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<\/a>My daughter has a sweet little voice. After a long day with difficult issues, it\u2019s nice to hear that sweet little voice playing with her dolls.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, Honey,\u201d she said, playacting as the mother. \u201cMommy is going now, so here\u2019s a gun to keep you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wait. What?<\/p>\n
\u201cQuinn,\u201d I said, turning slowly to my daughter. \u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA gun. This is a gun,\u201d she said, showing me something she fashioned out of some random plastic toy parts.<\/p>\n
I looked up at her iPad then to see she was watching YouTube, the subject of many arguments with my husband. It\u2019s not that I hate YouTube. It\u2019s that I hate that \u2014 when we aren\u2019t sitting right there with her \u2014 my daughter has the tendency to find completely inappropriate videos.<\/p>\n
And oh, boy, she hit the mother lode with this one.<\/p>\n
Titled \u201cBullied and Abused,\u201d it\u2019s the story of a Littlest Pet Shop Doll who took matters into its own paws by shooting itself after being bullied and abused by other Littlest Pet Shop Dolls.<\/p>\n
Seriously?<\/p>\n
While I understand the creator was likely trying to portray some kind of message to kids that it\u2019s not OK to bully people, a plastic wiener dog attempting suicide is not exactly conveying the more positive idea of \u201cIt gets better.\u201d Rather, it\u2019s showing kids that if you\u2019re bullied enough, you can make everyone sorry by killing yourself.<\/p>\n
Additionally, when it comes to making that point about bullies, it may not be the best idea to use Littlest Pet Shop Dolls, whose market comprises mostly 4- to 8-year-olds, many of whom still believe in the magic of Santa and the Tooth Fairy.<\/p>\n
My husband and I finally sat down with Quinn that night and spoke to her about what she had seen. We told her guns are not the answer, at least, not in our house, and that you need to stand up to bullies, not hurt yourself to prove a point.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I don\u2019t believe she really understood half of what we said, but at least we felt better that we had addressed the plastic bullying elephant in the room. In the meantime, we have since deactivated Quinn\u2019s Safari access so that she no longer freely watches YouTube clips. If she wants to watch something, she has to ask us first.<\/p>\n
As with many movies, the Internet demands parental guidance while our kids are surfing. After all, it wasn\u2019t Quinn\u2019s fault that she was accessing random clips on YouTube. It was our fault for not providing the necessary stewardship.<\/p>\n