British Columbia is moving to restrict the use of cellphones in schools as part of measures Premier David Eby says will help protect young people from online threats.
Eby said the government will also launch a service to remove intimate images from the internet and “pursue predators,” as well as introduce legislation to hold social media companies accountable for harms they have caused.
It’s mind blowing to me that politicians are still pretending it’s possible to remove an image from the Internet. But I guess it works and people believe them. Sure they are be able to force some specific websites to remove an image, but that’s it. And then it can just be reuploaded by anyone who saved it, or by the original poster who obviously has the image.
And while I agree cell phones are being overused in classrooms/school constantly, that has literally nothing to do with sexploitation. Did he send these intimate photos from the classroom? And in any case, an attempt to outright ban smartphones in school will 100% be instantly overwritten by any parent who demands to remain in contact with their child for safety reasons/emergencies. Just wait and see.
And holding social media companies accountable for what their users do is also pretty silly. Does the government hold Rogers/Telus accountable for when someone calls me and makes a threat via their network? Would that make any amount of sense?
So, is anything at all meaningful being accomplished here…?
It’s perfectly doable to hold social media companies accountable - EU regulations are quite capable of removing content from major platforms. Is it possible to completely remove images? No, but you can knock them off the major platforms and AI technology us making this even easier.
Limiting phone use is likely to significantly improve mental health and young people are a population that we’re all pretty aware are more susceptible to advertising, radicalization, and addiction - I honestly think it’d probably be pretty healthy for humans to avoid cellphones outside of texting/calling until they’re better prepared to face the constant torrent of shit that is social media… it’s probably not a bad idea for the rest of us but that’s a separate issue.
Will this measure be effective and suddenly solve all the problems? Nah, it’ll probably be deeply flawed in implementation and hit fierce pushback - but I think it’s good to move in this direction.
You are absolutely right, no real harm can come from limiting use of devices in schools, and most likely, a big improvement. Anyone who says otherwise likely was born later than 2000 and has an addiction they’re not willing to admit. Hell I was born 70s and despite not growing up with a cell (most people survived, btw…), even I’m now addicted. Step one is admission.
It seems like neither of you read my comment. Like, at all.
I literally agreed with limiting cell phone use, but said why it’s not going to be implemented in a meaningful way. And I also walked to school alone and stayed there all day without a phone and survived just fine.
But all it takes is one parent to say they don’t like it, which will happen with certainty. And at that point it just becomes up to the individual parents, which of course it always has been anyway since parents can just take a kids phone literally whenever they want (such as while at school)…it’s the parents property after all.
I can’t think of one parent that I know that would not be totally happy for somebody to get their kid off of her phone for a little while, while not having to play the bad guy themselves. lol.
And there it is so now you can think of at least one!
I think you also missed mine, I agree this measure is underwhelming and I’m almost certain there will be pushback. I still think it’s a good move because it’s opening up the dialog around the negative effects of phones especially if there’s a legal debate on the topic. I think it’s unlikely they’ll fold without a fight since it’s obvious there will be pushback and they wouldn’t go down this path without being willing to fight for it.
I’m confident they will fold since there will be a fight. It’s already started.
You know how News works, right?
There will always be one. Or two. Maybe even three.
And in this case, as the FIRST line of the article indicates, only one. LOL!
It’s the “News” organizations job to make it sound like the sky is falling.
Most people know how to look past that, but probably the lemmings will all show up soon.
Bandwagon whiners on their Xitter soap boxes… the Karen-ification of society.
