Digital content is messing with teenagers’ morality

In recent weeks, the media has exposed the shocking reality that sits with young people in our country today — teenagers are engaging in sexual activities and using alcohol and drugs with reckless abandon.

Young people have been deluded to believe that easy money, sex, alcohol and drugs will greatly increase their social value; and while many adults may be quick to upbraid them for choosing such a perilous path, it could be the only way they know.

It is bad enough that our teenagers seem to be lost, but it is even worse when parents are flustered and even overwhelmed by the deeds of their children. The communication gap in parent-child relationships has empowered the internet and all its digital content to take the role of the parent.

 Further, the lack of digital media gate keepers has really exacerbated how deep young people are falling into the abyss of immorality.

The content that young people are consuming is accentuating immorality and deluding teenagers into normalising it — from music filled with profanity, to celebrities on social media seemingly using sexual content to grow an audience and even make money.

As a digital content creator in pod-casting, vlogging and blogging, I have learnt that more often than not, the audience may not know what it wants until you show it. It is the bold idea once upheld by American business magnate Steve Jobs when he and his team re-invented the personal computer.

That same bold idea does apply in the content we disseminate in our society; through music, films, funny videos and online memes.

The digital space is far from being safe in many aspects, but we would be at a far much better place if we were conscious of the content we disseminate.

 Are you aged 10-20 and would like to be Nation’s young reporter? Email your 400-600-word article to [email protected]