Firstly, couldn't agree more. Also a couple of perspectives.
Radio, talking movies, the emergence of pop music, comics, and TV have all at some stage created moral panic focusing on the corruption of young people. And without exception there were calls to ban young people's access to all of these at some point.
None of these things have ended up being banned, instead regulation has been developed over time to manage them. It's hard to believe in this day and age, but at one stage in the late 19th century/early 20th century teenagers reading novels were going to be corrupted and turned into murderers because they had read novels!
Young people in New Zealand do indeed have mental health challenges, from where I'm sitting this has been around for a long time (I grew up in the Far North of NZ, and at the time I would have been considered a youth, I could get a second hand out to count the number of people I knew of who had committed suicide).
But if you look at the youth suicide rate per 100,000 it sat at 14.2 in 1996, and 10.2 in 2021/22. It ebbs and flows a little, but there is a downward trend over the time span this new tech has been introduced.
What the youth suicide stats do show is young Māori being disproportionally affected, so if you are serious about improving mental health, start listening to young Māori about what is affecting them.
I've included the links to the Ministry of Health and Mental Foundation statistics for anyone to take a look at.
B416 is another Astroturf org. When you look at who is involved, it's like looking at the National Party donor list. And then take people like Cecelia Robinson, whose current grift is Tend healthcare. When you find out this is s telehealth org and that the Nats are heavily investing in telehealth rather than adequately staffing hospitals, you might understand why she'll turn up to support Luxon. Yuck.
No truth allowed B416... The B416 page does not detail exactly what it is they don't want kids exposed to, just a blanket ‘social media' statement.
However, as Michael W. Marek explains, it is much more nuanced than that:
‘Social media is characterized by user-generated and shared content, the ability to friend/follow people and organizations, and the ability to comment and interact.
A journalistic website that allows comments and interaction about a story feels like social media. The act of sharing a news story into Facebook, Twitter, etc, is also a social media function.
Maybe a newspaper website is not, itself, a social media platform, but it is part of the social media landscape through providing content to be shared and discussed.’
So, therefore, is it about stopping young people from accessing information on the ‘social media landscape’ instead?
If so, that also cuts out trusted news sources that keep them informed about how the government is screwing them over, just before they are eligible to vote… Funny that.
How about the government gives a shit about young people and their futures, instead of gutting services, like mental health funding?
Can't disagree Bex. My worry is that we lack an impactful Opposition. I say this as a Labour Party member in my personal life. In six years of government Labour missed opportunities to innovate and lead on many fronts. I care about family carers, but instead of leading and talking about their own fabulous policies for this large community of 1m+ New Zealanders, Labour is bagging the current government. I've never understood the bagging approach. Please, dear Lord Labour and Opposition parties, innovate and lead. Then we can have choices that inspire confidence, not just default choices - voting against what's there, rather than for people and policies that will make things better. Mental health is the orphan of healthcare - it's drifted for years, decades, with bandaids and indifference, dollops of one off projects and funding. All of this matters to all of us. I am scanning the horizon for a beacon of leadership, innovation, and commitment to our most vulnerable. I don't care where it comes from these days, just please let it come.
Really good points Laurie. Definitely need some good policies to get behind, support, champion etc. And a clear vision for what our society can look like and be
Hi Laurie. Agree absolutely about Labour. I am so disappointed in them. So many lost opportunities. As things stand I am seriously thinking of voting Green at the next election.
A caregiver once admitted to me she was working two jobs - a full time one in a rest home, the other for an agency who would call her at short notice to fill "gaps". She was on her way home after a morning shift one day when her phone rang - the agency wanted her to pick up work an hour later - starting at 5pm and working to 11pm - to fill a gap at another rest home. She was tired, had shopping to do, a meal to prepare and a daughter to pick up. She sighed. The agency person responded to her hesitation by telling her that if she didn't want the work they wouldn't offer any to her in future and hung up. She worried that that response suggested they saw her as "just another lazy Polynesian" worker. She was far from that. She was working far more than a 40 hour week because she wanted to give her children better life opportunities than she had had. She was hoping one of her children might attend university. However, she was also anxious that she wasn't there for them enough. Low paid and casualised work creates so much conflict. That was 10 years ago - things must be even more challenging today.
And also, neurodivergent families are often rejected by CAMHS when co-occurring mental health issues occur in our tamariki. I wrote about it here a while ago:
Yes to this! As someone who studies well-being and social media, specifically how we can teach it in the classroom, this really rang true. Banning social media completely ignores larger societal issues that need addressed (i.e. cyber bullying isn’t an online issue, it’s a general bullying issue.)
In my field of critical media literacy we also call bans a “protectionist” approach. Where someone deems what is and is not acceptable or what someone is “capable” of handling and evaluating in the online space. Rather than teaching students how to evaluate media themselves.
Firstly, couldn't agree more. Also a couple of perspectives.
Radio, talking movies, the emergence of pop music, comics, and TV have all at some stage created moral panic focusing on the corruption of young people. And without exception there were calls to ban young people's access to all of these at some point.
None of these things have ended up being banned, instead regulation has been developed over time to manage them. It's hard to believe in this day and age, but at one stage in the late 19th century/early 20th century teenagers reading novels were going to be corrupted and turned into murderers because they had read novels!
Young people in New Zealand do indeed have mental health challenges, from where I'm sitting this has been around for a long time (I grew up in the Far North of NZ, and at the time I would have been considered a youth, I could get a second hand out to count the number of people I knew of who had committed suicide).
But if you look at the youth suicide rate per 100,000 it sat at 14.2 in 1996, and 10.2 in 2021/22. It ebbs and flows a little, but there is a downward trend over the time span this new tech has been introduced.
What the youth suicide stats do show is young Māori being disproportionally affected, so if you are serious about improving mental health, start listening to young Māori about what is affecting them.
I've included the links to the Ministry of Health and Mental Foundation statistics for anyone to take a look at.
https://www.health.govt.nz/publications/suicide-facts-data-tables-1996-2016
https://mentalhealth.org.nz/suicide-prevention/statistics-on-suicide-in-new-zealand
Great comment - love the point about novels corrupting the youth!! Thanks for the links too, very useful
B416 is another Astroturf org. When you look at who is involved, it's like looking at the National Party donor list. And then take people like Cecelia Robinson, whose current grift is Tend healthcare. When you find out this is s telehealth org and that the Nats are heavily investing in telehealth rather than adequately staffing hospitals, you might understand why she'll turn up to support Luxon. Yuck.
Great work, Dr Bex!
No truth allowed B416... The B416 page does not detail exactly what it is they don't want kids exposed to, just a blanket ‘social media' statement.
However, as Michael W. Marek explains, it is much more nuanced than that:
‘Social media is characterized by user-generated and shared content, the ability to friend/follow people and organizations, and the ability to comment and interact.
A journalistic website that allows comments and interaction about a story feels like social media. The act of sharing a news story into Facebook, Twitter, etc, is also a social media function.
Maybe a newspaper website is not, itself, a social media platform, but it is part of the social media landscape through providing content to be shared and discussed.’
So, therefore, is it about stopping young people from accessing information on the ‘social media landscape’ instead?
If so, that also cuts out trusted news sources that keep them informed about how the government is screwing them over, just before they are eligible to vote… Funny that.
How about the government gives a shit about young people and their futures, instead of gutting services, like mental health funding?
Great points. Is far more nuanced and complex than first appears
Can't disagree Bex. My worry is that we lack an impactful Opposition. I say this as a Labour Party member in my personal life. In six years of government Labour missed opportunities to innovate and lead on many fronts. I care about family carers, but instead of leading and talking about their own fabulous policies for this large community of 1m+ New Zealanders, Labour is bagging the current government. I've never understood the bagging approach. Please, dear Lord Labour and Opposition parties, innovate and lead. Then we can have choices that inspire confidence, not just default choices - voting against what's there, rather than for people and policies that will make things better. Mental health is the orphan of healthcare - it's drifted for years, decades, with bandaids and indifference, dollops of one off projects and funding. All of this matters to all of us. I am scanning the horizon for a beacon of leadership, innovation, and commitment to our most vulnerable. I don't care where it comes from these days, just please let it come.
Really good points Laurie. Definitely need some good policies to get behind, support, champion etc. And a clear vision for what our society can look like and be
Hi Laurie. Agree absolutely about Labour. I am so disappointed in them. So many lost opportunities. As things stand I am seriously thinking of voting Green at the next election.
B416 sounds like the latest iteration of a US stealth bomber, but it’s just a distraction bummer, not that stealthy to citizens who are awake…
I commented on one of the B416 posts asking people to sign the pay equity petition and I was asked to delete it 🤮
OH WOW!!
You remind me of the vital importance of investigative writing to cut through the distractions and name the truth.
Oh, wouldn’t that be amazing. Shame that so many really good investigative journos had their jobs cut/were let go.
A caregiver once admitted to me she was working two jobs - a full time one in a rest home, the other for an agency who would call her at short notice to fill "gaps". She was on her way home after a morning shift one day when her phone rang - the agency wanted her to pick up work an hour later - starting at 5pm and working to 11pm - to fill a gap at another rest home. She was tired, had shopping to do, a meal to prepare and a daughter to pick up. She sighed. The agency person responded to her hesitation by telling her that if she didn't want the work they wouldn't offer any to her in future and hung up. She worried that that response suggested they saw her as "just another lazy Polynesian" worker. She was far from that. She was working far more than a 40 hour week because she wanted to give her children better life opportunities than she had had. She was hoping one of her children might attend university. However, she was also anxious that she wasn't there for them enough. Low paid and casualised work creates so much conflict. That was 10 years ago - things must be even more challenging today.
Yes, every word you said 💯!
And also, neurodivergent families are often rejected by CAMHS when co-occurring mental health issues occur in our tamariki. I wrote about it here a while ago:
https://open.substack.com/pub/samgallowayaudhd/p/mental-health-is-for-neurotypicals?r=2pp93s&utm_medium=ios
Caitlin here 😺
Yes to this! As someone who studies well-being and social media, specifically how we can teach it in the classroom, this really rang true. Banning social media completely ignores larger societal issues that need addressed (i.e. cyber bullying isn’t an online issue, it’s a general bullying issue.)
In my field of critical media literacy we also call bans a “protectionist” approach. Where someone deems what is and is not acceptable or what someone is “capable” of handling and evaluating in the online space. Rather than teaching students how to evaluate media themselves.
Preventing problems is difficult to get funding for but can be very effective to enable people to have better lives
https://www.positive.news/society/iceland-cut-rates-teen-substance-abuse-sports-curfews/
This mainly talks about drugs but I see drug use as a symptom of poor relationships and mental health
Thanks for this sad story Liz. Maybe you could send it to receptive voices to amplify?