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Greater Sudbury councillors approve social media policy – The Sudbury Star

Published

8 months ago

August 1, 2022

Harry Miller

‘We need to eliminate that grey zone by not allowing councillors to post content about their positions on sites from which they profit’

Files: Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are fuelling confrontation in the COVID-19 era.

The City of Greater Sudbury is taking a big leap into the future.

During the most recent council meeting, members voted unanimously in favour of implementing a social media policy, which will guide councillors as they navigate the digital sphere.

Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti and Ward 6 Coun. Rene Lapierre originally introduced a motion last fall, asking staff to chart the way forward.

The two councillors said they noted a lack of consistency and confusion around proper protocol – not all members of council have maintained a presence on social media and those who do use the tools in different ways.

They said last year they were introducing the motion to encourage “openness, transparency and proper conduct” from their peers, and to ensure no one was profiting financially from their position on council.

“We’re elected representatives, but we have to play by the same rules,” Signoretti said. “We all get comments from constituents that may not be favourable or may seem unfair, but we put ourselves in this position. You take the good, the bad and the ugly.”

While Signoretti and Lapierre said they have no problem with councillors earning money from social media, both said they should not marry the personal and political.

“When the content of that social media relies on their councillor’s position, it has crossed into a grey zone,” Signoretti said in October. “We need to eliminate that grey zone by not allowing councillors to post content about their positions on sites from which they profit.”

While Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc asked for a deferral – he said the next council should formalize the way forward – his peers did not agree and council voted to enact the policy.

Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan, who has been in hot water with the integrity commissioner over his use of Facebook, endorsed the social media policy.

“A great deal of the proposed policy seems to have been taken directly from the terms and conditions my wife and I have maintained for our Valley East Facebook group for more than 12 years. I am extremely pleased to see these standards are going to apply to all city councillors moving forward,” Kirwan said in June in a column printed in The Star.

“I am so delighted with the policy I am going to ask to be the mover of the motion. My wife even asked if she would be able to second the motion. She figured that since the integrity commissioner indirectly reprimanded her for creating a second Facebook account to help manage our site, she should qualify as a seconder of the motion. I told her I didn’t think the city clerk would approve.”

While there has been significant discord around the council table for a few years – Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo cited it as one reason he is not seeking re-election – the policy should promote unity amongst the cohort, the police said.

“It is essential that residents understand and trust the decision-making process of their elected representatives,” the policy indicated. “While members in their individual capacity are not required to agree with all decisions made by the council, they shall accurately and adequately communicate information regarding such decisions when using social media.

“Members shall not malign a debate or decision or otherwise erode the authority of council. Members shall clearly identify where they are expressing personal views, and not necessarily the views of the city.”

The social media policy – an appendix of the Code of Conduct – will be overseen by Robert Swayze, the city’s integrity commissioner. In September 2019 and again in September 2021, Swayze recommended Kirwan be reprimanded for his behaviour online; council agreed both times and issued the reprimands.

(Swayze has also investigated Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier twice, but those reports did not concern social media).

Most recently, it was discovered Kirwan and his wife, Valerie, were using a fake Facebook account under the name Jessie Timmons to administer their Valley East group, which boasts more than 19,000 members, and to engage members. They had not made it clear Jessie Timmons was an extension of the Kirwan household.

In 2019, Swayze delivered a report to council in which he said Kirwan had gone too far over the line. He pointed to three specific statements Kirwan made in the Valley East group – one against David Robinson, an economics professor at Laurentian University; another against Tom Price, an adviser to Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini and an outspoken critic of many city decisions; and a third against an unnamed individual who participated in the Greater Sudbury Politics Facebook group.

Swayze accused the councillor of being rude and harassing towards the three individuals.

Kirwan said he hopes moving forward, the new policy will ensure that discussion on any social media site is “constructive and does not include personal attacks, discrimination, harassment, intimidation or insults.”

Kirwan suggested it could mean more work for some councillors – not everyone administers their space as closely as he and his wife – but it will ensure accurate and factual information is shared with the public.

“Councillors are not only going to be held responsible for material that we post, we are also going to be responsible for material made by others. This will include comments and sub-comments,” he pointed out.

“As it stands now, some councillors avoid making personal attacks or insults themselves, but they leave those types of posts or comments up if they are authored by others. That will no longer be allowed.”

mkkeown@postmedia.com

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Why one county is suing social media companies – CNN

Published

7 hours ago

March 22, 2023

Harry Miller

CNN
—

One mother in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said her 18-year-old daughter is so obsessed with TikTok, she’ll spend hours making elaborate videos for the Likes, and will post retouched photos of herself online to look skinnier.

Another mother in the same county told CNN her 16-year-old daughter’s ex-boyfriend shared partially nude images of the teen with another Instagram user abroad via direct messages. After a failed attempt at blackmailing the family, the user posted the pictures on Instagram, according to the mother, with some partial blurring of her daughter’s body to bypass Instagram’s algorithms that ban nudity.

“I worked so hard to get the photos taken down and had people I knew from all over the world reporting it to Instagram,” the mother said.

The two mothers, who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity, highlight the struggles parents face with the unique risks posed by social media, including the potential for online platforms to lead teens down harmful rabbit holes, compound mental health issues and enable new forms of digital harassment and bullying. But on Friday, their hometown of Bucks County became what’s believed to be the first county in the United States to file a lawsuit against social media companies, alleging TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Facebook have worsened anxiety and depression in young people, and that the platforms are designed to “exploit for profit” their vulnerabilities.

“Like virtually everywhere in the United States now … Bucks County’s youth suffer from a high degree of distraction, depression, suicidality, and other mental disorders, caused or worsened by the overconsumption of social media on a daily basis, which substantially interferes with the rights of health and safety common to the general public,” the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit, which was filed in California federal court, said “the need is great” to continue to fund mental health outpatient programs, mobile crisis units, family-based mental health services, and in-school mental health programming and training to address the mental health of young people. Bucks County is seeking unspecified monetary damages to help fund these initiatives.

Bucks County is joining a small but growing number of of school districts and families who have filed lawsuits against social media companies for their alleged impact on teen mental health. The unusual legal strategy comes amid broader concerns about a mental health crisis among teens and hints at the urgency parents and educators feel to force changes in how online platforms operate at a time when legislative remedies have been slow in coming.

Seattle’s public school system, which is the largest in the state of Washington with nearly 50,000 students, and San Mateo County in California have each filed lawsuits against several Big Tech companies, claiming the platforms are harming their students’ mental health. Some families have also filed wrongful death lawsuits against tech platforms, alleging their children’s social media addiction contributed to their suicides.

“I want to hold these companies accountable,” Bucks County district attorney Matthew Weintraub told CNN. “It is no different than opioid manufacturers and distributors causing havoc among young people in our communities.”

He believes he has an actionable cause to file a lawsuit “because the companies have misrepresented the value of their products.”

“They said their platforms are not addictive, and they are; they said they are helpful and not harmful, but they are harmful,” he said. “My hope is that there will be strength in numbers and other people from around the country will join me so there will be a tipping point. I just can’t sit around and let it happen.”

In response to the lawsuit, Antigone Davis, the global head of safety for Instagram and Facebook-parent Meta, said the company continues to pour resources into ensuring its young users are safe online. She added that the platforms have more than 30 tools to support teens and families, including supervision tools that let parents limit the amount of time their teens spend on Instagram, and age-verification technology that helps teens have age-appropriate experiences.

“We’ll continue to work closely with experts, policymakers and parents on these important issues,” she said.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said it has also “invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children across our platforms and have introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well being.” He pointed to products such as Family Link, which provides parents with the ability to set reminders, limit screen time and block specific types of content on supervised devices.

A Snap spokesperson said it is “constantly evaluating how we continue to make our platform safer, including through new education, features and protections.”

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

The latest lawsuit comes nearly a year and a half after executives from several social media platforms faced tough questions from lawmakers during a series of congressional hearings over how their platforms may direct younger users — particularly teenage girls — to harmful content, damaging their mental health and body image. Since then, some lawmakers have called for legislation to protect kids online, but nothing has passed at the federal level.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, believes it will be “difficult” for counties and school districts to win lawsuits against social media companies.

“There will be the issues of showing that the social media content was the cause of the harm that befell the children,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t file these lawsuits.”

Tobias added that increased support for government regulation that would impose more restrictions on companies could impact the outcome of these lawsuits in their favor.

“For now, there will be different judges or juries with diverse views of this around the country,” he said. “They aren’t going to win all of the cases but they might win some of them, and that might help.”

Whatever the outcome, the mother of the 16-year-old whose intimate photos were shared on Instagram is applauding the district attorney’s office for sending a strong message to social media companies.

“Before the incident with my daughter, I would not have given a lawsuit filed by the county much thought,” she said. “But now that I know how hard it was to take content down and there’s only so much people can do; corporations need to do so much more to protect its users.”

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Social media is devastating teens’ mental health. Here’s what parents can do.

Published

18 hours ago

March 21, 2023

Harry Miller

If we are serious about addressing the alarming worsening of teens’ mental health, we must reduce their social media use.

The connection is well-established. Abundant research has linked depression and self-harm to frequency of social media use. And a new study from the American Psychological Association shows that cutting back helps teens feel better. Companies are aware of this; Facebook executive-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that the company’s own research found that use of their platforms was linked to anxiety, depression and body image issues in teens.

Federal health data highlight why this is so crucial. In 2021, 42 percent of high school students reported feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks that they stopped doing their usual activities. The crisis is particularly pronounced in girls; nearly 3 in 5 teen girls reported persistent feelings of sadness, an increase of over 60 percent since 2011.

Indeed, social media is creating a “perfect storm” for girls, Jelena Kecmanovic, a psychotherapist and adjunct psychology professor at Georgetown University, told me. “Their tendency to be perfectionist and hard on themselves during their tween and teen years gets magnified thousands of times in the online culture of comparison,” she said.

The trouble with online interactions is also what they are replacing. A 2022 survey found that average daily screen use increased further during the pandemic and is now more than 5½ hours among children ages 8 to 12 and a whopping 8 hours and 39 minutes for teens ages 13 to 18. That’s time that previously was spent engaging in-person relationships and on healthier activities such as playing outside, sports and sleep.

Pediatrician Michael Rich, who co-founded and directs the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, explained to me that he treats teens who “struggle with physical, mental and social health issues” from excessive social media use. He has seen straight-A students’ grades plummet and young adults struggle to forge relationships after entering college.

Given the magnitude of the problem, solving it might seem daunting for parents. Nevertheless, here are four steps they can take:

Create spaces free from screens.

Kecmanovic suggests establishing guardrails, such as taking away screens during meals and before bedtime. Parents can also limit their kids’ social media use to the shared family space, “not behind locked doors, and definitely not until 2 a.m. in their bedroom” when they should be sleeping.

Given the ubiquity of technology and its use in school curriculums, it might be hard to enforce a screen time limit. Instead, Rich advises setting a minimum time without screens. “That becomes a more practical way to offer our kids a rich and diverse menu of experiences, which can include screens but shouldn’t be dominated by them or become the default behavior,” he said.

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Mauritius media guide

Published

19 hours ago

March 21, 2023

Harry Miller

The media scene in Mauritius is divided in two, with a highly politicised media, including the national broadcaster, and elsewhere media outlets which can be outspoken but sometimes veer towards sensationalism, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

US-based NGO Freedom House says that the media regulatory agency lacks independence and disproportionately targets opposition media.

Under 2018 changes to the law, journalists can face prison sentences for content that causes “inconvenience, distress, or anxiety”.

Television is the most popular medium. State-owned Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) radio and TV generally reflect government thinking. MBC is funded by advertising and a TV licence fee.

Two media groups – Le Mauricien Ltd and La Sentinelle Ltd – dominate the press scene.

BBC World Service is available via a mediumwave (AM) relay (1575 kHz). Radio France Internationale is relayed on FM.

There were 919,000 internet users by December 2021, comprising 72% of the population (Internetworldstats.com).

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