News
Social media pictures might send the wrong farm safety message
The National Farm Medicine Center says the social media posts with pictures of kids on the farm might be sending a dangerous message. Scott Heiberger says, “If a child is allowed to kind of run free in a worksite, it sort of desensitizes that child to the dangers and hazards around them.”
Heiberger tells Brownfield there has been an alarming number of photos and images online showing young children climbing on or even operating farm equipment, which can make it seem okay for children to play in dangerous areas. “There’s something about it sometimes. It’s like, oh, pose here and stand a little higher on that thing. It sounds crazy, but if we could just check ourselves and say, okay, is this the image we want to portray for agriculture? Is this how we want to be seen?”
Heiberger says with COVID-19, more kids have been at home and on the farm this year. He urges parents to think through activities on the farm including pictures and social media posts and try to make kids understand the line between the safe home site and the dangerous work site. “You want your pictures to be popular and (receive) comments on them, and liked. Please don’t sacrifice safety for getting extra clicks and shares and likes.”
I do not know Scott Heiburger but I can easily tell from what he is quoted as saying in this article that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. What a dope! It is people like him who are ruining America and American agriculture. Please keep your sanitized nose-in-a-safety-cage out of my business, Mr. Heiburger. I don’t need you to be my nanny. Please do not give Mr. Heiburger any more exposure at Brownfield Ag News for America, you wouldn’t want to soil your reputation as a credible news source.