Ghanaian musician Okyeame Kwame has opened up about how he tackles the challenges his children may face on social media, with pornography being a primary concern.
Okyeame explained, “Some of the problems that we foresaw was pornography. When my children become teenagers, we sit them down and talk about the dangers of some of the things they see online – the negative and positive effects of watching pornography.”
Rather than taking a punitive or moralistic approach, Okyeame Kwame emphasized the importance of education. “So it is not as though I am telling them that porn is bad, there is a God in Heaven that if you masturbate you will go to hell. Once the children grow up and realize that those things don’t matter, they will go and do it,” he stated. He believes it’s more effective to teach his children how pornography could personally impact their lives.
“So we let them understand the scientific reasons why it is important to shield yourself against those things. But I think that if you are open-minded and you are not judgmental and you are having free conversations with your children, they will come and tell you at least 50% of the things that they wish you knew, and the rest you will have to use parental threats to find out,” he added.
Okyeame also shared that his children are rewarded for engaging with educational websites and face consequences when they break the rules governing the use of their gadgets. His children, Sir Kwame Bota and Sante, who were present during the interview, discussed how their parents regulate their social media activity to protect them from potential abuse and other online dangers.
He further explained that he and his wife, Annica, established social media profiles and websites for their children from birth. As professionals with backgrounds in branding and marketing, they understood the importance of these platforms for their children’s future.
“Our children woke up to see us working on social media. When both of them were born, they saw us working at a communications company that built websites and managed social media pages of companies. Throughout their formative years, they are talking social media so we set up their social media platforms for them. Immediately our child is born, the child gets a web registered domain in their real names, they get all their social media platforms registered so that no one will take them and things like that,” he explained.
While the children were younger, the couple managed their accounts, and they continue to monitor their activity on these platforms.
Source:myjoyonline
