Our children’s online lives can seem like a mystery. Particularly, if they engage in games, they could sit — headphones behind closed doors — for hours at a time, so you’ll wonder who they’re interacting with and what those conversations are like. If so, a popular player has advice for parents – you should listen to them.
David Marchese recently spoke with Tyler Blevins — better known as “Ninja,” a popular video game streamer for teens and young adults. New York News. Blevins says he often comes across children who say racist things or who are aggressive and threatening to women while broadcasting.
It would be great, says Blevins, if you could somehow track the parents of these children to let them know what kind of bad or inappropriate language their teens or teens use online, but that’s not possible, which means that parents need to be vigilant. about what they are own says a child. As Blevins says:
It all comes down to parenting. Want to know who your child is? Listen to him when he plays video games when he thinks you are not. Here’s another thing: How can a white child know he has a white privilege if his parents never teach him or talk about racism? If they play and their first interaction with racism is one of their friends who says the word N and they have no idea what it is, what if I was aware of it? Is it my job to hold this conversation with this child? No, because the first thing that comes to my mind is that this guy does it on purpose to make me a troll.
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This is the problem inherent with the arguments of “letting children be children” and “talking about racism and sexism only divides us more.” If we, as parents, don’t talk about these issues with our children, society (particularly their peers) will be waiting to do it for us. They can learn and use words they have never heard before offensively without realizing how offensive they are, and they may not think to ask what a word or phrase means before they start adopting it in their own language. vernacular. , hurting or offending others along the way. Not to mention they might say things they could drive they being denounced.
I’m not normally one of those who advocate investigating a child’s privacy (unless there’s a compelling safety reason to do so), but Blevins ’suggestion to pay attention to your child’s play conversations it’s good. I don’t advise you to lift a chair and stick your ear to your bedroom door for an hour, but a brief listen from time to time as you walk around can give you an idea of how to communicate with friends in the online game. and if there are are some conversations you should have.
At the very least, it’s a good idea to check in from time to time to ask about gaming friends you’ve met online and what it’s been like to play with those friends. As long as you have interest and interest, it’s best to be open about these interactions, which can help pave the way for productive conversations.