From Difficult Curriculums to Home Cameras: Did You Ask Your Children Before Filming Them: Do You Want People to See You Like This?

When a Child Cries Before the Camera: Have Our Children’s Tears Become a Way to Deliver Messages?

By: Rody Nabil

I completely understand that a parent may sometimes reach a point where they feel the difficulty of the curriculum or the pressure of studying needs to make its voice heard quickly, and that social media has become a widespread way to send messages and draw attention to any problem we see around us.

Yet I have paused long and hard over a completely different scene: a child crying while studying, feeling pressured, helpless, or exhausted, and at the very moment when they need an embrace and reassurance, we place a camera right in front of them!

And I ask here in all honesty: What do we want to convey through a child’s tears?

And must the price of getting our message across be a moment of weakness experienced by a child in front of everyone?!

Did We Ask the Child First?

Did we ask the child first: Do you agree to let me film you? Do you agree to let people see your tears? And do they even know where this photo or video might end up after it is posted?

What concerns me most is: How might the child feel when they grow up and find their photo—in which they were crying or complaining—published and shared?

Will they see it simply as a way their family used to express the difficulty of school? Or might they wish at that moment that such a moment had stayed between them and their family alone?

The Child Is Not the Message

I do not want to curtail any parent’s right to express their opinion, nor do I want to minimize any complaint concerning the curriculum, the volume of study, or student pressure.

On the contrary, I hope that all feedback reaches its destination clearly and receives the attention and discussion it deserves.

Yet is there truly a need for the child himself to be the message?

Do we not have a thousand and one ways to say: The curricula are difficult, the students are suffering, and we need to review, simplify, or reconsider certain matters?

Why do we not speak for ourselves as adults, and leave the child his right to keep his tears to himself?

Before Opening the Phone Camera

And I hope that, before we open the phone camera in a moment of crying, we pause for a few seconds and ask ourselves:

If this child before me were a child I did not know, would I accept having his photo published while he is in his weakest moments?

Protect the Child and Tell the Problem Instead of Them

The message may be stronger when we protect the child and tell the problem on their behalf, rather than making them the spectacle.

Childhood is not social media content, and a child’s tears are not a way to prove that a problem is real.

Let us demand our children’s rights, raise our questions, and convey their struggles, but let us always keep a safe space for them that the camera cannot reach.

By: Rody Nabil

Published by Hany Sallam

Hany Sallam, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Scientific Magazine Ahram
An independent Arabic science magazine operating since 2008, dedicated to simplifying science, technology, space, natural phenomena and scientific stories for Arabic readers. The magazine includes sections such as “Zodiac Group” and “Stories and Tales”, alongside science topics that combine knowledge with a spirit of discovery. It operates independently and is not affiliated with Al-Ahram Press Foundation or any governmental body.