By Oladotun F Olumuyiwa
As a social media enthusiast, I would like to begin by saying having a better understanding of how socials work is as important as the essence of the socials itself.
And not only that, weighing the pros and cons of sharing those critical information that you considered classified or private before posting on your personal page, most especially as a public figure or celebrity is even far more important.
If you are now a parent, extra caution needs to be taken as to what and what should be put out there. Yes, it is everybody’s prerogative to do as they like on their personal social media page, however being a parent put you at a Non- vantage and dicey position to share some private information that might haunt yourself or your kids in the future. We must get that fact straight!
Parenting demands we protect the Innocence of our kids with everything we’ve got. It also demands we shun anything that would infringe or violate their fundamental rights such as posting their pictures without their consent. However, here, in this part of the globe we hardly respect this part of fundamental human rights. And it is quite sad.
Most African parents are of the opinion that once they gave birth to a child, he or she has no right to question them for anything. Forgetting that, that child equally shares the same fundamental human rights like them the moment he or she was declared a citizen of any Nation State!
In developed climes, like the UK and Canada, sharing your baby’s inappropriate pictures without his or her consent could earn you a fine, a jail term or outright denial of access to that child.
These countries believe by doing such, you are unfit to protect your child’s innocence. And this in most cases, often lead to parental disconnection from one’s children as they would be kept away from you in some social welfare homes.
The child rights in these countries are fully activated to the point that, if any child should raise an allegation against his or her parents, it is over! That child will be taken away from his parents with immediate effect.
I recall one time, seeing a video of a Caucasian girl who was hell bent on suing her parents for given birth to her without her consent. A case I later learned she eventually won!
In Nigeria however, there is Child Right Act but partially activated, as some key states in the northern part of the country have refused to domesticate these laws due some reasons best known to them.
So, having followed the trending case of Mercy Chinwo and seeing her and her hubby share their horrible experience in the hands of social media trolls, should be some sort of a lesson to most 21st century parents out there.
Social Media can never be a safe place to share too much of our children’s information. Even if our laws do not frown at such, we must seek to be on the safer side at all times.
Because one thing I know for sure is, no social media trolls or bully can bully what they don’t see. They only become entitled to our private lives through their biased opinion, once we pushed it out to their faces on socials.
I still recall, a popular actress in the country (Name Withheld) who had a set of twins at a time and till today, no one has seen what these twins look like. She totally refuses to share their pictures for people to see on socials. That’s what is called social media smartness.
To avoid stories that touch like this, we all must be social media smart and learn to control the amount of power given to these online trolls over our private lives.
Learn to keep what’s private, private!