Viral and virtuous: Social media has a rather humane soul

Two videos were created by two mothers and shared by them with very different intentions, but both went viral and ultimately helped the children.

Two mothers posting disturbing videos of their kids in distress made headlines last week, here in the UAE as well as internationally. On Friday, the mother of a distraught nine-year-old Australian child suffering from dwarfism shared a heart-wrenching clip of her suicidal son who she said was sick of being 'constantly bullied' for his condition. "I want people to know - parents, educators, teachers - this is the effect that bullying has," the mother is heard saying in the clip even as the visibly shaken child, Quaden Bayles, is asking for a knife to kill himself. "Give me a knife, I want to kill myself," he says in a hysterical fit of tearful anguish.
"Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends," Yarraka Bayles urges everyone watching the video, which has now gone viral over the Net. As the story was shared and reshared thousands of times, the positive power of social media took it to top influencers and powerful personalities, who stood tall for the condition and for the young Quaden. Actor Hugh Jackman pledged support on social media and comedian Brad Williams set up a GoFundMe page with a target to raise $10,000 to send "a wonderful kid to Disneyland!". Within two days, more than 19,000 individuals had pledged over $440,000 to the cause. It even made it to the front page of Khaleej Times, featured in our 'Positive News Of The Day' section. The power of good helped turn a mother's simple plea into a powerful movement within hours.
In every society, a mother has traditionally played the role of not just the default parent but that of a teacher, a mentor, a protector, and a nurturer of families. As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, says: "A mother is a man's first school, where he learns morals, ethics, and manners. She follows her child through all of life's stages." In fact, motherhood is an emotion so strong that it doesn't require the validation of biology. Stepmothers have been known to shower the same unconditional love on their wards as biological mothers.
But what happens when the protector turns tormentor? When the parent - any parent - on whom the vulnerable child is dependent both for their physical and emotional needs, turns away from that duty and starts intimidating or, worse, harming the child? That's what happened in the case of the other viral video from last week - a hugely disconcerting clip of a mother in the UAE hitting and abusing her little daughter in an apparent attempt 'to get back at' her divorced husband. The clip, recorded and shared by the mother herself, documents an awful crime against the child whose custody was given to her after the couple had split. The four-second clip shows the mother mercilessly dragging the toddler by her legs down the stairs as the little one screams in pain and fear.
The UAE, of course, has a robust child protection policy in place which endeavours to protect children against all forms of negligence, exploitation, physical, and psychological abuses. As the video went viral and society voiced its displeasure with the atrocity meted out to the little girl, the authorities swung into action and arrested the mother, to be tried by a court in accordance with the law. After ensuring that the child was physically and psychologically safe, she was handed over to her father even as a court will formally decide on the issue of custody.
The two videos were created by two mothers and shared by them with very different intentions, but both went viral and ultimately helped the children who were the protagonists of the respective clips. In both cases, social media denizens helped make the videos viral and amass support for the right causes. "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children," said Nelson Mandela. If digital citizens adopting the cause of the two kids last week is any indication, the wonderfully viral society of social media has a beautiful soul.