I for one, never thought I’d live to see the day where terrorism becomes a trend. It has become a very common thing to see 15 and 16-year-old children making headlines all over the world. You would think that they are probably stories related to the “Bieber fever” or another One Direction crisis but unfortunately, they are outrageous stories about kids throwing away their innocence in order to join terrorist groups such as ISIS. People might strongly believe that banning social networks for children under the age of 16 is a dreadful idea which will lead them to rebel and do worse things. But what is worse than becoming a terrorist at such a young age? Everyone until a certain point in their lives must be directed into the right path until they are old enough to decide what is right and wrong. It’s no secret that social media has drastically shaped the lives of this generation and has given the youngsters a door to a new world where anything (and just about anything) is possible.
The youthful years- this is the era where children and teenagers go through drastic mental changes. With chaotic mental developments come obsessive fantasies about the world. These fantasies, when left hungry can drive those children towards unhealthy activities, to please their cravings for discovering what is going on around them and finding their identities.
This is where terroristic groups play their cards right. It is a known fact that terrorists are searching for fresh young minds; minds that are very easily manipulated and brainwashed, to enlarge their army of uneducated puppets worldwide.
The question that arises is, how are they reaching those teenagers? Simple - through social media. From the beginning, social media has been linked to the rise of terrorist groups like ISIS. What it does is that, it empowers those radicals to raise their prestigious status amongst other terror groups. They have been using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, creating several accounts on each network and use them to recruit mislead teenagers and children who are willing to do anything to get a position in the world and feel important, thinking they are changing our world for a better place. The amount of youngsters joining terrorist groups is becoming outrageous and uncontrollable and social media is not helping, instead it has devoted itself to be a medium in this terroristic war.
We are creators of the internet. We are the masterminds behind social media. It is about time to put an end to this intolerable trend and allow our little angels to grow the right way.
The writer is a media student at University of Sharjah.
The International Government Communication Forum IGCF),
held in Sharjah, is an annual forum that shares global best practices in fields of government communication
and aims to build a platform for better communication between governments and their citizens. This column
is a collaborative effort with Gulf News featuring work by UAE-based students as part of that initiative.
