Can These Students Really Be Blamed? How Social Media Nudity Culture Is Raising a Generation Without Boundaries

By Kayode Ogunjobi

The pictures hit the internet with the force of a storm and ravaged like wildfire, ricocheting from one WhatsApp group to another, flooding Facebook timelines, and dominating X (Twitter) conversations. Secondary school students in Ondo State, fresh out of their final WASCE examinations, celebrating their passing‑out in ways that left many Nigerians stunned. The images showed beautiful young ladies posing boldly while some boys pressed their breadst. They all appeared seemingly proud of the moment. Their poses, their confidence, their carefree display of intimacy drew outrage, prompting swift sanctions from the state government. But as the condemnations poured in, one question kept tugging and echoing in my mind: Can these students really be blamed?

These children are products of an environment where moral boundaries have been steadily eroded. if we are being honest, the decadence in the environment today has become a fertile ground for such effrontery. We live in an era where adults, not teenagers, lead the parade of indecency. Full‑grown men and women deliberately appear half‑naked on social media just to trend. Husband and wife now record intimate situations and positions and feed them to the public in a desperate bid for traction. Some celebrities have turned nudity into a signature brand. And children, with their sharp eyes and impressionable minds, are watching, absorbing and learning very fast. Yes, everyone is free to choose how to live their lives as adults.

There was a time when boyfriend and girlfriend would not dare hold hands on the street but today they can do almost everything on the street. How did we get to that point? There was a time when children would fear any adult around but today, no adult has the latitude to talk to another person’s child. It is an era of So igba e meaning mind your business.

Gone are the days when a teacher could call a child to order, or a Sunday school teacher could put his feet down and correct wrongdoing . Today, even teachers who were once custodians of discipline can no longer correct students without fear of backlash. Sadly, the communal effort that once raised a child has collapsed.

Before anyone start heaping the blame on the parents, we should remember that growing children cannot be completely separated from youthful escapades either because of peer pressure, curiosity or the desire to belong. These are real issues except that we will be deceiving ourselves. But certainly not to the extent of a secondary school girl posing confidently while boys pressed her breadst. I am sure that if you ask the parents of any of those students, they would never have imagined that their child could do that. One of them even posed with the emblem of the church.

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Can we really blame these students? Some mothers have recently been portraying the idea that the breadst is no longer a private part. If it can be seen without being solicited, why can it not be touched even at the marketplace? Perhaps touching the breadst of a lady is now synonymous to holding the hand as none is private. There was a time that before a guy would see the breadst of a lady would be as difficult as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro but today, breadst is everywhere both for the married and unmarried.  So again, can we really blame these students?

What shocked me most was the confidence of one of the beautiful young ladies. She was enjoying the moment, proving that she was no longer under the restraint of school uniform. It is a painful pointer to the fact that the discipline we are neglecting in the name of modernisation has serious consequences. An ordinary look from a neighbour or a complete stranger or someone even hawking pepper on the street would have changed the mood of all of them but we have neglected that. People never bother again if a child perish or not forgetting that we all got to where we are because others were interested in the affairs of our lives. It is an era of So igba e.

The image reminded me of my own youth. While awaiting my WASCE result, I had this beautiful and extraordinarily bold girlfriend and I was trying to keep up. One day, we went out and I returned home late to the waiting igbati and igbamu of my mum which was typical of African mothers. Another day, we visited the University of Ibadan to play around. As time ticked, I expected her to remind me that we needed to return home, but she said nothing. And as a guy, I didn’t want to look childish, I tagged along pretending to be enjoying the moment while everything I was seeing was the igbamu waiting for me at home.  Eventually, I walked her to her house, the road was completely deserted and alone on the road, I walked to my own house.  As I walked back home that night, I purposed in my heart that it would be the last time I would be stupid. I saw it as sheer stupidity going to meet a lady and returning home to wahala – problem. That was the end of my friendship with the lady. Perhaps if those guys saw igbati and igbamu in the air, they would have tucked their hands in.

Despite the punishment placed upon these students by the State government which is commendable and a signal to others in the future, I believe strongly that the students can still become great. Yes, very great and even exceedingly greater than some of the people mocking them today. They can still go further than some of their colleagues who will get their results as and when due. But they must carry out honest self‑evaluation and scrutiny. They must realise and accept their shortcomings.. They must feel genuine remorse and genuinely pained by their actions, knowing that they have caused their families distress. Their actions are enough to cause rifts between husband and wife if not well managed.

They must determine in their hearts to correct the wrong narratives so that in years to come, they can boldly share their stories as testimonies of transformation.

Parents must also understand that this is not the time to neglect them. As the Yoruba proverb says, Òbẹ ti gé ọmọ lọ́wọ́ already—the knife has already cut the child’s hand. What is needed now is a concerted effort to help them out of the situation. They truly need help to navigate this period.

If I were the uncle to any of them, and I could see that they were genuinely broken, I would want them taken out of that environment for healing and redirection. No matter what anyone is saying today, these children must strive to build a future so great that the errors of their past become inconsequential.

The Ondo incident is not just a story of youthful exuberance gone wrong; it is a mirror held up to our society. A society where moral boundaries have become blurred, where communal discipline has evaporated, and where children are left to navigate a world that celebrates the very things we once condemned. Yet, hope remains.

The foundations may be shaking, but they are not beyond repair. These students can rise. They can rebuild. They can become shining examples of redemption and growth. Their story does not have to end with sanctions and shame. It can evolve into a testimony of resilience, discipline, and greatness.

The pictures may have trended, the sanctions may have been issued, but the future is still theirs to shape. And if guided well, they will one day look back not with regret but with gratitude for the lessons that shaped their journey. For me, I want to read their stories in the future.