anonymous, commenters playing on the insecurities of young tweens is exactly the last thing the Internet needs.
This situation is NOT pretty. What can parents do? Stay close and talk to them about NOT using You Tube or the internet in general this way. Self respect is key offline and online.
