The recent shooting incident in Tacloban City has brutally shown how vulnerable our children can be to outside influences – peer pressure, social media, information at our fingertips.
And once again, unfortunately, the government has displayed its tendency to overreact and burn down the entire house just to get rid of a few ants.
Even as doubts have surfaced in other countries about the effectiveness of a “blanket ban” on social media on minors, authorities in the Philippines have advocated such a move in the belief that this will lessen exposure to violent media.
This, in my view, smacks of blanket censorship – in a country where freedom of expression and freedom of information is guaranteed in the Constitution.
Not only that, evidence so far has suggested that such blanket bans may be ineffective at best.
Take, for example, a study conducted in Australia – one of the first companies who have instituted a ban on social media use among children and teens 16 years old and below – that noted that "more than 80 percent" of minors under age 16 have continued to use social media three months after the ban took effect.
Based on an observational study of 408 12- to 17-year-olds, Australia's University of Newcastle has concluded the ban has resulted in "limited implementation, incomplete compliance, and substantial circumvention of social media restrictions."
You know, as the saying goes, “kung gusto, may paraan.” I remember this quote from a news satire show about how putting up “adult guards” on websites (where you have to input your age or year of birth in order to access adult websites) has only resulted in minors learning how to subtract 18 or 21 from the current year.
I’ve always maintained my belief that it’s much easier to change legislation than to change the culture.
The same goes for violence in our schools, which I believe is the cause of underlying factors that a blanket social media ban won’t fix.
But, you know, it’s much easier to censor our youth’s access to information than actually guiding them through the turbulent years of their growth.
Ang mga magulang, kung hindi nagpapabaya, minsan kunsintidor pa o di kaya yung mismong guro ang inaaway kapag ayaw nila yung assessment sa mga anak nila.
Sa tingin kaya ninyo, matututo pa kaya ng mga anak ninyo na respetuhin ang mga guro kung kayo mismo e walang respeto sa mga “pangalawang magulang” nila?
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