Rules for Social Media and Metaverse for African Youth and Teens

The growth of the Metaverse and Web 3 has inspired and encouraged digital adaptations, pivots, transformations. Creating also cautions and potential dangers that influence the engagement and activities of youth, teens and young adults. There is real danger on Social Media and the Metaverse.

African parents are cautioned, encouraged to look at their children’s, teens and even young adults social platforms that are accessible by phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.

The reasons why should be common sense, a parent’s sense to protect family from the dangers of bullying, cyberbullying, stalking, pornography addiction, potential luring of children into human trafficking and other potentially dangerous activities that affect the mind, body, and spirituality of developing youth, teens, and young adults.

Parents should understand that there are real dangers in social media engagements, and the Metaverse is a representation of the world. There are good, bad, dangerous and deadly areas online even in immersive spaces. Cyberstalking, child pornography, illicit sexual activities and other activities are real in digital environments.

These articles from recent events just in the United States show the dangers of online activities of adults pretending to be youth and asking or seeking sex from youth and teens. Adults traveling across the nation, across communities and even internationally to engage in illegal sexual contact. These are real threats to African youth and teens and are happening globally.

8 Arrested for Soliciting Sex - https://tinyurl.com/2vy44nn9

Dozens Arrested Sex Sting - https://tinyurl.com/36ecxk6p

As a member of the World Metaverse Council and professional educator, Certified in Virtual Realty (Victory XR/Engage), STEAM+M Science Technology Engineering Arts Math Metaverse responsibilities of the parents are key and foundational. Schools do not teach the dangers because of liabilities, parents have a responsibility to do so. Parents must be active and engaged in guiding, mentoring and even exchanging social links and information. Parents should talk to their children about the blog posts they write, and the growth of being a content creator. Tweets they can post on Twitter about current events that inspire them.

African parents need to teach their children, guide their children and learn with their children. Peer pressure is real and even adults are exposed to it and give in to it with their adult friends.

2023, social media, Metaverse, Infiniverse, Multiverse and other Verses have taken the world by digital storm, and many young people subscribe to multiple social media accounts. Their conversations are in terms of how many “likes” someone received or how many “retweets,” how many reposts and shares there are. Unfortunately, many parents have been slow to address this influential part of their young people’s lives and do not set expectations, rules, guidelines, and punishments.

These guides are designed to help parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties, and other family members in our global collective. The World Metaverse Council hopes to provide guidance, strategies, and information to foster education. Groups like GatherVerse Africa as well are available to help and mentor African families. Both organizations will be providing trainings, workshop and webinars in the near future.

World Metaverse Council
https://wmetac.com/
GatherVerse
https://gatherverse.org/
 

One: Avoid Bragging
“Real Life” don’t brag on every achievement you earn. Use your social sites to share your achievements and successes to build on later in life for future opportunities in employment, education, scholarships, internships and entrepreneurial opportunities.

The bragging about what you’ve done, what you’ve eaten, trips you’ve taken gets old to those you engage with. If every one of your posts centers around you, then you probably have a problem with bragging. Make sure your posts are humble in spirit and celebrate others equally.

Two. Watch Out for Envy and Discontent
Everyone’s’ life is different, no one has the same experiences, backgrounds, exposure and reactions when experiencing the Metaverse. People normally don’t share the mundane or bad parts of their lives. This can result in people thinking you have the “perfect life.”

Truth be told it helps to share resources, information, and services that helped you overcome issues. Not to get to personal, but helping others is rewarding and has tremendous growth potential for your community.

Remember “Virtual Reality” (VR) can sometimes be unhealthy. It can cause you to start putting unrealistic expectations on yourself and friends. Don’t pressure yourself to change to satisfy other people or satisfy the world.

Three. Don’t allow Facebook/Twitter/Instagram to Stifle Your Faith
You need to set aside time for reflection and faith. “Be still and know that He is God…” (Psalm 46:10) is in the Christian faith. There are other faiths, and technology can take your eyes off your faith if your Christian, Muslim, or other followings. Social media uses up time, this is time that you could be spending time strengthening your relationship with God or Allah. In James 4:8 we read, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”

Four. Conduct yourself on social media and the Metaverse
Don’t do anything that you can’t do in front of your parents or your grandparents. Your social contacts are a representation of who you are and what you own. People say things on social sites they would never say in actual person. Be careful what you say about yourself and about others. Your reputation is valuable in the world, even the digital world.

Five. Don’t allow Facebook to blind you to false beauty
Everyone portrays themselves to look good on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. The Metaverse allows people to change every aspect of their persons. Be vigilant to who you are.

There can be a sense of false beauty that can make you think you are beautiful and may encourage you to believe beauty is found in the outward appearance. The heart of a person is more important than physical appearances.

Six. Be careful about what you allow into your mind
“A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” this is found in the saying of The United Negro College Fund
Empowering the mind and empowering the spirit is important. Projecting the mind with a solid foundation of learning, engagement and creativity are very important. Innovation and even dreaming are important elements to being human.

Seven. Be careful of what your eyes see even online.
One of the growing issues of the Internet is access to visual engagement. Pornography and Sexting are influential in the perceptions of youth and teens. There is a enormous about pornography and sexting that can create perceptions of inappropriate behaviors and actions that are not healthy for the mind, body and spirt.

It is important that people do not give out personal information to those you do not know. There are sites that steal data, and put up false perceptions of people. Sex and sexual innuendo are growing across the Internet.

Eight. Use social media to help those in need.
We all know the “Great Commission” to help others. Social media can provide the ability to take the saving message of Faith to places on this planet you could never physically go to. Do not take that responsibility lightly as a Christian, Muslim or Faith Leader.

View your social media accounts as tools to reach the lost and those who have questions about your faith. There are other religious followings that are using social media, the Metaverse and other digital platforms to share their views and ideologies. Using technology to spread the words of Christ can change peoples lives.

Nine. Be careful what you Idolize
Too many youth and teens idolize social media. There is a fine line between sharing content and creating content that idolizes themselves or others that create a perceptions of special treatments or expectations. There should be no idolatry either of idols, persons or items.

Putting your trust in idols, people or items creates the wrong perceptions. Never allow digital to distract a person from what is important. Family, friends, faith, truth, facts and freedom from distractions and the false narratives that keep people mentally in chains to the real world.

The manner of being #Woke means to be a learner, to embrace learning, to be aware of the value and importance of life, liberty and equality of all people. We are a global society and understanding the humanity of equal human rights is important and valuable.

William Jackson, M.Ed.
Certified VR & STEAM+M Educator
World Metaverse Council Member
GatherVerse / GatherVerse Africa Community
WordPress / WordCamp African Community
Spatial Gallery Metaverse Creator