Vuković: Social networks are the biggest generator of peer violence, parents' distrust in institutions is one of the problems

MP and Vice President of the Civic Movement URA Milena Vuković said that there are numerous reasons for the high incidence of juvenile delinquency, from family problems to content on social networks and the environment in which children grow up, and that all of this is accompanied by parents' distrust of state institutions.

At today's meeting of the Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare, she asked the Minister of Social Welfare and Family Care, Damir Gutić, whether the state has a sufficient number of social workers and how involved they are in dysfunctional families.

"When we talk about upbringing, we have to talk about the parent. I think that's the essence. What happened to us, as a society and parents, that we produce children who do such things. I think that as a society we deal more with the victim than the abuser, which is understandable due to empathy, but we also have to deal with the abuser in order to solve this problem," Vuković pointed out.

She said, the URA GP announced, that distrust in institutions is one of the major problems of our society and that parents and citizens, in addition to the healthcare system, also doubt the education system.

"Parents protect their children from teachers, and the teacher only has the desire to help the student. We need to work on empowering educators, that is, to try to return the teacher to the role he once had in society," she said.

There is, as she stated, a major problem with social services that need to be strengthened in all local communities, because citizens are extremely dissatisfied with their work.

"Children don't know what to do when they experience violence, and it's the parents' fault. We still remain silent when we hear about domestic violence in the neighborhood, and then we expect our children to be better than us. It won't be until we try to create generations that are better than us," said MP Vuković.

According to the URA, Vuković highlighted the negative role of social networks in stigmatizing minors.

Social networks, she said, are the biggest generator of violence against children who are afraid of what they will find on them and have absolutely no privacy. She also added that some media captions stigmatize children, instead of trying to introduce some slightly more pleasant topics.