THESE days, news media are flooded with people and civil society organizations petitioning about the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility; some social media users are bashing whoever is behind this proposed policy. Meanwhile, Mindanaoans are moaning for change to come, wanting their people to see change soon for the Bangsamoro.
Activities around the globe question disinformation in social media; media illiterates reporting all types of information disorder. These are a few of the many issues surrounding us each day online and offline. But, have we asked ourselves of what have we done and have not done yet? I myself have my own lessons learned and wanting these to be shared.
Recently, I was invited to talk about factors affecting our youth today that led them towards violent extremism. Researches around the globe coincide with my own theories and I have made my own concepts about how these factors have made our youth as the most vulnerable sector of our society. Let me concentrate on one factor in this article. This is the broadest of them all — lack of vision and guidance.
As I emphasize on this factor, my arguments are inspired and supported by my own research findings when I conducted my study along with my speaking engagements in Youth leadership camps and summits in my province. Some may only apply to my fellow Meranaws. This “lack of vision and guidance” as a major factor leading the youth through violent acts may be debatable and less of a concern to some. But hear me out. This is what I found.
Our children of today are called the digital natives. For them to survive, they need hardware and software. However, we parents, guardians and teachers forgot to provide them with the most important need—Moralware. We have provided our children with gadgets but have forgotten to guide them in using these devices.
Our children of today need to be guided more than ever. They are so open to different temptations and violent contents that morality became so cloudy and vague. Parents, as the first teachers of our children need to guide and provide clear visions before they are given any form of device that can allow them to surf beyond what they know. To my Muslim brothers and sisters, “Taqwa” (cognizant of Allah and truth) as we know it should be the basic moral information that we need to make our children understand, no matter how young. By starting with this, you have equipped them with the basic knowledge that Allah is everywhere and that they can be seen, heard and felt in everything they do, even surfing the internet.
In introducing moral values to our children, we cannot underestimate what our children can comprehend. We need to talk it out. All we need is time to explain to them how important is gearing up before getting into the battle of temptation that digital/media world is offering us today. Hence, communication in the family is among the most important moral gear that need to be developed from home so that they can be braver in the outside and online worlds.
In my study, children in homes were always seen at fault by parents due to their cellphones (which were bought by parents). They are found glued on their phones either because of texting friends, listening to music, surfing the net, chatting on Facebook or more. The parents are yearning for their children’s attention that is grabbed by illiteracy of using media gadgets. This pathetic situation is again because of lack of built-in moralware that I am emphasizing in this article.
We need media and information today, I agree; but moral guidance and proper vision injected from homes and schools are highly needed too. Parents themselves should be media and information literate themselves in order to provide proper moral values. They themselves should have this kind of literacy in order to do proper parenting and guidance for this digital natives. With this literacy, we need not to be afraid of violence encroaching our children’s mind. They can even be better citizens of this society.
As a final point, therefore, we, the parents, guardians and teachers have to work hand in hand in order to counter the factors that can lead our children towards violence. Let us be mindful of our own intentions, truth and rational reality. We can be the change we want this world to have. Start knowing the moralware needed to counter violence in our society.