Millennial parents are confronted with continuous and novel challenges when providing care and security to their wards. Although vaccinations, proper nutrition, and CCTV cameras have helped abate some of these challenges, mainly physical, children of all ages are still vulnerable to other, newer menaces nefariously designed to attract and impact their minds. These threats are not clearly discernible and therefore require awareness.
Dangerous media
Threats now lurk on so-called kid-friendly media like YouTube Kids. Currently, there are more than 1 lakh accounts on YouTube Kids being run by predators targeting children according to intelligence reports. Such accounts upload videos in which animated characters stimulate sexual acts, inject drugs, display suicidal tendencies, etc. The predators also leave comments on these videos trying to get in touch with the kids. While a parent might believe that their ward is simply browsing cartoons, they may actually be consuming content that is not just unsuitable for them but may result in systematic emotional, and potentially physical, abuse.
Safety of preschools, daycares
In the era of nuclear families and working parents, many children are in the care of nannies and daycare. But this doesn’t mean that parents can pay any less attention to their child’s wellbeing.
Recently, an incident related to a play school in Mumbai came to light. A father noticed how his child started getting anxious on hearing small noises at home (even happy sounds like laughter), the child had also become noticeably aggressive. This made the parents suspect that their child was being bullied. Other parents also confirmed that they observed similar behavioural changes in their children. They banded together and decided to check the school’s CCTV footage. The footage revealed shocking scenes of teachers manhandling the students. The clip of kids being beaten went viral and an FIR was filed, the teachers were arrested and denied bail.
It is not very common for a parent to link the changed behaviour of a child to these factors. The way these parents dealt with the situation is commendable. While such a situation might not be regular or common to all schools, it must alert parents to be more aware of any change in the behaviour of their wards.
Also read: Majority of Indian schools don’t have means to prevent, combat child sexual abuse, survey finds
Targeted ads
The food industry looks at children as nothing more than consumers. Food and beverages full of sugar, preservatives, colour and artificial flavours are advertised as healthy products, which enhance growth. Consuming highly processed foods full of salt and sugar leads to addiction, emotional eating and pediatric obesity. This obesity may lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol at a later stage.
The same parents who are obsessed with their toddlers being chubby and cute pressurise young adults to lose weight. We need to check children’s eating habits early on or else we are placing them on a path of long-term physical and mental ill-health and distress.
Equally sinister is the tobacco industry. E-cigarettes are available in a range of flavours, including bubblegum and cotton candy. These flavours are indicative of the kind of audience they are targeting. Studies show that two-thirds of adult smokers in the UK picked up smoking below the age of 18. Forty per cent of India’s population is between 13-35 years of age and the tobacco industry is methodically targeting this age group.
The future of the tobacco industry banks upon this group picking up the tobacco habit as they will be the replacement smokers. The industry pumps millions of dollars specifically targeting this age group. Children and youth with developing minds may be easily influenced by attractive ad campaigns.
Grooming of children
A serious threat looming in the shadows is that of grooming. In an interview, Jack Reynolds who molested more than 300 boys in the 1980s described his method. He would select the less privileged children (as ascertained by their clothes) who did not have strong father figures and were not likely to tell their friends. He would act as a kind and caring uncle, meeting the kids routinely in parks and other places, and making a good impression on parents and children. He would act as a hero before the neglected children and struggling single mothers, offering to take the child away for a night, convincing the children that they would ‘enjoy’ the ‘activities’ he had planned for them. Grooming is now being done through new avenues like YouTube Kids and gaming apps.
Grooming on gaming apps is a silent terror looming from within the mobile phones of teenagers. It can cause severe damage without the parents’ awareness. It all starts with innocent conversations and friendships, trying to create trust with the victim. Teens who do not have sounding boards and support systems at home may be vulnerable to receiving guidance and advice online. This connection developed on gaming apps moves to social media, then phones and sometimes even real-life meetings. Some youth may develop deep feelings of friendship or even love for the person across the screen, and then agree to their demands.
There have been cases, I have personally supervised, of youth leaving their homes with the intention to move across borders after being convinced by their social media friends to do so. These friendships may lead to human trafficking or they may be used by terrorists as lone wolves and handlers.
Also read: Stop making new laws for children’s safety. Instead implement what we have first
Create safe environments
Nuclear families are a reality of our times. It is understandable that parents need to send their children to play schools and daycares early on. But they must not completely give up supervision. They need to ensure thorough scrutiny of any institution before enrolling their children as well as routine monitoring of CCTV footage.
Parents need to ensure lower consumption of processed food such as cakes and chocolates and stop treating these products as rewards for good behaviour or a bribe to enforce discipline or make a child stop crying. They must be normalised as unhealthy foods to be consumed once in a while but nothing special. Parents must lead by example in eating fresh and local foods.
One of the biggest gifts we can give our children is the motivation to move and remain physically active. The benefits of exercise are well known and lead to a fit body, active mind and a pleasant persona. It is also the best antidote to overthinking, an undeniable malady of our time. It also frees children from excessive dependence on screens and food when they are bored.
Parents today cannot constantly monitor their children, so they need to equip their children with high conscience, integrity, strong character and confidence. We must make them autonomous so that they can distinguish between right and wrong. We must train them to say ‘no’ when they aren’t convinced by any proposal. Most importantly, we must regularly speak to them and provide a safe environment home at home so that they can bare their hearts and souls to us without worrying about being judged.
Shraddha Pandey is an IPS officer (2017 batch) currently posted as DCP Prayagraj. She tweets @shraddha_pn. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)