How a game can derail
Dangerous challenges and violent series penetrate through Tiktok and other social media to the schoolyard. How do you deal with that as a school? “Normalizing violence is the biggest risk.”
Picture: Type tank
It was the late eighties and there was a videotape going around my high school titled face of death with the challenge: how long do you dare to look? The horror images, ranging from animal slaughter to traffic accidents, were filmed in such a way that they seemed real. Fear mongering is of all times.
The big difference between the eighties and now is the speed with which the images spread. And the choice of whether or not to watch. After all, you first have to put a video tape in the recorder, while the images on your phone or tablet pass by unsolicited.
Bjorn Pels, master of groups 7 and 8 in Amsterdam: “When the children have finished their work, I sometimes allow them to play online games. I heard them while playing squid games yelling and thinking oh no, not again.”
Annemaria cuckoo
At the end of last year it was Squid Games - the Korean Netflix series with a Kijkwijzer recommendation of 16 years old - about a group of poor people who risk their lives with deadly children's games, a hit at the Amsterdam primary school. She saw the master playing Annemaria cuckoo during the break. Where you used to be off, the children were now lying on the floor for dead.
“We have sent an email to all parents to let them know that this is happening and that we as a school do not approve of it. The games are not as innocent as they seem. Now I know that a number of students at home regularly watch a horror film. That is why I explained to them that there are children who cannot stand scary images because they give them nightmares. And that it is difficult for some children to judge what is fake and what is real. Normalizing violence is, I think, the biggest risk.”
Aggressive
Psychologist Mirjam de Nijs: “In my practice I regularly hear from teachers that children exhibit aggressive behavior in the schoolyard. They copy the violent images they have seen, making the games harder. This is not caused by images that they watch once, as scientific research has also shown, often they have seen the entire series.”
Everything passes. Also images that do not match the age or development phase
“Characteristic of the online world is that there is no educator present who is watching,” says Klaartje Schüngel, media literacy specialist. “Everything will pass. Also images that do not match the age or developmental stage.” According to Schüngel, it is important that parents guide online behavior, with time limits and privacy settings, but also by discovering the online world together. “Look together what is nice and what is not, so that a child dares to come to you sooner if it is startled by something scary or has got into trouble with a post or challenge.”
Handhold
"Watch what you watch or do online, because you can't undo it," is the common warning. De Nijs regularly encounters this inverted world of turning back in her practice. She sees an increase in registrations of young children with sleeping problems and fears, especially around Halloween. The period when images from horror films like The Nun en Chucky popping up unsolicited, especially on Youtube and Tiktok.
“It is not the case that all children need therapy, because often they can process the images themselves. EMDR is only a good treatment method for children who are more sensitive, who become afraid of the dark or get nightmares about it, and where the long-term complaints threaten to turn into an anxiety disorder. Then we ask them to think back to the image that frightens them the most and then we attenuate the fearful feelings by simultaneously beeping or tapping the hands. The idea behind this is that the negative emotional charge, the fear, weakens in the image. Often one to three sessions is enough.”
Children today have to say 'no' much more often than we used to
“If I've just discussed one hype, another pops up,” says Dymphy Weerstand, teacher of group 8 in Drachten. “Had we just finished the dangerous tiktok challenge around New Year's Eve in which burning fireworks were kicked out, the program came Boos about abuses at The Voice past. Five students had seen the episode, so a class discussion followed about what constitutes sexual abuse and what to do if something like this happens to you."
The speed of online trends, especially on Tiktok, demands more leadership from the children, according to Resistance. “Children today have to say 'no' much more often than we used to. That's why we use at school from kindergarten The Seven Habits of Effective Leadership by Stephen Covey. In case of Squid Games and the fireworks challenge, I talked to the kids about Covey's first quality: be proactive, so choose not to watch or not to do something.”
“It's very good that teachers immediately use the teaching method for these kinds of subjects,” says Schüngel. “Especially with a theme like The Voice may feel unsafe to talk about it. Schools have programs about sexuality that are used, for example, in the Week of Spring Fever. I'd say draw those lessons from the drawer. That gives you something to hold on to. Another guideline can the youth news to be. They deal with current topics, including the difficult ones such as sexually transgressive behaviour, and translate these into the perception of the children. A news item can be a great start to a group conversation.”
monkey rock
“A safe and relaxed atmosphere is the key to the success or failure of such a group discussion,” says psychologist De Nijs. “Make sure that all children dare to say something. Start talking in small groups if you know that some students will act tough and others will clap. Ask what they think. As with the images of Squid Games, Chucky of The Nun† what is exciting, what is not, when is something clearly fake and when is it better not to look? When I ask about it in my practice, it often turns out that children do not immediately click away the pop-ups. Curiosity then wins out over fear.”
Teacher Pels: “The monkey rock is quite present in my class, with a number of students on top who say that they can handle anything and are not afraid of anyone. Recently one of the guys came to me with a tiktok video of someone throwing something burning off the balcony that had to be kicked out in three seconds. Then you just hope they don't do that themselves and you try to explain to them why that's not a good idea."
De Nijs emphasizes that good contact between parents and teachers can be important in this regard. “Suppose a teacher catches something and the parents don't know about it, then they can't make adjustments. It is impossible to completely prevent children from seeing exciting images or doing dangerous challenges. But keep talking about it as much as possible. Also in the classroom.”
Tiktok is growing fast
The number of users of Tiktok in our country has increased enormously in the past year, especially in the age group 9 to 19 years. In 2021 there were 836 thousand users per day, an increase of 200 percent compared to the previous year. Of all users worldwide - about 1 billion per month - research shows that more than one in five young people have ever participated in a challenge on Tiktok, one in fifty in a risky and dangerous challenge and one in three hundred in a very dangerous.
This article is from the March Education Magazine. Do you want to stay informed of everything that is going on in education? Join the AOb and receive the Education magazine every month.
