Dehumanizing Children, a 20th Century Legacy

Ok, it's been in the news lately and it is a sickening indictment on 21st Century culture.  I am referring to the countless videos from cell phones of schoolyard bullying that are appearing on the internet.  It seems that we are losing touch with our children and they don't seem to be learning the principles of Right and Wrong in a society that has always prided itself on child safety.

But do we blame these kids for what they are doing?  After all it's not like they actually pay for their cellphones nor their internet connections and laptops.  I guess in the drive to make kids brighter and safer we are eroding social boundaries and enticing children and teenagers into doing acts or things that their peers deem necessary.  We as adults and parents are giving the teens of today the ammunition to be self indulgent and to hunt in packs.

I will stop here and go back to something I firmly believed altered the course of society.  The advent of the video technology.  It became cool to hang out in takeaway shops or arcade game parlours and beat the living snot out of "fantasy" figures and then that lead onto parents being less than attentive what their children were watching on videos.  I know from experience and recall a mates place where I visited once and saw his two 9 year old twin boys watching a very violent and bloody video.  I said to him (out of earshot of the children) that he'll have issues.  Last I heard both boys had done stints in prison for violence crimes (including Man hits Female).  This early start in violence starts at the home, and it's not just action movies that are the core of the problem, horror and vampire movies have a lot to answer for.  Don't get me wrong, children do need to learn boundaries, but left unattended in front of the TV set doesn't teach those boundaries.

So video technology helped change society.  The DVD and PC revolution have also played a part in the breakdown of a society fighting to solve problems.  Cellphones are another conundrum.  Most parents will buy a cell phone for their child (around the 12 or 13 year mark) for their personal safety.  And with the technology these phones have, and the ease of access to money to fund their use, there is bound to be trouble.  The short answer to stop this bullying issue is no phones at school whatsoever.  Schools and parents have to stand united and do this somewhat draconian action to stop improper use of those phones.  Not just for the sake of peer pressure, but to also stop instances of bullying where heroes and zeroes exist.  It's wholly unhealthy and needs to be addressed urgently.

Just an aside, from observation, largely boys played action games on video through the late eighties and nineties as youngsters and would often steal money to play their fad.  I'm wondering if the large number of juvenile crimes in the last ten to fifteen years have been a result of those forays into video games, and the advent of Playstation has given birth to the Boy Racer phenomenon, with the likes of Grand Theft Auto and other road action games?  There is no law or death on these games and when these people are faced with life or death situations they are unable to make the right decision solely on the fact they think all they have to do on the streets is hit reset and they are born again, or their car reappears in pristine original condition if pranged.  We are all well aware this is not reality, but try telling some kid in his late teens or early 20's and don't be surprised by the answer.

So folks, if you want steady well adjusted children, make sure the DVD's are locked away and to be watched with supervision, make sure cellphones are kept at home (it was always safe to walk home without them in our day) and generally make sure your kids are learning right and wrong early, not death and destruction.