Exotatic

     When I was in class, giving a reading session to the students, one of the students asked me what the word 'exotatic' meant. I was baffled. I had never in my life come across such a word. I even asked him to spell the word so that I could Google it. When he spelled it, I put two and two together and figured he was referring to this one song called Timeless by The Weeknd. The lyrics are a bit inappropriate for a 16-year-old, as you see below...

If I was you, I would cut up my wrist (dumb bit')
XO tatted all over her body, oh (yeah)

    As you can tell, it is not very age-appropriate for an eleventh grader to be listening to. So, I gave him a glare and told him not to listen to those kinds of songs yet. But then I realised that not only 16-year-olds are exposed to adult content like this. A boy who is probably 11 years old, who goes to my gym, was sharing his list of anime that he watches and he stated that he is excited to watch new episodes from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen, which is widely popular due to its gore, violence, nudity and other age-restricted content that children of his age should NOT be exposed to. At that point, I realised that parents are letting their children view inappropriate content not because they are letting their children have their way, but because they do not understand that the content they are viewing is inappropriate for their age.

    If parents took the time to view what their children are exposed to on the internet, they would definitely seize their devices and give them books to read. But, again, not all danger lies on the internet alone. I saw a girl who was in possession of a young adult book. She later asked for it back, saying that her brother bought it for her. So, kids, these days can be led into adult content if adults turn a blind eye to it. It has become way easier for children to be exposed to inappropriate content.
    
    As responsible parents and teachers, we need to stay aware of what students and children are consuming in the mass media, as everything on the internet is a bit vile and graphic. If we let our children become familiar with such explicit content, they risk the chance of becoming desensitized to real-life threats and accidents. Our job is to build a future where the children grow up to be better than us. So, I hope someone somewhere learns about this idea and brings this rising threat to a wider audience and spreads awareness about it.