The Sunday News
Thandekile Moyo
VIDEOS of groups of high school girls singing extremely vulgar and highly sexualised songs went viral on social media last week and left us divided over to what extent the children’s behaviour was unacceptable. Many people said the girls should be expelled from school and called them bad apples and all sorts of names. The school then issued a Press statement distancing themselves from the incident. They claimed it was an isolated incident and was not a reflection of the behaviour and mentality of the entire school.
I was of the opinion that embarrassing as the whole incident was, the kids were just being kids. I remember the songs we used to sing in high school. Vulgar songs I could never sing now as an adult. We used to sing these songs to cheer our different sporting teams and also as “war cries” before various games. I am of the impression that wrong as it may be, for decades, it has been the norm for high school children to sing vulgar songs. If we all committed this crime growing up, who are we to then judge these children harshly?
Someone asked me if I was saying we should therefore ignore the incident and let the children get away with it. Definitely not! In our era, we would sing these songs and our teachers would turn a blind eye. This was because we would contain the songs to a particular setting (sports) and not take them out of that setting. It was unheard of to hear anyone singing those songs at assembly, in the classroom or even at home in front of our parents. This meant that these openly vulgar moments of ours were somehow private or rather an “open secret”.
Unfortunately, times have changed. Technology has evolved. We are now living in the digital era, where everything we do can be recorded, with or without our permission; and distributed, with or without our permission! The environment has changed, and with it, so must our behaviour.
In dealing with these children, we need to ask ourselves what crime they committed. Was the crime the content of the songs or was it recording the act or was it distribution of the recording. Let us talk about the content. Where do children learn those songs? They learn them from their parents. At soccer matches countrywide you find mothers and fathers heartily belting out vulgar songs like the ones those children were singing. So in addressing this issue we have to decide as a nation whether or not singing vulgar songs is all fun and games and part of life; or it is “uncultural” and therefore unacceptable.
The second issue is that of recording themselves. It was clear from the videos that these girls consented to being recorded as they were clearly singing “to” the camera. Again I ask, where are our children learning to record themselves? From us, their parents. For decades now, we have been recording as much of everything we do as we can. I remember back in 2000, my friends had a camcorder and would take videos at our parties and some of our social gatherings. Fast-forward to 2018 and “everyone” has a smartphone and everyone records everything that happens. At accident scenes people no longer use their phones to call for help, no, we all scramble to get the best pictures of the dead and the most injured. When people fight we no longer intervene, we just stand aside and press record. We take videos of everything we do, parties, funerals, meetings . . . everything! Is it shocking then that these children recorded themselves? In addressing this issue, we need to decide as a nation, whether or not recording ourselves is all fun and games and part of life; or is it “uncultural” and therefore unacceptable!
Finally, there is the issue of distribution. When we have sung our vulgar songs and recorded ourselves should we distribute the videos. If we decide not to, how do we prevent others from distributing them without our permission?
Only when we have agreed what the crime was, can we deal with issues like this efficiently. In this era of smartphones, it is not just teenagers that have found themselves in hot soup. We have adults who have taken nude pictures of themselves and “distributed” them even to just one trusted person, only for the pictures to find their way to social media through some form of “leak” or another. The Mirror newspaper ran a story about a Mvuma man who attempted suicide after a “sex tape” of his wife and another man went viral on social media. Like in most of the pornographic videos out there, only the face of the woman was showing and the man is still unidentified. This means that in whatever you do, know someone may be recording you.
This leads me to my conclusion that in all the issues I have mentioned, from the school kids to the adult dramas, the issue seems to be technology. We have found ourselves right in the middle of a technological era we have no idea how to control. With all the advantages that the Internet and smartphones have brought, we have just as many disadvantages. What we need to address is how to use these technologies responsibly.
I believe there was nothing wrong with the kids singing vulgar songs but they should not have recorded themselves.
Recording the video took the song out of its otherwise harmless context into several entirely different contexts where it was bound to be misconstrued. After making the mistake of recording, they should have curbed the desire to share the video with their “friends”. This is because once it leaves your domain, you have no control of where it will end up.
People need to realise that the moment one presses record, they are signing themselves up for possible fame. Many things can go wrong. People have had their phones stolen and had their private videos posted online. People have sent pictures to their lovers only for those lovers to distribute them once things become sour in what is now known as “revenge porn”. This is where someone distributes pornographic material of another in revenge for any wrongful treatment. What this means is that we just should not record anything we cannot afford to have go viral. Only if we are prepared to face those consequences should we take videos and pictures of ourselves.
What about cases where people record us clandestinely? This means that technology is now forcing people to “check” themselves. To be on our best behaviour or face the consequences. Where wives could cheat on their husbands and take the secret to their graves, technology has presented them with the danger of being recorded. There is a time we could get away with randomly gossiping about others or spreading malicious rumours knowing they could never be traced back to us. In this technological era people have to watch what they say for they can be recorded “anonymously”.
Instead of scapegoating those poor children, let us learn to use technology responsibly; so that our children can follow suit.
