When I was going through middle and high school teachers and
parents always emphasized positive body and self-worth images. In health class
there would be videos about anorexic or bulimic girls who thought they were fat
but in reality barely made 100 pounds.
Like every school there were some bullies, but I had my
friends to back me up. Today, it seems that this isn’t enough for some young
girls. There is a new Internet trend. Young girls are posting YouTube videos
asking strangers if they are pretty or not.
The two girls shown in the video on the ABC website both
said that their friends say that they’re pretty, but other things contradict
what they say. One, girl says she doesn’t think she’s pretty because other
students at her school tell her she’s ugly. She looks to be about middle school
age with heavy eyeliner, mascara and a red lipstick on in the video. The other
girl believes she’s ugly because she doesn’t have a boyfriend and believes that
“boys don’t like [her].”
Videos like these make it easy for Internet trolls and cyber
creeps to exploit young girls with low self-esteem. Creeps like the men that
get caught on How To Catch A Predator.
Social media, and technology really, is becoming more easily
picked up by younger generations. This trend could be a good thing, but if
young teens are having unrestricted Internet access, they can do things that
can put themselves at risk, even if they don’t realize it.
One of my biggest questions is what will the girls gain from
the comments of strangers? If the majority say the girls is pretty will she go
to school and tell those who call her ugly they’re wrong, and that strangers on
the Internet told her she was pretty. If the comments say that the girl is ugly
what will that do to her obviously already low self-esteem? Would she take so
far as to harm herself?
Who’s to blame for these videos? Their parents because they
should be more involved with their children and place restrictions on them?
Should YouTube delete the videos posted by the young girls? What about the
schools the girls attend, should they become more involved with the bullying
that occurs?
It’s not hard for a 13 year-old girl to say she’s 21 on a
social media site. Just click on the appropriate year for the birth date
section. Should social media sites come up with a more productive way to verify
the age of its users? The Internet is not a babysitter, but I believe sites
that allow children to utilize them have a responsibility to help protect them.
Parents should also monitor their children’s online activity because kids are curious;
they go places they shouldn’t and do things that aren’t in their best interest.
These young girls need to get help from somewhere because
posting these videos is not an emotionally healthy thing to do.
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