The various social media platforms we have today play a major role in influencing the lives of people and directing their behavior, given our current technological advancement and the large individual space as well as private life on those digital platforms.
In this private world, they learn from and live in an environment that competes with the real world and it may actually have a stronger influence on them.
In light of the challenges that parents face, all the positives and negatives presented through social media, which is essentially a double-edged sword, we believe in the necessity of parental controls in confronting and limiting those risks that children may be exposed to while browsing these platforms.
Especially since most children spend a long time on social media without the parents’ follow-up, which is reflected in the children’s behavior, and leaves our children vulnerable to making mistakes, and some of those mistakes may be major and irreversible.
While we emphasize family supervision and education, we see that there is a big mistake in some practices during supervision, such as the constant comparisons that put children in competition, which may lead to hatred and alienation.
Therefore, it is necessary for parents to befriend their children and talk to them, sharing their sorrows, problems, and private lives, and breaking down barriers that hinder parental intervention to solve problems.
If the children are missing a good role model in their home, they will search for it on social media, because children need a good role model and seek it throughout their life, and if that part is missing, they will see anyone as a role model.
Similarly, the family is the building block of society, which creates a responsible generation that preserves its homeland’s identity and behavior, and so it is necessary for it to strengthen the national identity of children and instill in them the concept of good citizenship, especially since social media platforms expose us today to many dangerous and wrong practices.
Social media also conveys a different identity from what we want our children to be and what they should be and in the midst of these technological challenges and the spread of social media, it is necessary to instill in our children self-censorship, teach them self-reliance and responsibility to act according to the rules, customs, traditions, and teachings of Islam they were brought up on, which emphasize goodness and good work, and that their behavior will affect their responsible personality and their good reputation as well as their country’s reputation.
