Saturday January 27, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated January 28, 2024]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Cellphones, the internet and social media help us connect with each other, but they also present risks that can harm kids.
“That’s why we’re taking action to protect kids in BC from online predators,” says BC Premier David Eby.
He also doesn’t want students to be “interrupted in their studies”.
He made the announcement at the District Education Centre in Surrey on Friday January 26 in Vancouver. He was accompanied by Minister of Education and Child Care Rachna Singh and Attorney General Niki Sharma.
Classroom restrictions:
Restricted use of cell phones (smartphones) in classrooms — i.e. from bell to bell (or start and end of the classroom in-school instruction period) was taken from a child safety perspective.
That somewhat avoids tackling head on the interruption that phone use might have on the actual learning process.
BC Greens response:
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau says the announcement is “a step forward in protecting our children in schools”. However, herself a teacher, she says that “a successful ‘no phones’ policy requires more than just bans”.
She makes a strong point that technology is now a core part of the BC education system. “To be successful, this strategy should extend beyond restrictions and include investment to ensure all students in British Columbia have the necessary tools and are included and supported.”
The BC Greens support “beefing up actions to remove explicit images from the Internet and holding social media companies responsible for the harms they cause,” said Furstenau in a media statement on January 26.
Holding social media accountable:
It’s also a move to “hold social media companies accountable”, as stated in the BC Government’s news release on Friday.
“You have the right to privacy and safety,” said Sharma in the news announcement at which the parents of a pre-teen boy expressed their grief over how their 12-year-old son killed himself after social media pressures online. “You deserve love, safety and protection,” she said.
Ryan Cleland and Nicola Smith, parents of Carson Cleland, during the Friday news conference said that their son died of suicide following online sextortion. Premier David Eby was clearly emotionally moved as the parents described what happened to their son.
Different challenges:
“Today, kids live with different challenges than they did a generation ago, and they face them all in the palm of their hand,” said Premier David Eby. “While cellphones, the internet and social media help us connect with each other, they also present risks that can harm kids. The impact and influence of these tools is so great, and the corporations so powerful, it can be overwhelming for parents. That’s why we are taking action to protect kids from the threats posed by online predators and the impacts of social media companies.”
The announcement includes three concrete actions to keep kids and young adults safe:
- restricting the use of cellphones in schools;
- launching services to remove images from the internet and pursue predators; and
- legislation to hold social media companies accountable for the harm they have caused.
“Research shows that frequent cellphone interruption in the classroom, social media platforms with addictive algorithms and predators who seek to exploit young people all present significant risks to young people. Studies have found that children’s mental health and physical safety can suffer as a result of body-image distortion, cyberbullying, images shared without consent and disturbing instances of sextortion,” the government stated.
Digital and AI:
The new legislation addresses the use of digital images and images created using artificial intelligence, said Sharma.
School districts take the lead:
The Province will work with school districts to ensure all schools have policies in place by the start of the next school year to be able to restrict students’ cellphone use in the classroom.
Phones in the classroom:
Some parents encourage their children to have cellphones for connection during the school day. That can be important to organizing school drop-offs and pickups or changes in family plans.
But the province is doing a bit of a clamp down, as obviously the use of phones by many youth for online social media activity is reaching into classroom instruction time.
“Having cellphones in the classroom can be a distraction from the kind of focused learning we want kids to experience at school,” said Rachna Singh, Minister of Education and Child Care.
“There also is a time and a place for cellphones, including when they support student accessibility purposes. By learning in a safe school environment how to use their cellphones responsibly and respectfully, including when to put them away, students will be better able to develop healthy habits around technology and social media use in their everyday lives.”
Restoring a focus on academic learning:
It is fair to note that the emphasis on education in BC schools has shifted over the last two decades to social-emotional learning over an intense ultra-focus on academic work.
In that context, it might be puzzling to students that the use of their most social device — the smartphone — is being restricted during the major part of their day.
If the idea that concentrating on actual academic learning improves outcomes becomes more broadly discussed, perhaps there would be more buy-in from students being asked to put phones away during classroom time.
Healthy relationship with technology:
The Province is also ensuring more digital literacy training is available for students so they have the knowledge and tools they need to stay safe from online predators, become good digital citizens and develop healthy relationships with technology.
Explicit images:
On Monday, January 29, 2024, the Province will launch two new services to help people stop or prevent the distribution of explicit images of them and pursue damages from the perpetrators. These services will improve access to justice and offer a clear path to legal action.
“Technology can be an extremely useful tool, but when used by bad actors it can have devastating impacts on people’s lives,” said Niki Sharma, Attorney General. “That’s why we are providing supports for people, especially young adults, to take down their private images from websites and pursue damages against predators.”
Taking on the social media companies:
In spring 2024, to keep kids healthy and further protect them from other long-term detrimental impacts, the Province says it will be introducing legislation to hold companies accountable for the harms their products may have caused the public.
“When it comes to social media companies, this legislation would enable the government to recover costs caused by harms to children and adults associated with their platforms and algorithms,” it was stated in Friday’s news release.
“The government could use those recovered funds to provide treatment and counselling programs, and put in place monitoring systems and educational programs about the harms of using these products and services.”
These actions are part of a larger effort to keep kids safe and healthy, which includes expanding Foundry youth mental-health centres, launching an anti-vaping strategy and expanding school food programs through Feeding Futures.
===== GOVERNMENT LINKS:
- Mental-health and addictions resources, including resources specifically for youth, visit: www.helpstartshere.gov.bc.ca
- Erase resources online: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/erase
- Report bullying: https://erasereportit.gov.bc.ca/
- Digital literacy training through Erase: https://pages.saferschoolstogether.com/erase-family-session
- Intimate Images Protection Act: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023AG0036-000657
- Supports available for survivors of gender-based violence, sexual assault or domestic violence: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/public-safety/domestic-violence
- Resources and research on the online sexual exploitation of children: https://cybertip.ca/en/
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends reports on the stuff that matters. If your well-being, household, business or community is impacted by politics or government, we report on it.
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has reported on public education since 2014. She has four grown children who attended schools in SD61, SD62 and SD72. Mary P Brooke ran for school trustee in 2022.