Still on the Chrisland sex scandal: Is there a mental health crisis among our kids?

By Lillian Okenwa

Easy access to online pornography and the potential harm of consistent exposure raise concerns about children’s health and well-being, said an American Bar Association (ABA) newsletter. Then forensic paediatrician and faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Dr. Sharon Cooper, added that “imagery definitely affects children.” She maintains that pornography normalizes sexual harm by portraying a lack of emotional relationship between consensual partners, unprotected sexual contact, and, in some instances, violence and rape.

Founder of Internet Safety Magazine, Rotimi Onadipe insists that social media addiction is a psychological condition that makes a user spend so much time on social media to the extent that it affects other aspects of his/her life. He notes that it is as serious as other common behavioural addictions people often seek therapy to address.

The story of the Chrisland School sex scandal is one which will be told and retold in time to come but let’s pause for a moment and reflect on the thoughts shared by veteran journalist Azubuike Ishiekwene and Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Professor of African and Comparative/International Politics at Ithaca College, New York.

Ishiekwene in a recent article: Chrisland’s Dubai Five And Our Digital Footprints, said:  “It’s simply an invitation to be a little less sanctimonious, a call to put aside the heart-breaking foolishness of the Dubai Five, and to reflect for a moment, on what might have been only, say, 40 years ago. If our parents had the benefit of smartphones to scrutinise and monitor us at school and play, would they have seen something dramatically different in our secret lives from what we see in the Dubai Five today?”

And for Peyi Soyinka-Airewele: “It is just heartbreaking that these kids are literally babies floundering in a world that has commodified their sexuality in ways that are so pervasive it is virtually impossible for parents or institutions to grasp the enormity of the crisis and the sense of impossibility of resistance.

“There is the present pressure to focus on misconduct and inappropriate behaviour only. But we do our kids a disservice if we ignore the political economies of sexualisation that glamorize and monetize children’s (girls and boys) bodies and reach out on channels that have swept through schools in Nigeria as well as elsewhere in the world – and tragically, most parents and children’s advocates are not even aware of them.

“The trend is growing like a virus and kids as young as eight have been recruited by peers in school, and elsewhere, groomed, and are able to participate in these spaces, a world where mom and dad and teachers do not belong. Yet they lack the ability to grasp that they are again bodies in a market controlled by others.

“But the outcomes are devastating. In the US, the national survey repeated every decade on incoming college students had an astronomical hike of almost 20% from the previous decade on clinical depression among students coming in from high school. Another national student survey indicated that 82% said they were dealing with anxiety; 68% with social isolation and loneliness; 63% with depression, and so on. And a terrifying one in five (19%) of students surveyed said they had contemplated suicide.

“I chair the human rights commission in this county (Tompkins County Human Rights Commission) and over the past two months have spoken in several schools- elementary, middle, and high. I believe there will be an implosion if we don’t act. But we are struggling with how to act. Let’s be candid, it’s not an easy battle.

“In one school at which we gave four workshops, there is a decompression room where young children can run to let outrage, pain, and depression. It’s just a regular school, not a special needs school. The crisis is beyond belief. A student told me she lets out the pain of rape endured at a children’s camp through isolation from her body. She sleeps with anyone, across gender constructs, at any time, in a futile effort to displace or retract the significance of the horror she endured. She is one of the most beautiful caring young person I know. Her PTSD was untreated.

“Another student is asking for arbitration of coercive sex against a partner. I’m not sure what the ruling will be. She repeatedly gave in to his emotional coercion because she feels unloved and sex is how she, as a black girl, in a white fantasy world, is trying to cope. Her parents worry that she will go through the proceedings only to feel more guilt about being a ‘willing’ victim.

“I am quite sure Nigeria is seeing a similar spike among our young folks, but we do not have great national stats on the mental health crisis among our kids. We are literally sitting on a powder keg. We accept and embrace our insidious capitalist empires but cannot see how they trade in a malignant logic of being, of tradable value that is so overwhelming, it literally takes both adults and children captive.

“The tragedy is that the ugly social media spectacle and sharing of those videos is not the first point of theft from the kids. The children were already losing their right to have a joyful childhood of bonding, creativity, social affirmation from peers, of confidence in themselves, understanding how their bodies work, how to make choices that strengthen and protect them, how to understand the dangers of being filmed, of trust in adults, of self-esteem, privacy in intimacy, of understanding there could be a world in which ‘likes’ are not about predators enjoying watching a 10-year-old having sex with another kid, etc.

“Small steps – Can we appeal, insist, demand, that the government repeatedly issue statements on radio, TV, social, and all news media reminding adults and youth that child porn is a crime and anyone found sharing it on their websites or via social media would be punished to the fullest extent of the law? Aargh!!”

Nonetheless, one cannot help but ask again, who did this great evil to the Chrisland girl? Who introduced her to it? Devastating gender-based violence (GBV) was meted out on that girl at the age only the abuser and the ‘god’ he or she calls upon know. What is now evident is the aftermath of an abused mind and body at work and someone is responsible. Something violent happened to that girl at a very delicate age and someone close to her is responsible. Who is that person? How many other kids have fallen prey to this predator? Beyond looking at the symptoms which everyone is outraged about, it’s important to find out what really happened to that girl and who did it. A predator might be on the loose and we’re busy tearing down his or her creation. That girl needs deep and urgent help but the person who introduced and did this to her must be brought to book.