The two companies that put your children most at risk & how it plays into the proliferation of violence in society
Bottom Line: Gone are the days when Sesame Street and Pinwheel would be safe go to's for your kids and GI Joe was the most violence your kids might be exposed to growing up. As we're continuing to seek answers as to why we have a proliferation of violence in our society, especially among young people, highlighted once again with the evil carried out Friday in Sante Fe Texas – there's a telling new study out of England that might have some of our answers.
While the focus by many has been on new laws to attempt to control evil actions, we've yet to even attempt to understand why more people are bent on carrying out mass murder. It seems sensible to look at the variables in our society over the past twenty years. When you take a look at the variables, there are two entities that are used by most children and that are the most likely to expose your kids to illicit behavior. Facebook and YouTube.
According to England's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the most common perpetuator of suicide, violence, bullying and sex in society today comes from those two sources. More specifically they rated the risk of children being exposed to suicide, violence, bullying, sex, drug and alcohol abuse. Facebook and YouTube were the only two that are high risk in all categories. By comparison the only other material high risk in all categories that kids might come across was the Grand Theft Auto video game.
It might be an over-simplification to simply blame Facebook and YouTube for the proliferation of violence (they weren't around for the shooting that kicked off an evil era in our schools – Columbine), what they all have in common is the internet. It's clear that a proliferation of violence, including by terror organizations, is a downside of the internet age. As a parent there aren't any easy answers but if you're looking to limit exposure to the riskiest content, limiting Facebook and YouTube are the top two places to start.