Jenna Marbles in her home, a typical setting used for each video.
Jenna Marbles: Good or Bad Influence on Children?
By: Morgan Dickson
Parents and caretakers,
“Jewelry was invented in the 1990s to tell men, ‘I want to f*** you” (Lang). Now that I have captured your attention, think about having you're children stumble across this material. My main concern is to address the situation of the growing popularity of a YouTube star by the name of Jenna
Marbles. Her real name is Jenna Mourey. Her pseudonym originates from one of
her two dogs that are also popularly shown in her videos. You might ask
“Who is she?” or you may ask “What’s so great about her?” I am here to discuss
the urgency that parents and caretakers of young children should have when
coming across this YouTube star and her inappropriate material. YouTube is one
of the most popular sites used for video uploads. According to YouTube,
"More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month". This is
an alarming number as it is increasing constantly and proving to reinforce that YouTube is a widespread video-sharing website.
Jenna is
a sweeping star that uses profane language as well as numerous out of line demonstrations. Some of examples are Jenna being drunk and another is her language when talking about sex. Here is an example of Jenna being intoxicated and demonstrating how to put on make-up while drunk.
ABC news reports that, “She posted
her first YouTube video in 2010. She made it one night while she was getting
ready to go to work as a go-go dancer.” Along with this bit of information,
Jenna also got more than 50 million hits on the first video she ever posted
(ABC News). Do we want our children and young teenagers to be able to watch
these uncensored videos online? This raises more questions about not only the
intentions of these videos, but what the intentions are of Jenna. As a young
adult, I find her videos quite hilarious and ridiculous in her dirty manners
but I feel as though the videos need censorship. I discovered these videos as a
sophomore in high school and at that age I still felt that the content was a
bit racy. The use of censorship could come in handy, as the Internet becomes
more of an everyday tool. Not even the 27 year old Jenna feels that her material
makes a good impact on the minds of her audience. Jenna finds that, "The amount of
people who have found it entertaining is ridiculous.” (ABC News) When the
YouTube star finds that her own videos are absurd, we know there needs to be a
change.
What ways
can we help this? The Internet and technology are rapidly improving and our
smart phones have made our ability to access it as quick as one slide of a finger. Along
with a petition to YouTube for more control on censorship, we could also limit
children’s time on the Internet. This process will need the help of the YouTube Corporation and as well as the parents. Censorship can only go so far without the reinforcement of parenting and guidelines within the home. YouTube only goes so far as to “confirm that
you are above 18 years of age” only on certain videos. I have only noticed this
block less than the amount of fingers I have on one hand in the large amount of videos produced
by Jenna. The ability to censor more content could help us raise awareness and
stop children from seeing vulgar material at a young age. Guidelines to set small
amounts of time on the Internet and monitoring the history of the websites they
have visited can greatly decrease the problem of children getting into
inappropriate webpages.
In conclusion, parents and caretakers need to take a stand against the early maturity of our children. Material online is not always censored and this is just one example out of the millions of websites out there that could potentially poison the minds of our youth. With the help of some household ground rules and a petition made towards YouTube, we could change the censorship of certain videos shown online.
In conclusion, parents and caretakers need to take a stand against the early maturity of our children. Material online is not always censored and this is just one example out of the millions of websites out there that could potentially poison the minds of our youth. With the help of some household ground rules and a petition made towards YouTube, we could change the censorship of certain videos shown online.
Sources
ABC News. "Who Is Jenna Marbles and Why Is She So Popular?" ABC News. ABC News Network, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2013/04/who-is-jenna-marbles-and-why-is-she-so-popular/>.
Marbles, Jenna. "Drunk Makeup Tutorial." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXzwAXzUwwE>.
Lang, Nico. "45 Hilariously Relatable Jenna Marbles Quotes That Are Words To Live By." Thought Catalog. N.p., 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. <http://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/08/45-hilariously-relatable-jenna-marbles-quotes-that-are-words-to-live-by/>.
"Statistics." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html>.
