Candace Owens — Kanye is right. 8-year-olds should not have social media.

Okay, Instagram, I wanted to do this video and to comment on this back forth exchange that's happening publicly between Kim and Kanye, not because I'm interested in celebrity feuds or divorces, but because I think this is actually a topic that's really important for all parents to be discussing as we kind of get into this new age of digital media and social media and children having access to things that we didn't have access to when we were kids.

I'm 32 years old. We did not have access to TikTok and Twitter and Facebook and any other social media app when I was young. And this is a very important topic. So, to give you guys a background, if you're not following it. Kanye has been very, very vocal for a long time, you know, before the divorce, about wanting his kids to be kids when they grow up, meaning he was very against North, his daughter. She's 8 years old and even in years prior, she was wearing makeup and wearing lipstick and he was very against that.

He's been vocal about the fact that he doesn't want his child on social media. Um, so this is not a new thing that's happening because they're getting divorced. It's just coming to a head because they're getting divorced. And Kim obviously has a different perspective on it because she was okay with her wearing makeup and she's okay with her daughter having social media. Kim's daughter is north. We know of North and we know all of their kids because they have been on, you know, reality TV.

their entire lives and North is for the record 8 years old. Um, So this is something that parents all around the world should be aware of. It is not an assumption. It is a reality. Brigham Young University actually did a study last year to show that children that are introduced to social media have a propensity, higher rates of suicide, a propensity towards suicide. Adults included, obviously, we understand that social media has depressive effects, and it's basically allowing you a window to look into the lives of people and to have this perception that their life is better than yours.

So it's basically you just stacking up and going, oh, I wish I had that life. Oh, I wish I had that life. I wish I had that husband, that body, that face. And it causes depression. And if you're an adult, you might be able to deal with that depression, but for young kids, it's a lot. I don't know why it took a study confirming it from Brigham University to confirm that social media is harmful for children. Um, when really this is common sense.

We seeing things that we've never seen before. We're seeing people that are 12 and 13 wanting to get their lips injected, to want to get to want to get boobs, to want to get butt implants, to want to do all of these things extraordinarily, especially for children. And when I look at these people that are so young and they're getting these implants, I'm thinking to myself, when I was at this age, I wasn't even thinking about how I looked.

I mean, 8 years old before I even had braces. I mean, to put that into perspective, we're talking about 3rd graders, 3rd graders. This is not, you're not even interested in guys. You really just want to color with your friends. I think I was in Spice World at that time listening to Spice Girls wanting to dance with friends and have sleepovers. So we're not talking about someone that's even on the brink of maturity. We're talking about an extremely young child, who's extremely vulnerable, who should not have the accent, who should not have access to the internet, and have 5000000 followers as she has, which is already to me something that is harmful.

Why are there 5000000 people in the world that want to follow the every action of my child. I, I choose not to put my kid on the internet at all, um, because I want my child to be able to have that choice and I want my child to also be able to make that choice when their brain is developed. Something that's extremely problematic. Here and why I wanted to speak out is because, you know, Kim's response to this, obviously, Kanye posted this publicly, and he has made several pleas about just keeping his kids off social media, and I'm not claiming to know the ins and the outs of their relationship.

But something that was extremely problematic is that Kim and her response writes that he's controlling, this is him being controlling and obsessive. And sort of all of these buzzwords that women use when they want to make themselves look like they're being victimized by a man. And she specifically says that, you know, North needs this as a, you know, a creative outlet and kind of suggest that, you know, the divorce has already been traumatic enough for them and, you know, giving this child's TikTok.

Well, you know, somehow helps to to, uh, uh, alleviate some of the traumas that they may be experiencing. That is a completely unacceptable excuse. Your child does not need social media to deal with any traumas, do you know? You have a child that's stuck between 2 billionaires, tons of people have gone through divorces, come from divorced families. I one of them. Um, this is not something that is necessary to heal from a divorce whatsoever.

In fact, I would almost argue the exact opposite. And it's super unfair, because in this particular regard, actually, Kanye is doing the right thing. He's protecting his child from the public. I think part of this is that obviously Kim is Kim Kardashian, so she's lived her entire life publicly. You know, she takes a stab at Kanye for talking about this publicly, when in reality, she has welcomed all of the world into every aspect of her lives for years.

So this is just a victim claim, pretending that you care about there's a public discussion about this, when we've watched your family members pull their babies out of their vaginas on TV, doesn't make sense, pretending that you want to protect your children when they've been, you know, on a show, which, sure, you had editing control over, but, you know, that doesn't really make sense to suddenly pretend that it's Kanye that's harming them by bringing this discussion to the forefront, especially because it's a very important discussion.

We're talking about, right now, there was a case, an 11 year old girl. You can look it up. She killed herself. Um, and uh, she, her mother is now suing, the last name is Rodriguez. I can't think of her 1st name. Her mother is now suing Facebook and Snapchat, saying that they know how harmful that this, you know, that the effects of and the addiction that comes from their, their, um, comes from their products is, and yet they allow children access to it.

And so this mother is currently engaged in a lawsuit with both Snapchat and Facebook. My personal opinion, it's the mom's fault, you know, and and you have decided to give your child this weapon. You know what this weapon is. You know, you're shocked when your kid becomes addicted to this and becomes depressive. And unfortunately for a kid, they don't have yet within them. They don't possess the mechanism that it is to complementalize.

So everything feels much larger when you're a kid, right? Think about your 1st breakup, whatever it was. I don't know how old you were. When you had your 1st breakup, um, but I think I was 13. It was like one of those like fake relationships, but you know, you think it's the end of the world. Everything becomes a suicide thing. When, you know, you have a fallout with a friend. You think it's the end of the world, kids feel in a way that is so much bigger and grander than adults do.

And when you apply social media to that, you know, they're not able to deal with a hurtful comment. I know that Kim has suspended comments on this, but, you know, they're not able to deal. with even a hurtful idea, thinking that this person is prettier than them or more mature than them or wondering if guys like this better. Um, they're not able to put that into the proper perspective because they have brains they're not developed.

And Kanye, in this regard. And again, this is not supposed, this isn't to say everything is ever done. has been amazing and everything Kim's done has been bad, but I think that Kim, you know, kind of represents someone that is very pro-social media. It's how she made her, you know, how she made her brands, how she's made her living by giving more and more and more and more of herself. And unfortunately, she's not able to see the harmful effects of that.

She's not able to assess her own addiction and her own obsession with social media. I mean, to me, you're talking about 2 billionaires. You've got a, if North needs a creative outlet from her divorce. Kim could go buy her a ranch in Wyoming, literally tomorrow, and say, here's a whole ranch. She could, she could afford to bring Pablo Picasso back from the dead and say, here, paint with my daughter. I mean, she's got that much money.

She could she could buy her whatever she wants as a creative outlet. She could buy her a plane and fly her to France. Um, and, you know, have her dine amongst the stars. This is not an average family that has to deal with sadness or has to find a creative outlet in a tricky spot because they don't have resources. It is pointedly ridiculous to suggest that this is the only creative outlet that makes your child happy, and quite frankly, it doesn't matter if you make your child, if it makes your child happy.

You are the adult for that reason. There's a lot of stupid things that kids want, that they believe make themselves happy. We are arriving more and more in a society where people don't know what it means to be an adult, right? They don't know. They're constantly caving to what their kids want. Well, this is what my kid wanted. My kid just wanted social media. So like a game with them because they like it and it makes them happy.

I don't care if it's giving them temporary happiness, if you know that in a long run, it's going to cause pain. It's going to cause addiction. So you have that addiction. You know how addicting social media is because you have that addiction. Um, and so I just feel like Kanye deserves to be defended in this one, in this particular regard, because any man who understands even how they use social media, how men look at social media, the fact that there's 5000000 strangers, how are you to know that amongst them are not pedophiles?

you know, pedophile networks that have been established on TikTok, of people that are looking at kids. Why would you want your 8 year old on to be observed on an app? you know, every 2nd of their day. This is different from, you know, moms that have social media and post their kids, you know, once in a blue moon when you are allowing your child to have social media, you have no idea, you know, who, you know, who is looking at your kid.

And that is remarkably unfair to then castigate your your significant other or former significant other and pretend that this is an obsession. It should be an obsession. Protecting your children and protecting our children should be an obsession. So if Kanye is obsessed with getting your daughter off social media, then may I suggest that you develop that obsession. Like, may I suggest that you develop wanting to protect your child from the world, wanting your kid to grow up, wanting your kid to be a normal 3rd grader, who wants to plan sleepovers, with her girlfriends, who wants to, you know, have do an art project.

I think for me, I was wanting to do gymnastics and, you know, and jumping around. Like there are other creative outlets, and if you are a parent, and you really care about your child no matter what your child is going through. You would want to protect them from the net. You just, you would 100%. So we're speaking to a larger problem right now. And I think this is like, as I said, like, I don't think the Kardashians are aware of their own addiction and obsession with social media, so they would not recognize those symptoms in someone else.

They would, they don't see any harm in it because they've made a living. And again, that's not to take a shot at Kim. I've met her. She, very kind and she's very nice, but, you know, social media is her life. That's the point. Like she's a she's a nice person, but social media is her life and she's not seeing clear on this. So, just standing up for dads that kind of get caught, like, I just don't like the idea of the victim mentality of a woman saying, oh, he's obsessed and he's controlling and, you know, sure, he may be obsessive and controlling about different aspects, but on this particular one, Kanye West is 100% right and Kim is in the wrong.

Get that child off social media. She's a child. She's 8 years old. You know that it leads to an increase in suicide rates amongst kids. These are devastating effects. There are multiple stories out there of parents saying, shoulda, woulda, coulda. I wish I did not allow my 8 year old to develop this addiction. You know, don't be that parent that finds out too late. Because you don't know, Cam, there was no social media when you were a kid.

You were allowed to be a kid, you were allowed to be grubby, you were allowed to have braces, you were allowed to look weird, and not develop that sense of like being self-conscious about yourself because you're suddenly able to see all of these other kids and see what they look like. You don't know that. So right now what you're doing is you're experimenting with North. You're experimenting with her. You're experimenting with her psychology.

You're experimenting um, and assuming that it's going to be okay. I wouldn't let my child be the test dummy for social media in this age and I don't think she should either. So just throwing a little support toward Kanye. Thanks guys for watching.