Warn your kid about online hate speech
The Internet and social media platforms have made it easy to access information. But they are also channels for expressions of hate. And unfortunately, young people and under-age web users are common targets of racial supremacist, anti-immigrant, misogynistic, religiously intolerant, politically questionable, and homophobic messaging. Teens are particularly soft targets because they want a sense of identity and belonging. As an adult and a parent, you can help kids recognize hate speech, talk about ways to protect themselves, and develop a liberal point of view.
Why are teens and young adults targeted by online hate speeches?
Here are some important things to know about online hate speech:
- In India, it’s a crime to advocate genocide, incite hatred and wilfully promote hatred against any group based on ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. Kids are led to believe that nothing will happen to them if they do these things because their role models are safe. They forget that they neither as powerful nor criminally minded as these people who seem to be above the law
- Youth, especially young boys, are more susceptible to getting recruited by hate groups and pushed into committing hate crimes
- Young people may be looking for causes to get a sense of identity and purpose. Recruiters for hate groups take advantage of this and brainwash kids
- Political groups manipulate young people to become vendors of hate messages and perpetrators of hate crimes, and disappear when the teen is caught or prosecuted by law, face opposition on the web or real, physical danger
What are some common themes of in online hate speech?
The authors of online hate often use these approaches or tactics:
The “other:” a group is portrayed as being negatively different from the author’s group
e.g., people of one religion are more villainous than the author’s religion
The “glorious past:” the idea that the author’s group had a glorious past, threatened and destroyed by the ‘others’
“Victimhood:” hate groups portray themselves as victims at the hands of the “other.”
How can you protect kids from online hate?
To begin with, teach them empathy. If someone else is the ‘other’, the same applies to them for the opposite perspective. Make your kids aware of the legal results of being marked as a hate vendor. Tell them how it has taken young lives and cost careers. Also tune in your kids to news from mainstream media so they are less prone to believing fake hate-based stories.