Has your teen taken part in the 'Roast Me' phenomenon?

[taokat]

Roast Me is an online phenomenon on Reddit. It's where teens post pictures of themselves and ask to be roasted. They open themselves up to being put down by complete strangers, whose 'task' it is to be as degrading as they can be. 

I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with their teen using the site, and what the consequences for your teen were?

What was the attraction or motive in either posting a picture of themselves or posting comments on other people's pictures? 

Would you you support a campaign to educate parents and teens about the serious negative impact such behaviour can carry with it? Would you be willing to either share your experiences, or allow your story to be used in such a campaign?

I'm hoping that we can bring awareness to the dangers in participating in such negative behaviours. If we can educate and support our teens differently, maybe we can all but eliminate 'Roast Me' by giving its users a more productive outlet.

[Ngaio-RO · Accepted solution]

What an amazing idea @taokat I love your pro-activeness.

Have you thought about starting up an opposing thread in Reddit, like "Revere Me" or something, where young people can post pictures of themselves and be revered rather than roasted?

If it helps, here's a quick little article on ways to raise awareness. You might find some of their ideas useful.

[Ngaio-RO · Accepted solution]

What an amazing idea @taokat I love your pro-activeness.

Have you thought about starting up an opposing thread in Reddit, like "Revere Me" or something, where young people can post pictures of themselves and be revered rather than roasted?

If it helps, here's a quick little article on ways to raise awareness. You might find some of their ideas useful.

[taokat]

That is a brilliant idea Ngaio!

I will have a look at the article and see what suggestions they have.

Thank you for your input, it's much appreciated. 

[Dan2787]

A revere page sounds like a great awareness campaign I'd be more then happy to contribute to. I think it is courageous of people to upload their photo to be completely torn down by strangers in a disgusting and unimaginable way and for fun? What is really hard to understand is the traumatic impact those comments regardless of whether your the most confident person alive would impact your self identity and emotions I have made aware to quiet a few younger people I know that by commenting by scrolling by even googling that page you are accepting that kind of behaviour I guess and I completely disagree with it our youth are going through enough cyber bullying these day without having a imprint forever like that in the digital world to be circulated and ripped off for infinity more awareness about what we share and what's acceptable is getting lost and is causing huge ripple effects within our communities

[taokat]

Hi @Dan2787, welcome to the forum! 

I couldn't agree with you more on all you say. Looking into it all was such an eye opener for me, and I found even the mods were so anti me even asking questions and I was hammered by them. I ended up shutting deleting my reddit account because of it. How teens can cope with that I have no idea! One win I did have was getting them to put phone numbers for mental health support in a few countries.

I spoke to my daughter about starting a 'revere me' thread, and she said it was lame and no-one would take part, so I let it go. However I'd love to hear more about your ideas on it and what your kids think about the idea? My daughter feared kids would be teased even more, maybe not online because that can be moderated, but by other kids at school or whatever who might have seen their pic. 

A thought just came to me - what about a thread where teens can post their achievements, instead of photos of themselves? What do you think?

[Breez-RO]

Gosh this is really disappointing to hear of the online mods. What would their purpose be if not to at least listen and engage with your concerns? @taokat 

[taokat]

I was really surprised too @Breez-RO. I think they became really defensive and didn't appreciate me asking questions. The mods were participants in the 'roasting' so probably felt affronted themselves. 

[Sunshine6]

What a hideous website. How painful to consider that these are kids are putting their pictures up asking to be roasted based on how they look. I don't think they know just how bad the comments can get and by the time they do it is too late.

Having said that, I would not like to see a website based on achievements either because our children are amazing for being who they are which is so much more than what they do :-) If we support them to build a relationship with themselves beyond their achievements then they can up days and down days, they can succeed and fail without it defining them (this would support a fair few adults as well!).

It really is quite a dilemma isn't it?!

[Jess1-RO]

Hi @Sunshine6,

You raise a really great point about building a young people's self esteem by supporting them to build a positive relationship with themselves. It's so important that young people value themselves on the inside as a protective factor to some of the really hard stuff they can hear from other people. 

I also agree with what you said about supporting young people to take the ups and the downs without it impacting their sense of self. I'd be interested to learn more form your perspective about how parents can support their children to build a healthy relationship with themselves? Has there been anything that has worked for you?

[sunflowermom]

Wow!  I had no idea there was a "Roast me site" - When our teens already have no self esteem  why are they wanting negative attention and verbal abuse?  It just seems so mean and a recipe for disaster.

I am going to ask my daughter about this....and what she things of the idea of a positive attributes site instead.  How sad......