Chennai: ‘Ayyo.. Anna vitrunga na…dhayavusenji vitrunga na…. evlo kaasu vena tharen na vitrunga na…Amma vandhuru maaa,’ cries and pleads a helpless boy; however, the ‘kidnappers’ show no mercy and take the child away.
What is worse is that people around him are laughing at the plight of the child. At a time when there are several reports about children being abused, this scenario is the content of a recent video in which the boy is ‘conned’ into thinking he is being kidnapped by people known to him.
The video, that went viral, and the response it has received has raised many eyebrows.
Speaking to News Today, Aishwarya, a psychologist, said though those taking the video knew they were actually playing, the boy’s pain and suffering were real.
“It is not funny at all. The pain in the child’s eyes, the fear he had – if carefully listened to – every word uttered by the child will make you realise the child really thinks he is kidnapped and is in danger. What is all the more saddening is how could someone laugh at it? How is the pain of a child funny? How are the cries of a boy laughter material? I still shiver thinking of the way the boy pleads and the guys laugh seeing his misery and helplessness,” Aishwarya said.
She further said the recent trend of filming children crying or being threatened and considering it meme material definitely seems like the beginning of something very heartless.
“It is not just physical abuses that affect a child, emotional abuses like these are in no way less. People do not seem to understand the trauma the child will be going through all this while and also the fears the child is going to have in future,” she said.
She said people should stop making memes with such materials as it is not right to make fun of a child’s pain.
“If it is a staged video, those people should be ashamed of making a child go through all this just for content and reach. Craze for reach and sadistic pleasures are a matter for concern that’s been ignored and which should be addressed at the earliest,” she added.
Srikanth, a social activist, said people should refrain from using children for their gains on social media.
“One can only imagine the plight of the boy and how much worried he would have been during those moments. After seeing the reach this video has got, people will try to do similar videos which is not a healthy trend at all. When other kids see such clippings, they might not react even if someone really tries to kidnap them. The video should be immediately brought down and stringent rules implemented to prevent posting of photos and videos of children’s sufferings on social media,” he said.