Social media & mental health of children.
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By Angela Onwuzoo
Maternal and child health specialists have cautioned parents
against taking paternity disputes about their children to social media
platforms.
The experts warned that children whose paternity disputes are
social media discussions are not only exposed to stigma and ridicule in the
future but also more at risk of psychological and mental health issues when
they grow up.
The experts urged couples to find better ways of dealing with
their family issues, especially when it has to do with children, noting that
information posted on social media will still be there for many years to come.
According to the experts, social media does not forget, warning
that if children grow up into adulthood and found out on social media that
their paternity was under dispute, they will have lots of social and mental
health issues to contend with.
The experts, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Solomon Avidime; and a Professor of Paediatrics
at the Department of Paediatrics, College of Health Sciences, University of
Ilorin, Kwara State, Olugbenga Mokuolu, also said bringing paternity dispute to
the social media will create unnecessary tension and pressure in the family.
The gynaecologist said, “Even if there is no social media, a child
that grew up to realize that there is paternity dispute about him, will usually
have some psychological issues to deal with.
“Parents must understand that such issues should not be put on
social media. What social media does is to spread the information wider and the
child will have to deal with a lot of social issues with people, knowing that
he or she is involved in a paternity dispute.
“Parents involved in the dispute should avoid going to social media
with paternity dispute about their child because of the psychological effect it
will have on him or her in future.”
Also citing the psychological effects on the child in the future,
Mokuolu told our correspondent in an exclusive interview that family issues are
not meant for social media, warning parents to stop making their children a
subject of ridicule on social media.
The pediatrician cautioned, “I think that we should look at the
kind of damage that we might be inflicting upon our children when we make them
a subject of ridicule on the social media. Generally, we should shield our
families from the relentless assault on social media.
“I think that families should be advised that they owe it a duty
to allow children that have come up in between them to have their own normal
development.
“In fact, that is a general golden rule. So, as a counsellor, on
another level, I would advise that couples should manage their family issues a
little more privately. They should seek help from where they can get help;
social media does not offer help.”
The researcher further noted, “And because the social media or the
internet doesn’t forget, as somebody grows up – even when these families now
make up among themselves – whatever you have there is a permanent scar that
everybody connected with such a matter will have to live by.
“Overall, family issues are not meant for social media. You are
increasing the pressure upon yourself when you take family issues to social
media.
“But we are in the social media age and some people live on the
social media. So, when it is good, they reap the benefit of social media and
when it is otherwise, they will also live with the consequences of social
media.”
He advised couples to protect their children and shield them from
attacks on social media.
For those advocating that paternity test be carried out by
hospitals after the delivery of every child, the experts said the business of
the hospital is to conduct delivery for pregnant women and not to ascertain the
paternity of a child as a routine function.
They, however, said hospitals can carry out a paternity test on a child based on parental request, if there is a paternity dispute.
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