“Raising” Kids on TikTok Isn’t Funny, Even If It’s a Production
TikTok is a diverse place full of cute dance moves, disturbing ” problems “, weird culinary tricks, and serious parenting advice . And in yet another weird corner of TikTok lives a video genre that we absolutely don’t need: the (often fake) practice of parents to publicly punish or shame their kids for views and likes.
Some of these so-called disciplinary techniques seem to be clearly rehearsed, if not completely bogus. Children often seem to know that they are being recorded and may not seem surprised when bedroom doors are removed from their hinges, a sofa is flipped over (while they are on it), or electronics are smashed to pieces with a hammer.
The popular TikToker @derek_hensley recently caught the attention of Wall Street Journal columnist Julie Jargon after being reported to the local child protection agency as a result of one of these videos. Jargon writes :
Mr Hensley said it was the kids’ idea to create a TikTok account. They told him that he was funny and that his videos could be good. But he said he had no intention of filming videos that would embarrass them. He said he was once fixing a door by removing it from its hinges when Cardi B’s song “WAP” came into his head. He began to sing his own version: “There are no doors in this house … We do not raise boys.” He decided that this could be the basis for the video.
The video, which he first posted on November 8, has received 5.7 million views.
Comments appeared, for example: “That’s all the upbringing is done correctly” and “True to dad! Well done.”
From there, Hensley threw a Christmas tree through the front door , poured a cup of water over one child’s head to wake them up to clean the room, threw a cell phone into a drink , threw one TV on the floor. an apparent “argument” between siblings and smashing another TV with a guitar (video that reportedly led to a call to CPS).
Likewise, Insider reported last year about a father who smashed his kids’ TVs and game controllers with a baseball bat, which he later said was a parody, and that he was getting rid of toys and electronics that were no longer used. (Why is it so fun to smash expensive electronics that can be sold or repaired?)
It is unclear how widespread the phenomenon of “watch me (pretend), discipline or shame my children in increasingly antagonistic ways” is. Here’s what TikTok told the Wall Street Journal about these types of videos:
“While we cannot begin to comment on the individual discipline choices parents make for their families, our TikTok policy focuses on our commitment to the safety of minors,” a TikTok spokeswoman said, explaining that in line with the app’s community guidelines , TikTok is removing content. depicting or promoting physical abuse or psychological humiliation of minors. “We have not seen a noticeable number of videos of parents or guardians punishing children and violating our community rules,” she said.
If parents do publicly punish their children with social media intimidation tactics, this is obviously terrible and should be stopped for the safety and well-being of the child.
But even if no child was hurt physically or emotionally during the creation of these videos, none of us need it. Aside from just not being funny – and teaching kids how to break things with baseball bats in exchange for being popular on the Internet – the game is sometimes good enough to fool another user into thinking they’ve just come up with the next greatest disciplinary tactic. One person’s “hilarious” parody is an inspiration for another from an unspoken permission to go and do the same.