Canada

U.S. panel voted to remove universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants

From recognition of a Palestinian state, to tenant strikes, to a Youth Climate Corps, here are some of the political achievements of the past year

Carney’s immigration law C-12 is a new chapter in an old Canadian playbook of scapegoating migrants while serving the corporate elites

As of Wednesday, all youth under 16 in Australia will be banned from major social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and X. For over a decade, whistleblowers, politicians, academics, and experts around the world have sounded the alarm about the online harms people of all ages are exposed to.

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The ban does nothing to prepare teens to respond to digital harms. It makes no investments in education, community training, or parental support. Youth will not be magically prepared to address problematic online behaviours or content when they turn 16.

The time and resources spent on the ban could be better spent on things like providing education and support for digital citizenship, media literacy, privacy rights or resource centres.

If social media is problematic for a 13, 14 or 15 year old, it’s still likely to be problematic for a 16, 25, or 80 year old. There is no body of research that establishes 16 as a “safe threshold” for social media use and the age for healthy use can vary across genders.

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Under the current model, companies will not be inclined to improve their reporting systems for harmful content. In fact, in response to the ban, YouTube is actually removing a feature that would allow teens to report content they find inappropriate.

Youth under 16 who find ways to use these platforms, despite the bans, will be unlikely to come forward and ask for help if things go wrong. After all, they weren’t supposed to be online in the first place.

The answer to mitigating online harms is not kicking teens offline.

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Social media companies also need to be accountable to the ways the platforms are designed and run. These platforms are designed in ways that push certain content and elicit particular engagements.

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The voters chose a minority government and expected the parties to work together, and I don’t think it’s right for Carney and his team to try to undermine that,” said Kofman. “But then I think of Poilievre’s stupid little face being told about one floor crossing after another and I giggle for about 10 minutes.”

But also:

Kofman went on to acknowledge his concerns that a Carney Liberal majority could force through a Western pipeline without any environmental or Indigenous consultation, before dissolving back into giggles picturing Pierre Poilievre’s sad face becoming a popular reaction gif used to denote “whiny pouting” across the internet.

Excerpt:

Machias Seal Island is a tiny tear-shaped island — about 550 metres long and 250 metres wide — located in the Bay of Fundy off New Brunswick.

Both Canada and the United States have tried to claim the island, which is mostly uninhabited except for a lighthouse keeper and some researchers studying the island’s seabird colonies.

Sen. Jim Quinn, who is from New Brunswick, says he was upset to see an American tour company website describe the island as being “on the Maine coast.”

“That’s unacceptable in this day and age, especially with where we are with our neighbours to the south,” he said. “That administration has made various claims about Canada and its 51st state and all of these things.”

Machias Seal Island is a migratory bird sanctuary maintained by the Government of Canada. The lightkeeper is flown in every few months from the Canadian Coast Guard and only two small tour boat companies, one of which is Canadian and the other American, are allowed to visit the island during certain months.