Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Steve McCracken: Secondary Principals Association Chair and B416 Expert Advisory Panel member on Labour's social media policy

Transcript

Steve McCracken: Secondary Principals Association Chair and B416 Expert Advisory Panel member on Labour's social media policy · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So, like National, Labour is also pledging to ban social
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: media for under-16s and they want to do it within
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the first 100 days.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's obviously our bill. We obviously introduced it
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: to Parliament. We'll get the first reading done in the
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: first 100 days. That suggests to me that rather than
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: this being a meaningful commitment from the National Government, this
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: has simply been a PR exercise.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Alright, so Labour's saying they want to give users more
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: control over algorithms and set up a watchdog to fine
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: tech companies that break safety rules and Steve McCracken is
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: actually a Before 16 expert advisory panel member and joins
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: me now. Hello, Steve.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So a ban might happen, but isn't the big thing
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: from this is that both National and Labour seem to
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: be finally on the same page?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, long last they're on the same page. And it's
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: fantastic to see for our young people around, yeah, helping
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: out the use of social media and particularly banning it.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: And great to hear that Labour's doing this within the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: first 100 days of their term and should they get elected.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: You're the before 16 expert advisory panel member, so you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: obviously know this. Is Labour or National's policy, which one
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: is better than the others?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they both have merits in terms of
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: it's hard to determine at this point which is better
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: because we're still lacking a little bit of detail from
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: both parties just around what this is actually going to mean.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: The Labour Party announcement yesterday suggested that they're going to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: put in a watchdog as such around social media use.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And so that's a proactive and positive thing from my perspective.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Can any government really tell the platforms what to do
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: because globally they seem to be a law unto themselves?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're seeing some pushback around the world, aren't we,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: around the big tech companies as such, and we're seeing
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: that overseas. And it's really interesting to see the developments
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: across the global scene around this. So despite us watching
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: and waiting in the current government and seeing how particularly
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Australia is reacting and things to this, The big tech companies,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: this is a massive thing for our government in terms
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: of trying to take them on and make sure we're
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: doing right for our young people.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I thought when Facebook, when Meta actually paid a $ 30
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: billion sort of reparations the other day for the harm
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that they've done globally or mostly in the United States,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I thought that maybe there might be some, what would
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: you call it, some defrosting of their coldness towards the kids.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can always be hopeful, but I think big
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: tech companies, and Meta in particular, are always out to
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: make a buck, and at any cost. And they're willing
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to sacrifice our young people for profit-making. So it's great
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to see some action being taken by our government and
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: putting things in place to help them.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Let's hope they can do that. I saw some criticism
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: around after the announcements yesterday that, oh, well, once these
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: kids turn 16, they won't know what to do with
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: themselves and that they won't know how to use social
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: media and they could get into even worse problem. Was
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: it someone trying to find something to oppose it?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it is. I work in education alongside
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the 416 advisory panel. And yeah, we see the ability
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: to educate young people is actually important. far more better.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And when they're 16 and over, then their cognitive brains
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: are slightly more developed. I say slightly more developed because
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: we still make mistakes, right? I'm sorry. Yeah, there's room there.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: But in those developmental pages, that's the key to it
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: in terms of helping protect our young people.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Steve McCracken. I thank you so much
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: for B416. Yes, I ended up doom-scrolling and reeling yesterday,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and I did it for about 20 minutes, and then
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I had to go, stop it!
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.