Written by Michael Thervil
Coverage by Associated Press
The question of the hour is: “what kind of country are Americans living in when parents get to blame tech giants for the misfortunes of their children?”. The answer to that the world may never know. Today during what is now being dubbed as a “grilling” aimed toward tech executives Mark Zuckerberg (META), Linda Yaccarino (X), Evan Spiegel (Snapchat), Shou Chew (TikTok), and Jason Citron (Discord) for their public perceived lack of care in addressing the perceived issue of users being sexually exploited on their social media products. The Senate was filled to the brim with spectators who many of which either know or have teenagers that have been sexually exploited while using social media.
While the on and offline exploitation of anyone is never something to be celebrated, it is the position of many people around the world that social media platforms like Snapchat, X, TikTok, Meta, and Discord should not be blamed for any of the unfortunate outcomes that any of their users may experience in the real world. In contrast, the people that filled the walls of the Senate today see things differently. For some of the attendees of this hearing, their teenagers have either committed acts of self-harm, became victims of “sextortion”, and some have gone as far as committing suicide. Some people are claiming that they’re suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as well.
Social Media Executives from left to right: Jason Citron (Discord), Shou Chew (TikTok), Mark Zuckerberg (META), Linda Yaccarino (X), Evan Spiegel (Snapchat)
While both positions mentioned above are true, there’s a couple of hard truths that parents of these “victimized” teenagers and parents in general are not going to like, and those truths are that’s it’s quite possible that you have failed as a parent. Another hard truth is that: parents around the world but specifically in America are going to have to come to grips with is that no matter how much you try, or how much attention you provide to your children, or even if you work your ass off to provide your children with the opportunities that you never had growing up, there’s no guarantee that your children are going to turn out ok in life.
Another hard truth that many parents don’t want to face is that when your child goes out into the world – you have no control over them and the choices they make; therefore it’s up to you to instill good decision making, critical thinking, and problem solving skills into your children to the best of your ability and then hope they will fall on your teaching when the time comes for them to do so when they face life’s challenges. And they will face the challenges of life such as bullying, the decision on whether to use drugs or engage in sexual activities or not.
Children and teens alike will have to face and overcome peer pressure; they will have to overcome some kind of social abuse because the world is cold. There's more we could add to this list; but we would be writing forever if we had to name them all. In short, what we at VEDA Magazine are saying is that life in a nutshell is about decisions, compromise, problem solving, consequences, self-determination, outcomes, and bullies over pussies. That’s it, nobody owes anyone anything.
Is it possible that tech giants such as META, X, Snapchat, TikTok, and Discord have done all they can do to protect and shield their users from technological harm? Well, another hard truth here is that maybe it could be said that social media giants have gone above and beyond their scope of operation to shield both the weak minded and the emotionally fragile people that have not been trained to deal with the onslaught of the reality in which they live. Welcome to First World problems. The solution required to rectify the problem here is simple: don't allow your children to use social media platforms and if you catch them using these platforms, you simply take their phones away. Point of fact, some of the creators of the social media platforms under the Senate scrutiny either don’t let their own children use the platform or limit the time their kids spend on the platforms they’ve created.
Creator of META Mark Zuckerberg was pressured to issue an apology to the "victims" who died while using social media. Photo by REUTERS
When it comes to protecting your kids from Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), there’s nothing that you or anyone in world can do about that. Why? Because the demand for consumption of such material is too great and the money and resources that those people use are too long and too sophisticated to be stopped. The best thing that parents with children can do is employ preventative measures to significantly lower the risk of their child becoming a victim in the first place. It can be said that some of the biggest consumers of Child Sexual Abuse Material are the children themselves. See, nobody wants to talk about all the teenagers that engage in “sexting” and the exchanging of illegal pornographic material and images of and amongst themselves. Don’t worry about that, it’s always someone else’s fault. There’s always some “creep” around the corner parents in America can blame it on, right? Truth be told, most of the “creeps” that they’re pointing fingers at are seen at the family reunion.
Another hard truth that parents around the country need to take responsibility for is allowing their children to watch "famous for nothing" people such as Kim Kardashian; and allowing the open acceptance of people who are sexually confused. This speaks volumes regarding the moral decay of the American society. Adding insult to injury, parents around America have become nothing but overly tolerant and decadent when it comes to disciplining, setting boundaries, and taking control of what their children are exposed to. So maybe what’s currently happening isn't the fault of any of the social media platforms out there. Instead, maybe the fault lies with American parents.
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