I was browsing through my Facebook feeds when I stumbled upon a series of pictures showing a girl standing in school uniform, with her right leg chained and secured to the lamp post with two padlocks.
I was shocked. Was she being punished? I wondered what could the kid have possibly done to deserve such public disgrace. Not only was it a very degrading thing to do, it also put the child at risk of physical injury.
The pictures circulating on social media, clearly showed her face. Everyone was so caught up with what was happening and re-sharing the post, instead of protecting her privacy.
She Refused To Go To School
Her school bag and water bottle can be seen lying on the ground beside her. Nobody knew how long the girl had been chained up to the post.
When police questioned her mother, she replied that she chained the girl as "punishment" as she often refused to go to school.
Her school bag and water bottle can be seen lying on the ground beside her. It is not known how long the girl had been chained up.
Effects of Demeaning Punishments
Parents who try to make their kids behave by subjecting them to humiliating punishments are taking the wrong approach to discipline. Extreme punishments like these are not always effective. Instead, it could cause long-term psychological problems.
No doubt some parents have opt to take a different approach to disciplining, corporal punishment and shaming punishments are still very common in Malaysia.
In my opinion shaming can really break parent/child trust. Kids can harbour hurt and distrust for many years into adulthood. After all everybody remembers their childhood. Shaming parents also breed next generation shaming parents. I am sure their parents were previously shamed too.
The short-term danger in this is children with lower self-esteem, or feel they lack love. Child predators go online and deliberately look for insecure kids with low self-esteem. A parent who publicly shames a child also makes the child a target for bullies at school. After all, an insecure child is a very easy target.