Parenting is an important part of a child’s development and if they are not involved, the repercussion can be detrimental to the life of the child.
Two students shared this during a panel discussion at the Pacific Human Rights Film Festival at USP for the film “Parenting in the Smart Age: Fijian Perspectives, while responding to Miss Hibiscus 2024 Melania Tora’s question on what mistakes parents make when monitoring their children’s online presence.
USP Politics and International Relations student Nicole Matavesi says “strict parents create sneaky children” is a quote she sort of agrees with to an extent.
Matavesi says while she understands that it is a parents’ job to keep their child safe, she believes her mother crossed that line.
She says her mother had a policy in place where she would always read through her messages.
She says between the ages of 13 to 15 years, which is a very vital time in growing up, she couldn't tell her mother anything and she wasn't open with her.
Matavesi says she didn't have the relationship that she has with her now, and thinks that factored in greatly to her development as a young adult.
However, Matavesi thinks the way that they go about it, which her mother fully agrees with now, it's the policing.
Matavesi says because of that she didn't really want to show her mother who she was as a person, and turned to social media.
Suva Grammar School Year 12 student, Matilda Simpson says one mistake is when parents are too lenient with their children, who have a whole different reality on their phone, than reality itself.
She says she might have been inadvertently exposed to some things she wasn’t supposed to.
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