by Jason Cross
(Jamaica Observer) – Famous local entertainers have skirted around accepting responsibility for the negative impact that their sometimes profanity-laced music has on children, but several youths from primary and high schools across Jamaica say they can’t help but notice the destructive effect it has on young minds.
During this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange recognising Child Month 2022, five young people, whose ages range from nine to 19, all expressed disapproval of how easily accessible filthy music is to children.
Grade six student of Friendship Primary School Samoya Gordon shared that through overexposure to immoral music, children are at risk of being transformed into societal deviants.
“When children listen to these types of music, they are going to want to go and research. They want to experience what they see. When they listen to certain music, they want to be like what they are hearing; so they either want to become a druggist, a coke head, or a lottery scammer,” Samoya said.
Nine-year-old Tafari Wright also appealed to entertainers to maximise their creative potential to produce material that is friendly to all.
“Yes, it is affecting the children. There is a lot of stuff in songs that children are not supposed to hear until they are adults and they keep doing it in front of a lot of children. They need to stop it, because when children grow up they are going to do bad deeds and say things they are not supposed to,” Tafari said.
His twin sister, Ngozi, alluded that the music could very well be a contributor to some of the major problems in society that law-abiding citizens find difficult to cope with. She added that where some children will absorb and perpetuate what they hear in music and other material with widely disseminated adult content, there are those who become traumatised.
“My parents don’t rate it, so they don’t play that kind of music in our household. We are Rastafarians and I also think that the music is actually a problem because they are putting in a lot of violence. For example, the dancehall music from Shenseea and Spice, they put things in their music that children are not supposed to hear,” she said.
