The latest trend on youngsters sharing nudes on social media platforms has sparked a fierce debate among Kenyans with the big question being, who is to blame?
The debate is now huge after the trending #ifikiewazazi which since Wednesday has been widely sharing the demeaning behavior from a section Kenya’s youngsters.
Sociologist and counselor Terry Wango, says that the biggest challenge is social media.
“In this digital age, social media has made things very easy. Our young generation is indisputably a great consumer of Western trends which I believe has influenced this erratic and anti-social behavior.
But the question that comes out of this abhorrent behavior is, do we blame parents or do we blame the fact that social media has made everything so open and easy to put out there to the public?” asks Wango.
She said the issue at hand is hard for parents as well because it tempts them to monitor what their children consume on the internet, which is likely to put the children on defensive.
Walter Nyamu, a student at St Paul University said the way-ward behavior has been inspired by the necessity for instant fame and peer pressure among his peers.
He also said that the care-free attitude among his peers has contributed immensely to such ills in the society given that the quest for popularity among youngsters in huge.
“Peer pressure is one thing teenagers and also those of us in the University ride on in a very big way. Its aftermath is this ‘mob-thinking’ that makes you do literally anything and everything as long as it will catapult you to popularity,” Nyamu remarked.
Wango in her advice offered that youngsters should be aware that the choices they make today will have consequences in their future.
She warned that the traces “disgusting” footprints they leave on the internet could potentially hurt them in the near future.
“Technology is quite advanced and these young people should know they leave traces here. If the footprints are as disgusting as we see, it could ruin their future. They will leave with regrets for the rest of their lives which is not a good thing.”