Parents ought to engage teens meaningfully to protect, guide them
Any parent today must be concerned, to say the least, on status of their teenagers.
With reports of adolescents engaging in nefarious activities, some of which are captured on social media for all to see, a rethink of how we interact or deal with them should be a priority.
Unlike years ago before the proliferation of public and private social media platforms, parents dealt with cases of truancy and indiscipline in teenagers in various ways, including corporal punishment and transferring them to the village for a long stay with grandparents, inadvertently cutting off their links with city peers.
This may not work today. Family dynamics, change of lifestyle, advancement in technology as well as torn social fabric have made it difficult to keep up with teens’ activities.
What’s worse, rise of predators who want to take advantage of the usually naïve children is complicating things.
Studies indicate 15-24-year-olds spend an average of one hour on social media, and that’s enough time to set up any mischief, and for anyone to lure the teens — both girls and boys — to whatever exploitation they have planned.
The question is whether teens know and understand the traps in these spaces, some of which have found their way offline, with peers acting as accomplices — whether knowingly or not.
Experts say beatings, arrests and banning aspects of the Internet do not seem to work, and thus call for alternative ways to deal with the teenagers, not only by parents, but also the society.
And thus the crux of the matter: Do parents have the capacity to deal with the modern-day teenager?
Can they keep up with changing dynamics of a society their teens are reacting or responding to?
Have they been equipped with necessary know-how to handle ever-cropping up Internet lingo and platforms their teens seem to take to like fish to water?
As such, engaging the teens need to come in a holistic way: Not to focus just on one aspect and at one time, but address multi-layered issues and on an ongoing basis.
Importantly, parents must not wait to start engaging their children when they become teenagers but start when they are much younger.
Creating an environment where teens can approach parents on any issue is also vital. — The writer is senior sub-editor, People Daily — [email protected]
