As traditional gatekeepers disappear, parents face a new challenge: helping children navigate a world where anyone can publish anything. Not so long ago, parents had an unexpected but powerful ally in raising their children: the media. ALSO READ: Rwanda considers restricting social media use for children under 16 I remember my father calling me almost every morning before school and telling me to pay attention to a discussion taking place on the radio. He believed that listening to current affairs, public debates, and educational programmes would help me become a better student and a more informed citizen. Looking back, he was right. ALSO READ: Is social media harming our children’s mental health? What is perhaps more remarkable is the level of trust parents placed in the media at the time. If something was said on the radio, aired on television, or published in a newspaper, it carried a certain authority. It was not because journalists were infallible, but because there was a system behind the information. Stories were researched, verified, edited, and scrutinized before reaching the public. Editors acted as gatekeepers. Facts mattered. ALSO READ: Children and social media: Should Rwanda go the Australia way? Today, the media landscape has changed dramatically. Information is no longer produced primarily by newsrooms. It is produced by everyone. A smartphone, an internet connection, and a social media account are often all that is needed to become an influential content creator. Content can reach millions without passing through a single editor or even a second pair of eyes. This democratization of information has many benefits. It has amplified voices that were previously unheard and expanded access to knowledge. Yet it has also created new challenges that many parents may not fully appreciate. Who is teaching our children, shaping their worldview, and setting the agenda for the next generation? Young people spend significant amounts of time on social media and increasingly learn about politics, health, relationships, finance, science, and history from content creators rather than traditional sources. The concern is not content consumption itself, but content quality and the audience’s ability to evaluate it critically. Recently, I listened to a presenter repeatedly confuse in vitro fertilization (IVF) with surrogacy, two entirely different concepts. No correction was made, no expert was consulted, yet thousands watched. Tomorrow, the same presenter may discuss economics, medicine, geopolitics, or artificial intelligence with the same confidence and lack of expertise. The problem is compounded by the economics of attention. Sensationalism attracts clicks, outrage generates engagement, and certainty often performs better than nuance. In such an environment, being first frequently matters more than being right. Even professional media organizations are not immune to these pressures. In competing for attention, some increasingly prioritize speed and entertainment over depth and substance. Meanwhile, parents are busier than ever. Work, economic pressures, and constant connectivity leave many families with less time than previous generations had. Yet the reality remains that when parents are absent from the conversation, others step in. If we do not intentionally participate in shaping our children's understanding of the world, algorithms will do it for us. The challenge facing parents today is therefore different from that faced by previous generations. It is no longer enough to monitor where children go physically. We must also pay attention to where they go digitally. Media literacy must become as important as traditional literacy. Children need to learn how to question sources, distinguish facts from opinions, and identify misinformation. Parents should discuss content with their children and encourage habits of critical thinking. This is not a call to reject social media. It is simply a recognition that the information ecosystem has fundamentally changed. The village that once helped raise the child has been replaced by an algorithm. Unlike village elders, the algorithm does not care whether its lessons are wise or accurate. Parents, educators, journalists, and policymakers must recognize this new reality. The question is no longer whether our children are being educated outside the classroom and beyond the home. They are. The real question is: by whom? And are we paying enough attention? The writer is a communications professional and former journalist.
