Making a comic and publicity industry out of innocent children, a clear violation of child rights

Recently, social media has been flooded with comic scenes of children either in churches, at auditions for talent hunts, classrooms or homes. These scenes have often depicted a video recording of children either trying to sing, recite a pledge or bible quotation or making confessions in churches.

It is amazing how society ignorantly embrace these unfortunate videos and make them viral without thinking of the repercussions. It is equally sickening, the deafening silence the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection keeps on this stone-age phenomenon.

It is disheartening to see that a TV station or a church would like to take advantage of this illegality to market their programs.

Currently in circulation are some innocent kids trying to sing at an audition for contestants of the popular kid program on TV 3 -Talented Kids. Just before this was also a video recording of a 7-year-old boy in a church talking about how he feels about women. These videos and others have gone viral and the ordinary Ghanaian sees in them an opportunity for comic relief.

One cannot blame the public more since they may be oblivious of the fact that, such recordings involving children violates their rights and dignity. The institutions responsible for child rights and protection cannot escape this blame. Being aware of the Children's Act which was drafted in the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, one would expect them to at least remember to hold the tenets of one of the important pillars of the convention -"In the Best Interest of the Child".

However, these institutions have neglected or done very little in this regard and the generation and circulation of comic videos involving children without their ‘consent’ continuous unabated. Consent in quote because definitely they have not reached the age of consent per the constitution of the land.



First, these video recording above all things makes mockery of these kids and the effect it would have on them in their schools and community can never be underestimated. It also has the tendency of killing the CAN DO spirit in them since they would not dare to fail again so as to become objects of comic relief to society.

Let's not be deceived, other children would also take a cue from them and wouldn't dare to explore their talents, the resultant effect on a future population who would not take risk for fear of public humiliation is very obvious.

Elsewhere, it is not for nothing that, a whole audience begin to clap even when a kid mounts a podium and forgets her lines either in poetry recitals or songs. They do it to encourage the child and not make her feel bad since one incidence of humiliating a child can define her attitude as an adult. We have to raise similar consciousness in Ghana and let people know that Child Abuse is not only restricted to physical assault but any act that affects the dignity and emotions of the child. A media giant like TV 3 cannot deny knowledge of this fact.

Even though one may argue that the churches and the media houses may not have sanctioned the circulation, their commitment to upholding child rights and protection as a non-negotiable organizational policy would have averted what we are currently witnessing.

It is unprofessional to make a child pour her heart to you in an amplified microphone before a congregation. The dignity of the child must be held supreme by undertaking such exercise in-camera in an atmosphere that assures confidentiality.

It is not also uncommon to see children in churches paraded in the full glare of the camera confessing to witchcraft, an act meant to humiliate the child and project the god- of- men.

No Child would like to be treated as an object of mockery hence generating and circulating recordings that denigrate children is not only an uncivilised act but also illegal.

To ensure the respect and protection of child rights, the Child Protection Directorate of the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection must embark on public sensitization on the consequences of promoting acts that demoralize children for comic purposes. The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit must act swiftly to enforce the laws that protect children in this regard.

All media houses, schools and religious organizations that deal with children must be made to sign a child rights and protection code of conduct to respect the dignity and confidentiality of the child.

Currently, Ghana as a nation is battling with many developmental issues, the last thing we would want to do is to kill the CAN DO spirit of our kids. Let's try to uphold the rights and dignity of children.