BOSTON — After several terrifying incidents across the country beginning this year, local experts are warning you and your children of uncensored, graphic content on your phones.
14 people were killed on Bourbon Street in New Orleans New Year’s morning after a terrorist attack.
That same day, a cyber truck exploded in front of the Trump Tower in Las Vegas, killing the driver and injuring many nearby.
At home in Massachusetts, a woman was violently thrown to the ground in Attleboro Friday after a road rage incident.
David Richard, CEO of Big Fish PR and professor at Emerson College, is an expert in the social media field.
“It’s impossible for any group of humans to monitor this,” he told Boston 25 Saturday. “They’re looking to get the most trending viewing video out there to as many eyeballs as possible... This content slips through the cracks and kids do get exposed to it.”
He continued, “Kids want to know what we’re not telling them … They’re going to dig harder and deeper than others to find this information.”
Richard said especially for children, some of the most innocent searches can lead to uncensored pictures and videos of these tragic incidents.
He explained, “Whether it’s jazz or the New Orleans Saints, they would do a search for this on the internet and they would find it. That’s the problem.”
Like Richard, Dr. Ellen Braaten, a child psychologist at Mass General Hospital, urged all parents to monitor their children’s phone usage, explore parental setting on social media apps, and have open and honest conversations about what they consume.
“This can make them quite anxious and quite fearful of the future,” she said referencing graphic images and videos. “What they learn when they look at these is that the world is unstable. Therefore, they feel unstable.”
Braaten urged all parents to reach out to a medical professional if they notice behavioral changes in their children because of content online.
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