When is a child ready for social media exposure?

There’s a child barely out of her diapers that has thousands of followers on social media that could make even the keenest of adult users green with envy. Children today, it appears, are living in the connected era where the world is one big social network.

Last month, Tanzanian music superstar Diamond Platnumz welcomed his first child with Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan. The power couple has a huge online presence that commands thousands of followers.

Hardly two days after their baby girl, Latiffa Dangote, was born, the proud parents opened an Instagram account for the tot, which quickly amassed over 6,000 followers. Today, the baby’s @princess_tiffah account has attracted more than 117,000 followers even though she clearly has no idea about social media.     

Days later, her mother announced that their daughter had landed a deal with Baby Shop in Tanzania as a brand ambassador for a one-year contract worth Sh48,000.

The trend of opening social media accounts for babies is gradually gaining ground, becoming part of the celebrity culture. The accounts are usually updated by the parents until the children grow old enough to take charge.

And Kenyans have not been left behind. DJ Crème de la crème, one of the top local deejays, perhaps leads the pack with his two-year-old son being popular on Instagram.

QUITE THE ATTRACTION

The proud father of two has almost 65,000 followers in his own account while his baby boy Jamari, who goes by the handle @jamarijamjam, has 7,310 followers.

Lyric Onyango might not be a popular name but on Instagram, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy, who is radio presenter Talia Oyando’s son, is quite the attraction. Little Lyric, whose account is @lyriconyi, has 1,796 followers.

And just recently, reggae artiste Nazizi Hirji’s son joined the bandwagon.

“I thought it would be a good way for him to know his fans because he sometimes performs with me on stage. And whenever he does, there are always a lot of likes and comments from fans on social media. Later on, after the shows, he is able to see what people are saying,” she says.

She says her son Tafari, 5, is following in her footsteps. She does not think it is too early for him to have a social media account. Currently, @tafari_firoz has at least 216 Instagram followers. 

“My page is so busy right now and I don’t share a lot of his moments on mine. But I don’t want things to pass him by,” says Nazizi, whose account has at least 35,000 followers.

So when will he be old enough to take charge of his own Instagram account?

“When he is 12, I will probably let him take control of it. But he’s still got a couple of years to go. I will have to limit the privilege though and find out what he does and what he is up to,” she says.

By the time he is 12, Nazizi thinks Tafari will have released his first song, a little earlier than her achievement with the song Mama, which she released when she was 16. 

Further, the musician says opening a social media account builds trust and openness between a parent and a child. For her, it is about letting Tafari know that she is her mother but also her friend.

“It will open lines of communication for him to share everything with me, even things that kids don’t think they can talk to their parents about,” says Nazizi.

However, experts warn that people should not join the bandwagon blindly, arguing that it may not be appropriate to expose children to the social world. 

This begs the question, when should a child be allowed to take control of a social media account?

Child psychologist Philomena Ndambuki reckons that early adolescence — between ages 10 and 15 — should be a good time to allow a little more access to the accounts. But it will be hard to control “today’s teenagers” from the age of 16.

Still, she suggests that children should be allowed minimal use of social media. 

“Responsibility is moving towards machines, but the best teacher is a parent,” she says.

Dr Theresa Mwoma Ocharo of Kenyatta University’s department of Early Childhood Studies sees nothing wrong with young children having social media accounts. But she wonders what information such a child gains. Her main worry is that as children grow older, they could be exposed to unscrupulous people on such platforms. 

“Children could easily form a bond and be misled by dangerous people, or convinced to give sensitive information about the family which could turn out to be a security issue,” she says.

But even among those parents who do not open social media accounts for their children, some opt to share photographs and other details about the little ones on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Dr Ocharo says there is no problem with this. But is there such a thing as oversharing?

“Oversharing might be ‘undersharing’ to someone else... it is relative. Ideally, that should be defined by the person who posts the photos,” she says.