CHERO’S TAKE: Why viral bullying video is not shocking

In less than two months, two teens have made it to the top trends for all the wrong reasons. 

One was a teen whose manager deemed it fit to share her Google history on social media for his own defence.

The other is a boy who was obviously agitated by one of his classmates calling him gay or rather spreading rumours about him. 

I am not here to express my shock.

I am however concerned that we, the grown-ups would be fist to rake the teens over the coals, to the extent of turning it into cyberbullying. And oh yeah, we have fun while at it. 

I've seen parents, brothers and sisters express shock about the words that boy was using in that video.

NOT SHOCKED

I am not shocked myself because a replica of the profanity is happening all over. Only that it is not documented. 

Our kids are angels when they are in our presence and mini-devils when we are away. That is a fact I also don't want to accept. 

Kids as young as nine are having sex more than their parents do. They are watching horror movies. They are watching pornographic sites that some parents know nothing about.

They are in WhatsApp groups where nude pictures are shared and coded language is used for communication. They are chatting with sugar mummies and sugar daddies. Our kids are playing internet games we can’t monitor. 

They are doing all these things and guess who has facilitated them? You guessed right. We do.

All a teenager needs to be "spoilt" today  is a phone and Wi-Fi at home. After all, Mummy and Daddy will be late at work and when they come, they too will spend all the time chatting with their friends on phone. 

Gone are the days when a child would clam up because parents are talking about sex. Now, they contribute to the subject and we laugh, or take a video of them and post online with the caption, "My Spoilt kid" or "growing up manenos". It's not funny. 

Parents are taking pictures of kids twerking and bending over, and their fellow parents share and share them. 

Parents are fighting at home using the same language in that viral video

My take is that we need to start with the man in the mirror. We need to change our ways and go to back to the old-fashioned parenting if we want to save our children.

We need the old-time parenting where all parents in the estate were a parent to any child in the estate. Today's parent is the type that does not want his or her child corrected by someone else. 

We need to send our children back to Sunday School and Holiday Bible Studies. 

We need to examine our children's bags and rooms with a fine tooth comb and put aside our phones for a moment and observe their characters. 

Above all, we need to let our kids know that "No" is a complete sentence. 

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Chero's Take is a weekly opinion column by Stella Cherono, who tackles social issues boldly. To comment on this article, Email [email protected]