Baby Contest

I received a request for votes from doting parents for their infant participating in beautiful baby contest. Quite harmless, click button and you've voted, a good deed done.
I had a niggling doubt, if I was right in endorsing a particular baby whom I've practically no right to judge especially, on a yardstick of beauty. Every Child is Special. And rightfully so to every parent. Then why judge. Fun, they said.
Sorry, but a difficult argument to buy. Competition is quintessentially all about winning and no competition is ever without a streak of combat. Participation is one poor consolation, to someone who couldn't make it, or why else would winners appear jubilant.
Again, is it safe to put out pictures of your child into an adult world of perfect strangers, when the baby itself had no choice or knowledge in the matter. If to an adult such matter is infringement of privacy how different is it, for an innocent baby? How right is it for the parents entrusted with natural guardianship, to enroll children for competition where the children themselves do not exercise a choice or consent. If it were to showcase young talent, encourage or nurture, it could appear a just reason, when the child has a choice or level playing field. But, for a gullible infant to be thrust into harsh flash lights, it is an apparently unfair decision by the parents for vanity alone. What of all those babies who didn't win the contest. Are they less pretty or less worthy since they failed to win votes, cheers and claps. Will the child grow up to know that the first talent show enrolled by the fond parents hopeful of first trophy, was a failed test. Or should we turn the test head a round and let children judge parents, for best parenting skills, instead. I'm afraid it's appallingly uncomfortable thought if children were to the judge parents.
Another problem is ‘over sharing’ of baby pictures by doting parents. Other day, I happened to see pictures of babies dressed in pretty beachwear, bikinis, caps, hats, goggles, make up, lipstick et al, splashed on social media. It was downright freaking, but what was disturbing was the number of ‘likes’ the babies garnered. It is an unfortunate scenario where parents and guardians give a damn about privacy and safety in a bid for instant gratification of likes. Cyberspace predators paedophiles, child traffickers, are threat to vulnerability. So, how safe is it to expose pictures to abusive cyberspace predators? Of course, this is not to press the panic buttons, but, exercise caution and discretion as responsible guardians, we must. Recently, France enacted stringent ban on display and sharing photographs of children on social space without consent, terming it an infringement of privacy, thereby putting safety concerns of prime importance. Extreme measures it may appear to our trusting and gullible sensibilities, nevertheless, cultural constraints could have led them to do so. And rightly so. Some parents can prove outright nuisance pushing the children to smile, pout, grin, make antics or cute faces, into camera capturing every moment picture perfect, not just for posterity, but trophies on social media.

 

Good to hear opinions satchi & jaysala, I intended to highlight safety issues because of indiscriminate sharing on social media, in the context of baby contests, and hopefully we'll have more serious discussions on religious practices, but it's taboo, since it could generate lot of heat and dust.

 

I'm sure Agatha many amongst us share similar concerns. Reality shows is completely unreal, only if there could be better methods to the madness.