Teen mental health crisis: Why social media isn't to blame

Many parents are concerned about their child's mental health. In recent weeks and months, social media giants such as Instagram and TikTok were under fire because their content allegedly caused "suicidal ideation", "body image issues", and other issues that otherwise would be linked to cyberbullying. Now, lawmakers are proposing a minimum age of 16 to have a social media account, which is an egregious violation of children's free speech and expression. The fact of the matter is that cyberbullying is the problem, and bullying of any kind in children comes from parent who are bullies. It is a sense of entitlement passed down from generation to generation.

Cyberbullying, like all bullying, comes from entitlement. The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, and cross-references the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, want, to the point of imposition. When this entitlement is directed towards children, we call it parental entitlement. Entitlement comes from a deserving attitude, where individuals feel that they deserve things in life. Parental entitlement is when this deserving attitude is imposed on children, leading to children feeling that they have the right to deserve things in life. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The entitlement the school principal may see in cyberbullies is the entitlement of their parents. Don't blame social media. Blame entitled parents for normalizing entitlement for their children.

What is the solution? Punitive parenting is an entitled way of parenting that insists on children being under the control of their parents at all times, thus normalizing controlling and entitled attitudes in children. Attachment parenting is the way of the ancients, and is the only way to bring up a child into a respectful, disciplined young adult. Attachment parenting is actually the most time-honored and time-tested way of bringing up a child. Attachment parenting, in the Bible, is based off of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. Children are to resr securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children just as they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to their children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, revering and fearing children as vulnerable extensions of God.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up this legal context in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing their children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

Christian attachment parenting is a specific form of attachment parenting where the parent draws from the attachment parenting context of the Early Church. Children, in biblical times, wore absolutely no clothing, at all, until they were adults. Women only wore clothing when outside the home, and otherwise went in the nude, in order to serve both their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely attachment parenting items such as breastfeeding and skin-on-skin closeness. Children, up until age 6, never left the side of mothers, ranging beside mothers when at home, sometimes clinging to her when crying or upset. When children were crying or upset, mothers held children to their bosom in skin-on-skin mammary closeness, reassuring children with the words "this too shall pass". When out and about, mothers wrapped up children close to thier bosom using swaddling blankets. By night, mothers co-slept next to their children in order to form a secure attachment with them, and also to protect them from predators of all kinds, including the sexual entitlement of their fathers. Fathers also formed a secure attachment with their children by way of witnessing skin-on-skin closeness between mother and child, and wanting in on the action by way of a sexual attachment to the child, imprinting on the child using masturbatory orgasm. This pro-social fantasy by a father about a child made for a close relationship between father and child, usually in a playful and silly type of way, where the father reels down to the level of the child. Fathers in biblical times were kind and encouraging, sometimes being encouraging to a fault. Mothers were the calm party in all of that that calmly and gently offered warmth, and saw the children with better clarity. 

Now, a bill is being proposed in the Senate to raise the age of accessing social media to age 16. This is all based on a correlation that many in the media and the general public are drawing, presumably in order to distance themselves from the moral crimes they are actively committing against their children that model bully behavior when online. There are literally parents today seeking revenge from their children, and then we wonder where these cyberbullies come from? Restricting children's access to social media any more than it is, is a violation of a child's right to freedom of speech and expression, which are fundamental civil rights for all Americans, with children being the most marginalized and oppressed among American minorities. 

It is proven scientific fact that when children have a secure attachment to their parents, they have better attachments to other people. When you sever the tie between parent and child through punishment or violence, you sever their ability to make meaningful friendships. This doesn't mean necessarily that their friendships are non-existent. It just means that their friendships are adversarial, in a way that is allegorical to their attachment to their parents. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!