By ERWIN ‘AMBO’ DELILAN
THE UNSTOPPABLE social media (socmed) frenzy is putting Filipino kids “at risk”. It got during the COVID-19 pandemic and up to now.
Predators became daring in their sexual exploration using their smart gadgets. The crime is online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC). Many became victims.
No wonder, too, that cases of unwanted teen pregnancy and suicide “ballooned”.
Above all, a study revealed that kids’ behaviors (supposedly anchored on Filipino moral values) “terribly worsened”.
Experts and educators in Negros Occidental said both socmed and COVID-19 brought negative-slash- distasteful effects on Filipino kids. These and more alarmed the Department of Education (DepEd) NegOcc.
Hence, the Boy Scout jamboree in the province was revived. Thanks to Mayor Raymund Tongson and the City of Himamaylan for hosting such an awe-inspiring event in Barangay 3 on March 29-April 2. More than 2,000 Negros kid scouts joined the five-day scouting event.
Quite meaningful. The very purpose: To “reformat” kids.
SOCMED ‘ADDICTS’
Well, reality masticates. Kids of today are known to be socmed “addicts”. At the height of COVID-19, they were hooked to smartphones, laptops or personal computers (PC) at home. Though such kind of addiction can make kids tech-savvy, there’s an imminent danger within. Really, it could lead to serious addiction with associated negative consequences, warned psychologists and psychiatrists from Chicago Booth School of Business.
Among these consequences included anxiety, depression, irritability, isolation, distancing oneself from real world, loss of control and others. That’s why the late Steve Jobs, founder of iPad, iPod and iPhone, did not allow his kids to get tied up with gadgets. Jobs, per research, really put certain restrictions on his kids as to the use of their smartphones. He firmly believed that smartphones could affect both the character and values of youngsters.
Enter the local Boy Scouts troop leaders from DepEd-Isabela town. Both Reynolfvon Euraoba and Erwin Torres stressed it’s a must now to instill the basic disciplines and Filipino values among kids.
“There’s a drastic change on our kids’ characters,” they observed. They blamed social media and COVID-19 as “culprits”.
They claimed that thru scouting, they can somehow fulfill their newest mission- to make their pupils and students (once again) to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, reverend, kind, honest, etcetera.
TEENAGE PREGNANCY
But what’s alarming of all is teenage pregnancy. In the Philippines, the previous school closures due to COVID-19 was among the serious factors that worsened this unwanted phenomenon, per the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP).
NCRP is the research arm of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
Other triggering factors of teenage pregnancy, according to NCRP sociologist Gloria Nelson, were dysfunctional families and the lack of access to sexual and reproductive health education.
In 2019 or prior to the pandemic, NCRP bared there were 2,411 girls aged 10 to 14 gave birth.
But Raizza P. Bello in her report published by www.asiapacific.unwomen.org, said an estimate of at least 102,000 Filipino adolescent gave birth during COVID-19.
Government officials and advocates, Bello added, attributed the spike in cases of teenage pregnancy to the lack of family planning services amid the community quarantines.
In NegOcc, the rise of teenage pregnancy cases was also lamentable. The youngest victim was a 10-year-old girl last year. Sad and bad.
TEENAGE SUICIDE
Also, study bared that both the rate of smartphone addiction and suicidality among teenagers in the Philippines have gone up during community lockdowns.
Likewise, reports from the National Public Radio (NPR) via www.npr.org disclosed that, around the world, nearly one in three teens seriously considering suicide last year.
Too, the University of the Philippine Population Institute (UPPI) in its October 2022 report stated that close to one in five Filipino youth aged 15-24 have had ever considered ending his/her life.
With 10,939 respondents in a survey, UPPI said it was able to identified two sets of mental health indicators – depressive symptoms and suicidal experience.
Verily, the facts and figures are quite sobering.
TALL CHALLENGE
Let’s be candid. Reformatting kids of today is a tall challenge. But thanks to DepEd and Boy Scout of the Philippines (BSP) for manning this mission.
Yes, not so easy. But let’s take a cue from Euraoba and Perez whose determination is superb aimed at recalibrating their pupils and students.
For both, discipline is just the key! Then, everything good follows, they added. Hope so!
Nonetheless, kudos to everyone who made the first ever (after pandemic) face-to-face province-wide Boy Scout jamboree a tremendous success.
Really, it’s one way to save our kids from “drowning” in the “naughtiness” of socmed and wrath of COVID-19 pandemic. /PN
