I was visiting a friend at his home. His children were alternating between playing and scrolling through their smartphones. Suddenly, one of them came across a news story about a murder. To our shock—mine and his father’s—the boy shouted to his siblings: “Come on, let’s act out the crime! I’ll hold the knife and cut your neck, then stab you seven times just like we saw. Then you pretend to be dead. We need ketchup to make it real!” They laughed excitedly, and his brother even suggested they imitate the suicide of a young man who had hung himself with a rope. The horror of what we heard was indescribable.
This was not just shock—it was fear. What if our children actually attempt to imitate such crimes? What if, in a careless moment, a child grabs a real knife—not a toy—and stabs his brother, his sister, his mother, or anyone nearby? Our young ones do not yet grasp the deadly consequences of copying everything they see.
We all know that social media platforms—especially YouTube and similar sites—broadcast crimerelated content produced by so-called “crime hunters.” These videos, often with chilling detail, reenact violent crimes, show real images of victims’ bodies, and explain the methods of torture and murder. Do they not realize that children and teenagers are watching? That such content should never be available to them?
Many young people have already fallen victim to imitation. Their lives were cut short, their parents left devastated—all because of social media channels competing for views and subscribers by sensationalizing violence. Wake up! The next victim could be your son, your daughter, or someone close to you. And when tragedy strikes, regret will be useless.
The greatest blame lies with social media itself. Platforms should be held accountable for what they allow. Where are the information systems authorities? Why are they not redirecting their responsibilities to monitor and hold accountable anyone publishing crime footage and gruesome images of murdered victims? The tragedy is that some content creators go as far as explaining the crime, the weapon used, and the step-by-step method of killing. What has become of us? Fear God—we now dread leaving our children unattended, even for a moment.
And it does not stop at murder. There are also those who flaunt their reckless driving skills—racing cars and motorcycles, staging dangerous stunts that cost lives. Such content must be banned. We all know how impressionable teenagers are: once they see something risky, they rush to copy it. The same goes for so-called “magicians”—whose tricks are mere illusions, though our children fail to see that, swept away instead by excitement.
Every social media influencer and content creator must be held responsible for what they share. Families have lost loved ones simply because children imitated what they saw online. Influencers have turned into trainers of crime—teaching “the art of wrongdoing by the book.”
I leave it to you, esteemed readers, to share your own experiences with your children—or personal stories—on this matter, before we reflect together.
