Children filmed eating snacks on Giant Hypermarket floor, netizens ask: ‘Where are the parents?’
Two children were filmed sitting on the floor of a supermarket eating snacks, with several other items scattered around them.
The nine-second video, shared on Facebook page Singapore Incidents on Sept 13, shows a boy and a girl digging into snacks such as chocolate eggs and biscuits, while no adult appears to be nearby. The girl is also seen looking at a phone.
No date or time of the incident was given although the caption said it happened at Giant Hypermarket Tampines.
The clip has racked up more than 106,000 views, 275 reactions and 180 comments.
‘Why are we so unkind to kids’
Some netizens assumed the snacks had not been paid for and blamed the children’s parents.
“Free food,” said one, while another asked: ‘Where are the parents?’
Another commented: “100 per cent the parents’ fault.”
Others, however, were critical of the person filming the children and questioned why the person did not alert supermarket staff or intervene.
“Did the cam fella get the attention of the staff there?” asked a netizen. “You didn’t tell them off?” another said, addressing the original poster.
Several people were also uncomfortable with the children being filmed.
“I don’t think it’s right to post images of children or minors,” one netizen said. “Why are we so unkind to kids?” another asked.
Yet another wrote: “Why take their video and post? They are only kids, we should protect them.”
One commenter defended the children.
“When my children (were) small, they would sometimes do this, but I would still keep the opened packets and pay for them at the cashier.”
Others felt the matter could have been handled more simply.
“Not a big deal, collect all the food wrappers and get the guardian and parents to pay for it,” another said.
There were racist comments alluding to the children’s ethnicity, but these prompted some users to push back.
Others felt that the short clip may not have provided the full story.
“Are you guys so sure about them not paying before they consumed the food? Let’s not jump to conclusions before we get to know what happened, not fair to them too,” one person wrote.
Several commenters took a more sympathetic view.
“They must be hungry,” said one. “Maybe they were just hungry, and had no money… so they walked into the supermarket to help themselves,” another speculated.
Stomp has reached out to Giant for comment.
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