Parents have a duty to monitor their children

Readers discuss children's social media use. Other topics: time to pray, Middle East voices and ambulance priority

Readers discuss who should be responsible for children’s social media use. Patrick T Fallon / Bloomberg

With regard to your news story, Bad judgment calls can put teens at risk on social media, expert says (October 8), I believe parents bear full responsibility for their children's online activities.

Actually, children should not even be associated with online activity – they do not understand the risks to which they are exposing themselves.

When I see on social media a 10- to 12-year-old posting inappropriate content because they think it is cool, my response is to wonder where their parents were while they created the account, because you have to be a minimum age to have some social media accounts.

If the parents actually gave consent for the account, then why aren’t they monitoring it to see what their children are posting?

Nikki Caz, Sharjah

Unfortunately, this problem is not restricted just to teenagers. Many adults of all ages also make bad judgment calls about what they post on social media.

Joe Lanphear, Dubai

Islam is flexible enough to cope

After reading your news article, Man has salary cut for praying during working hours, court hears (October 7), my view is that this man should have informed his co-workers and the management about this and to have obtained approval.

Islam is made for all times, so it evolves and people need to realise that. For the Muslims out there, God says Islam is there to make it easy and right, not complex and hard, so they should be flexible and modern.

Work is work – respect that. I’m sure God knows that this man didn’t mean to ignore the prayers, but working life today is different to how life was in previous centuries.

Aouse Al Anee, Abu Dhabi

There could be more to the story than it seems. Although I cannot pass judgment on this man’s circumstances, it’s not unheard of for employees to take advantage of prayer breaks and extend it for other purposes.

I’ve yet to come across an employer in the UAE that penalises members of staff for taking a prayer break. In malls, I’ve even seen staff members who deal directly with customers leave the kiosk unattended to take mini breaks to pray.

Samia Iftekhar, Abu Dhabi

My staff have their prayer mats at work and go somewhere quiet whenever they need to pray.

Belinda Wallington, Oman

The Middle East deserves a voice

Rafia Zakaria makes an important point in her opinion piece, The stories of the Middle East are often told – but by who? (October 8).

It would be great to read stories by native or local writers of a particular nation because they would really give insights into the essence of the moods and themes of an event, allowing us to better understand the issues and the reasons why people respond the way they do.

It is only common sense that there is a tendency for foreign writers or journalists to paint and influence the readers with their own biased cultural world views.

However, we must also appreciate and honour much of the coverage by foreign writers and journalists when they strive to be very well-balanced and precise.

I believe the mainstream media should recruit and train writers from this region more often, even if it means sponsoring them.

Aca Tuisamoa Vatanimoto, Fiji

I wonder about all the thousands of old stories and myths that Europe has documented and can be found in books and movies.

Nobody can tell me that none of those are being used by writers from the Middle East, even if a few details are perhaps changed here and there.

We are one people and every one of us is connected via books being read all over the globe, from every culture and in every time zone. Just consider the themes in Hans Christian Andersen stories – how many can be found in Arab children’s books?

Brigitte von Bulow, Abu Dhabi

Give priority to ambulances

With regard to your story, Help us help you: UAE ambulance chiefs call on public to cut reckless driving at accident sites (October 8), there is one very important thing drivers can do: get out of the way when they see an ambulance with flashing lights.

Far too many people stay in the middle of the road and often deny space to the ambulance and the police so they can pass safely.

Please, get out of the way and slow down.

Name withheld by request