Johannesburg - The popular hashtag #TheRiskITook challenge, trending among teenagers on social media has once more brought to the fore the follies of unsupervised and unrestricted access to platforms such as TikTok among growing children.
In the videos that have gone viral, the teenagers, some as young as 14, share experiences on how they had unprotected sex and ended up having babies with their equally teenaged partners. They also share videos of themselves and their babies.
Experts fear that the hashtag could be perceived as glamourising teenage pregnancy and unprotected sex among the young population in a country like South Africa where there is a high rate of teenage pregnancies and an equally high number of school dropout rates.
One TikTok video shows a photograph of a 15-year old boy with the words: “I took a risk at 15” written above his head, before the video cuts to a montage of the teen boy with his infant child. Another video shows a 16-year-old girl with the words :“I took a risk at 16” above a photo before the clip cuts to a screenshot of the logo for South Africa’s Marie Stopes International Clinic, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) providing contraception and safe abortion services.
University of Pretoria’s Professor Kobus Maree puts the somewhat problematic trending video to the growing immersion of social media amongst teenagers, the growing lack of adult supervision in households and the popularity of participating in trends on social media due to peer pressure.
“What’s happening is unacceptable. There is no way we can control the children outside of school grounds. Teachers, those who are very strong and professional, feel that the situation is getting out of hand. It’s a growing problem that is manifesting across the country,” Professor Maree explained.
“These (TikTok) trend videos really do exacerbate an existing problem. It’s an escalating problem for learners growing up with inadequate parental supervision. That’s our core problem at this stage.”
To Maree, trending videos like those seen on Tik Tok are hard to monitor and all protests by teachers and parents may not result in restrictions for applications they don’t have control of. He said that the challenge in raising awareness on unsafe sex lies within the country’s educational curriculum and the Ministry of Basic Education.
Professor Maree pointed out that the educating of safe activity on social media and of safe sex to teenagers must be integrated in improved curricula and also implemented in education tools for university students studying to enter into the education sector.
Maree added that teachers already within the system need to continue to integrate education on the risks of participating on social media platforms with the existing systems in place. He said that while educators cannot control the behaviour of teenagers outside of the school building, they can do so within classrooms but need more support.
“We need to tackle the core problems with our teen students. Life Orientation teachers should ideally have an educational psychologist at least associated with every cluster of schools,” he said. “At this stage, our educational psychologists are being lured away in numbers to other countries like New Zealand. The educational psychology graduates here feel despondent over the opportunities and end up leaving.”
Phakamile Khumalo, leader of Web Rangers, a peer-to-peer programme that aims to improve children’s digital literacy skills, said social media has allowed us to be part of a global community that transcends the limitations of time and space.
“This is particularly true for South African youth. Despite the challenges of the digital divide, connectivity and access - a lot of young people engage with technology and the internet with so much excitement and interest. The idea of meeting new people, connecting across the globe and instantly sharing videos, pictures and information is something that thrills our young people,” she said.
She said when used irresponsibly, however, by those with limited or no digital literacy skills, social media has the potential to cause great harm - this means that if teens are not empowered with digital and media literacy skills, they engage with social media and the internet without the tools, skills and resources that will allow them to use the internet for good or in a way that enables them to hone their talents and passions.
“In my experience working with children, I find overwhelmingly that learners have not been taught to effectively and responsibly use social media in a way that promotes or highlights who they are, or what their dreams and aspirations are, and they tend to create or focus on content that “break the internet”, and so they create and share such content without consideration for those involved, including themselves.”
On the specific sex challenge, Khumalo said there needs to be a look at what purpose this challenge serves.
“Does it in any way seek to create a conversation around the challenges teen parents face or is it glamourising a very serious issue? And finally, the role of parents and teachers in solving such issues is inadvertently highlighted here.”
Echoing Khumalo’s sentiment is Leandri Janse van Vuuren, managing director at Social Media 101, an online and digital agency who said social media can be harmful to teenagers, however it is not all bad.
“While teenagers may be exposed to peer pressure, more adult topics, and cyberbullying, social media is also used to raise awareness to help teens find supportive avenues to address the issues they may be facing and find community.”
She said the #RiskITookAt16 hashtag could also be viewed as an example of how social media is raising awareness around the issue of teenage pregnancy and glamourising teenage pregnancy.
“When using social media one has to always be on high alert because these platforms have unfortunately become a playground for online predators, human trafficking, scams and many other social ills. Teenagers in particular need to be careful of what they share and how much they share on their social media platforms.
In light of the #RiskITook challenge, society needs to be careful to not glamourise teenage pregnancy. While there is a plethora of information available to prevent unplanned pregnancies, we must also guard against the risk of misinformation. The best way to combat misinformation is to drive online educational conversations and campaigns that teens can have access to,” said Van Vuuren.
She added that parents and schools need to be more involved in speaking openly with teens about the dangers of social media.
“Ideally, we should see a heightening of conversations and discussions with teens, even in schools, on the subject of how to guard against the dangers of social media. Most teens turn to social media to try to make sense of the world and to discover the role in which they play. They turn to social media to try and figure out who they are and to connect with peers. The truth is social media can be both good and bad for teens but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be on social media.”