@Ruuyia's post on Artfol
An interesting subject I started to think about due to some comments said by my co-workers who are parents is about children and internet. They don't like the idea of them being online in spaces that are mostly used by teens and adults such as IG, Youtube, Tiktok, X or Facebook. And by kids I mean users under 16, since those are the ages of my co-workers's children.
Some consider it dangerous to the kids since there are very shady, evil and cruel people online. Sadly, I've seen some of them myself and I do understand their concern.
What do you guys think?
By the way, I won't be replying, I prefer to just sit and read when I make questions.Jun 5, 2025
Some consider it dangerous to the kids since there are very shady, evil and cruel people online. Sadly, I've seen some of them myself and I do understand their concern.
What do you guys think?
By the way, I won't be replying, I prefer to just sit and read when I make questions.Jun 5, 2025
#question
Comments
The problem with most of those places is that there is no accountability. People can just say shit. I was on forums when I was younger. If you were a shit person you’d be banned.
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I can't say that I'm a big fan of it, but I'm not adamant that kids shouldn't be on social media at all. Like you, I don't have children. Also, I have the added inexperience of being old enough that there wasn't an internet for me to be engaged with when I was a kid (there was a VERY primitive proto-version with things like message boards, but I didn't even get my first computer till I was almost 21.) There is at least one person I follow on ArtFol who is under 16, and others who sometimes view and comment on my stuff, and vice versa, and I'm mindful of that with the things that I post. The only experience I know to draw upon is how I was raised myself. Though I never had kids, I once was one, so I can look back on what worked and didn't work with me, while trying to remain aware that every kid is different and there's not always a one-size-fits-all approach to things. My mom was extremely overprotective, and I have little doubt that if I were growing up today she would want to keep me completely sheltered from the internet. My dad balanced my mom out, and was more of a lead-by-example, and quite an authoritarian parent. By that I mean that he wasn't super strict in laying down tons of rules for me as a kid, but when he did, there was seldom any room for negotiation, and there was absolutely ZERO tolerance for disobedience. For one thing, my dad despised profanity. Yet he didn't go out of his way to ban me from watching certain programming on TV. Now if he was home and something with over the top excessive language was on, he would probably change the channel. But he never tried to keep me from watching anything (and I grew up in the 80's, and for anyone who thinks language is bad in movies these days, go watch pretty much any 80's action movies and get your absolute fill of boobs and swear words 
). Instead, Dad led by example by the way that he conducted himself, and made sure that I knew how I was to speak and act...
). Instead, Dad led by example by the way that he conducted himself, and made sure that I knew how I was to speak and act...•
•I was around 13 or 14 when I was engaging more with online things like deviantart and YouTube. I had an Imeem account once and hung around there before they had closed it down (kinda like MySpace?? Or I think they bought it out, not sure). In my time being there, I never once encountered anything shady, maybe because I think back then there wasn’t a lot of the problems we have now (like dA today, the spamming chats I get from scammers asking if I do commissions).
I know at the time, since I was young if I knew something was wrong I would tell my mom about it. But with all these other social medias, and parents allowing their kids to get on them and scammers or whoever else preys on innocent people, does pose a danger for the children. I think while I knew what I should do and shouldn’t on the internet is an important factor when going online. If children do not have the conviction of right or wrong they may not have the sense of being careful of what they watch or who they talk to. It’s the parent’s responsibility at the end of the day. If they allow their kid to have social media, the parents should maintain supervision of it. Or make an account and allow their kid to use theirs.
One thing that is funny to me is the logic of some parents who complain their kids being too much on social media, yet they don’t do any about it. In fact they are the kind who gave their three year olds iPads for Christmas. You cannot expect a child to grow better as a person if they develop a low attention span which affects how they interact with people, in school, and everywhere else.
Anyway, all in all, I do think there should be supervision or if you don’t want to, don’t allow your kid to have social media until they are 18 or something.
I know at the time, since I was young if I knew something was wrong I would tell my mom about it. But with all these other social medias, and parents allowing their kids to get on them and scammers or whoever else preys on innocent people, does pose a danger for the children. I think while I knew what I should do and shouldn’t on the internet is an important factor when going online. If children do not have the conviction of right or wrong they may not have the sense of being careful of what they watch or who they talk to. It’s the parent’s responsibility at the end of the day. If they allow their kid to have social media, the parents should maintain supervision of it. Or make an account and allow their kid to use theirs.
One thing that is funny to me is the logic of some parents who complain their kids being too much on social media, yet they don’t do any about it. In fact they are the kind who gave their three year olds iPads for Christmas. You cannot expect a child to grow better as a person if they develop a low attention span which affects how they interact with people, in school, and everywhere else.
Anyway, all in all, I do think there should be supervision or if you don’t want to, don’t allow your kid to have social media until they are 18 or something.
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