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I don’t think anyone would argue that our children are in critical need of attention.  Of course we know that the children now-a-days are more mature when compared to what we did, and how we did it when we were their age.  One must not ignore that most of this maturity is thanks to our country’s continuous progression in technology.  Children are able to have cell phones when they really weren’t that popular or necessary for us to have.  Children are allowed to party and date at much earlier ages than we did.  Children now even have access to what I consider to be a damaging introduction to “grown up lifestyles” and that’s the internet.  This one particular invention is going to be the downfall of our children if we don’t take some proactive measures to instruct and observe our children.

Social networks are providing an experience for our children that I don’t think we are prepared to deal with.  There is no age limitation.  There is no monitoring.  There is no reason to tell the truth about your age and who you are.  Getting to know someone is very easy, however determining if the person you’re chatting with is really who they say is not so easy.  Therefore, when a child, who is inexperienced at making sound judgment calls, is setting themselves up for what could be a dangerous outcome.  The pure excitement of being able to log on to a computer and become whoever you want to be, however old you want to be is intriguing for a child.  If no one is paying attention to what that child is saying and who they are saying it to, anything could happen; and generally does.

On one of these sites, there was a young girl who had a page with skimpy clothing.  She advertised that she was seeking a boyfriend; someone to hang out and kick it with.  She turned out to be under the age of 18.  She met up with two different guys, both over 18 and both accused later of statutory rape.  The girl lied about her age and caused both of these men to face jail time.  To this date, she still has a page up and has not altered her age, which she stated was 19, when she’s actually 13.  Her picture decorated in a two piece bikini is also still posted. 

Artists and musicians are expected by law to slap a “Parental Advisory” sticker on their albums when it contains adult content, yet, this new social network faze has nothing in place to monitor it’s users.  There is no notice that the page you click on can contain adult photos, or any other adult content.  So if these sites are being used by adults to find dates, then children are able to do the same thing.  If adults are able to place revealing pictures on their pages, the children can do the same.  It’s ridiculous that this is available to children.  This is the beginning of a serious problem.  We need to get a hold on these sites soon.  We have little girls setting up guys for statutory rape.  We have little girls posting pictures of themselves that their parents have never seen. 

As such, it would seem to me that the problem is not with the artist, whether a ring tone rapper or not.  The problem lies, yet again, within our community, our society.  If we were a society that celebrated womanhood, we wouldn’t be in odds about the use of the B-word.  If we were a country that encouraged racial harmony, the use of the N-word would not be a big deal.  If we were a community that cherished it’s children, it would be difficult to introduce children to sex and other mature topics so early.  If we were a society as we were years ago, parents would be looking after and supervising their own children and artists would not be left with the responsibility to raise our children or offer role models for them.  It is not the artists’ job to be role models for our children.  There job is to entertain us.  When they signed their record deal, that’s what they hired on for.  They are not in this field to do the job that parents have neglected to do.

The best way to work on the issue of outside influences leading your child is to be attentive.  For one thing, give careful consideration to allowing your under-aged child to have a page on popular social sites that do very little background checks.  Children have access to information, photographs, etc that they should not.  There is no age limit, therefore you child could be communicating with a man or woman your age and enjoying the fanatical image of being grown before they are ready.  This coupled with the music they listen to and the television shows they watch is leading our children to a childless adulthood.