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TheBig Tech problemis a moral crisis first. As Heritage Foundation President Kevin Robertswrotelast month:

Big Tech is the enemy of the people not merely because they have taken advantage of our free-market principles. They have earned this untoward distinction because of what Big Tech does to us in our relationships with one another as human persons.

While Big Techmenacesmany levels of society, how it is impacting the next generation of citizens is of particular consequence.

Social medias deleterious effects on teens and preteens the world over are well known by now. In April, The Atlanticcitedsocial media as a major factor in rising rates of depression in American youth. A Marchstudyby Cambridge University revealed a direct relationship between social media use and life satisfaction in adolescence.

It found that for certain age groups, higher estimated social media use predicts a decrease in life satisfaction ratings and lower estimated social media use predicts an increase in life satisfaction ratings.

Facebooksown researchallowed that 6% of teen Instagram users who reported suicidal thoughts traced these feelings directly to Instagram. The platform was responsible for body image issues in teen girls, as well.

In another study, a team composed of university researchers Jean M. Twenge, Jonathan Haidt, and othersfounda consistent and substantial association between mental health and social media use among girlsan association stronger than links between their mental health and hard drug use, sexual assault, obesity, and binge drinking.

The Heritage Foundation hascapturedthis and similarresearchthroughout 2021, and offered our ownsolutionsto contend with its findings.

Big Tech companies areawareof the effect they have on young people and yet continue toforge aheadand evenexpandtheir efforts. Mental health aside, these companies poison American youth withcontentthatwarpstheir perceptions of reality and even impairs the development of their consciences.

Big Tech companiesbuild addictive properties, now aimed deliberately at children, directly into the design of their products. With the race to court, the next generationgrowing more competitive, no doubt they will enhance these properties for a valuable but untapped preteen audience.

We can see the effects with our own eyes. The erosion of character, increasing atomization, and difficulty forming genuine relationships in real life among todays children are enough to stunt a nation going forward. Children and adolescents in our cities walk around like zombies, ride slack-jawed in backseats, and sit hunched over at dinner tables across the country glued to their phones and the ersatz connections they peddle.

But with these technologies so entrenched, what can be done?

Peggy Noonansuggests a solution: When we know children are being harmed by something, why cant the state help? She remarks that one faction of conservatives maintains that its greater responsibility is not to simply maximize shareholder value for Big Tech companies but to see to it that an entire generation of young people not be made shallow and mentally ill through addictive social media use.

It follows that legislation has a role to play. To that end, two senators have stepped into the breach.

Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced theKids Online Safety Act. This bill attempts to address and mitigate future fallout from Big Techs reckless push for growth at the expense of Americas kids. This policy proposal aligns with The Heritage Foundationsrecommendationsfor companies to expand and strengthen parental controls and protections for minors.

Additionally, the bill creates provisions for platform accountability and transparency in order to safeguard children and teens online. As such, the Kids Online Safety Act could go a long way in addressing the areas where Congress 1998 effort, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, falls short. In addition, it provides recourse for kids and parents against companies that have become more aggressive in targeting younger and younger audiences.

The bill fills a vacuum in three key areas: platform accountability, transparency, and user empowerment in the form of parental controls. To ensure accountability, the legislation requires companies to institute independent, third-party audit and compliance requirements through state attorneys general where none currently exist, especially with regard to systemic risk to minors.

Two of its provisionsone for detailed public reports on areas like breaches of parental tools and another requiring limited access to datasets on the impact of these platforms practices on minorsare foundational transparency efforts in this arena.

In terms of user control, the Kids Online Safety Acts emphasis on platform-generated controls allows for additional user empowerment. A common theme in Heritage Foundation analysis, this linchpin of the bill provides a framework for digital platforms to follow when designing products used by children. In addition, it would help institute necessary technical safeguards that include privacy by design, opt-in features, and stringent default settings.

A recourse mechanism for parents who identify harm to their children caused by these platformswhich could also provide the basis for additional public reporting and transparencywould help rebalance the relationship between users and platforms.

As with a number of the Big Tech bills circulating on the Hill, the Kids Online Safety Act itself cannot solve every problem. For instance, the use of the word harm, if not tightly defined, could potentially be used as a cudgel against conservative speech. But when it comes to tech policy, this proposal embodies policymakers hard-won intuition that a scalpel over a sledgehammer is more efficacious.

None of these bills will solve these issues in and of themselves. Instead, proposals like the Kids Online Safety Act serve as the initial salvo upon which to layer additional legislative efforts. This policy change, when coupled with efforts like a 2022billfocused on child sexual exploitation online and updates to the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, would bring Congress one step closer to truly tackling online safety for minors.

And once obvious constraints are placed on the reckless drafting of children into the digital maw, we can then start rebuilding the moral fabric of our nationone young citizen at a time.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal

Read more here:
Social Media Is Hurting Kids, but a Fix May Be on Horizon - Heritage.org

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Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is one of the most esteemed personalities in the National Basketball Association.

After yet another school shooting in the United States, this time at an elementary school in Texas following a mass shooting at a grocery store and another at a church Kerr spoke up. His righteous anger was directed at the politicians in his country who refuse to pass legislation to require background checks for gun ownership, even though the vast majority of Americans would like to see such a law.

During a pre-game press conference, Kerr didnt talk about basketball. Instead, he stated: We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to put it to a vote, despite what we, the American people, want. They wont vote on it because they want to hold onto their own power. Its pathetic. Ive had enough. He then stormed out of the room.

We may be seeing a shift in American sentiment, and just as it was after the George Floyd murder two years ago, the professional basketball community is speaking out in a voice that can no longer be ignored.

The arms industry is very wealthy and powerful, and they make generous contributions to the politicians, who make sure that the industrys coffers continue to expand. Gun violence is out of control in the United States because of the well-funded lobby of the arms industry working on all levels of the American government. This has led to some very dangerous trends in the United States.

According to the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen:

The United States is not the only country in the world with school shootings, but theyre much less frequent elsewhere because of the collaborative efforts of school administrators, law enforcement agents and other significant players to prevent them. In those countries, officials have studied the incidents, their causes and effective means of responding to them. Theyve implemented plans and protocols to keep children safe.

No system is perfect, and we always need to be on guard, but the data illustrates whats working and whats not.

Kerr is reasonable and honourable. The vast majority of people in the United States agree with him. Gun control is only one of several issues on which American elected officials are far out of sync with their constituents. Democracy is, by its nature, an imperfect form of government, but a government cant continue to function as a democracy if it doesnt eventually bend to the will of its people.

Canada shares the largest undefended border in the world with the United States and they remain our largest trading partner. How do we respond to the problems south of our border?

For one thing, we need to be informed and aware of which practices are life-giving and which arent. We also need to keep our house in order. And sometimes, like Kerr, we need to let the world know that were angry.

Troy Media columnist Gerry Chidiac specializes in languages, genocide studies and works with at-risk students. He is the recipient of an award from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre for excellence in teaching about the Holocaust. For interview requests, click here.

The opinions expressed by our columnists and contributors are theirs alone and do not inherently or expressly reflect the views of our publication.

Troy MediaTroy Media is an editorial content provider to media outlets and its own hosted community news outlets across Canada.

Gun control, Law, NBA, Public safety, USA

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Why the U.S. continues to drag its feet on gun control - Troy Media

A police officer arranges bouquets of flowers in rows at a side entrance to Dunblane Primary School following a school shooting that left 16 students and one teacher dead. Lynne Sladky | AP

As Americans continue to reel from the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead, headlines and commentators repeat a common refrain: The U.S is the only country where this happens.

Nowadays that may be true, but 26 years ago, it happened in Scotland. In March 1996, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School, killing 16 students, a teacher, and injuring 15 others. To this day, it is the deadliest mass shooting in UK history.

But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists. By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then.

"The comparisons between the U.S. and Britain now should make shocking reading to anyone in America," says Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter, Sophie, was killed at Dunblane. He's one of the founding members of the group Gun Control Network, which advocated for new laws in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.

Over the past several years, England, Scotland and Wales combined have seen around thirty gun deaths a year. By comparison, according to the CDC, the number of murders involving firearms in the United States in 2020 was 19,384.

"Even setting aside the difference in the size of the country, that is a horrendous difference," says North.

At the time of the Dunblane shooting, he and other activists did face difficulties making their schools safer including skepticism from members of the Royal Family. In an interview with the BBC, Prince Philip compared the banning of guns to the banning of cricket bats, saying that both had the potential for danger if misused. It's an argument that's similar to those made by the gun lobby in the United States.

"The criticism of others that these people might choose some other means of causing harm doesn't really acknowledge how very dangerous guns are compared with other weapons," says North. "It is too easy for somebody to pick up something like a gun and cause havoc within seconds and certainly within minutes."

The strong heritage of gun ownership in the U.S. and the Constitutional right to bear arms is an obstacle that British gun control activists like North didn't have to wrestle with in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting. And yet, he sees other countries with similar histories which have successfully passed strict gun control measures.

"Yes, the whole culture around guns is different in the U.S. But there are other countries in the world where there's a frontier mentality - shall we say, Canada, Australia - who have adopted tighter controls over guns," North says. "So I think America should perhaps be comparing itself not necessarily with Britain alone but with a whole range of countries who have unfortunately experienced mass shootings but only a small number of them."

Read more from the original source:
In Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun control - Houston Public Media

All bodies recovered from Nepal plane crash

KATHMANDU, Nepal Rescuers have recovered all 22 bodies from the site where a plane crashed on a mountainside in Nepal, the airline says.

All the bodies were flown to Kathmandu and taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital where doctors are performing autopsies, Tara Air says in a statement. The bodies will be handed over to relatives once autopsy is done, it adds.

While 10 bodies were flown to Kathmandu yesterday, the remaining were brought by army helicopter earlier today. Relatives of the crash victims waited outside the hospital building for authorities to release the bodies.

The Tara Air turboprop Twin Otter aircraft lost contact with the airport tower Sunday while flying on a scheduled 20-minute flight in an area of deep river gorges and mountaintops.

Four Indians and two Germans were on the plane, Tara Air said. The three crew members and other passengers were Nepali nationals, it said. Local news reports said the passengers included two Nepali families, one with four members and the other with seven.

The plane crashed Sunday in Sanosware in Mustang district close to the mountain town of Jomsom, where it was heading after taking off from the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.

The planes destination is popular with foreign hikers who trek on its mountain trails, and with Indian and Nepalese pilgrims who visit the revered Muktinath temple.

The Twin Otter, a rugged plane originally built by Canadian aircraft manufacturer De Havilland, has been in service in Nepal for about 50 years, during which it has been involved in about 21 accidents, according to aviationnepal.com.

The plane, with its top-mounted wing and fixed landing gear, is prized for its durability and its ability to take off and land on short runways.

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US insists its committed to reopening consulate after officials tell ToI otherwise - The Times of Israel

Statement by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe31 May 2022

The WHO European Region remains at the epicentre of the largest and most geographically widespread monkeypox outbreak ever reported outside of endemic areas in western and central Africa. The learning curve has been steep over the past 2 weeks. We now have a critical opportunity to act quickly, together, to rapidly investigate and control this fast-evolving situation.

Today, I would like to outline what we have seen and learned, and what still needs to be understood, and to set us on the right path in tackling this challenge.

Even as new patients present every day, investigations into past cases show that the outbreak in our region was certainly underway as early as mid-April. Strong surveillance and diagnostic systems in several European countries, along with swift cross-border information-sharing mechanisms with the support of WHO and other partners, are to be commended for the outbreak coming to light.

Based on the case reports to date, this outbreak is currently being transmitted through social networks connected largely through sexual activity, primarily involving men who have sex with men. Many but not all cases report fleeting and/or multiple sexual partners, sometimes associated with large events or parties.

We must remember, however, as we have seen from previous outbreaks, that monkeypox is caused by a virus that can infect anyone and is not intrinsically associated with any specific group of people. The gay and bisexual communities have high awareness and rapid health-seeking behaviour when it comes to their and their communities sexual health. Indeed, we should applaud them for their early presentation to health-care services.

Rapid, amplified transmission has occurred in the context of the recent lifting of pandemic restrictions on international travel and events. The potential for further transmission in Europe and elsewhere over the summer is high. Monkeypox has already spread against the backdrop of several mass gatherings in the Region. Over the coming months, many of the dozens of festivals and large parties planned provide further contexts where amplification may occur. But they also provide powerful opportunities to engage with young, sexually active and globally mobile persons to raise awareness and strengthen individual and community protection.

We do not yet know whether the monkeypox virus can also spread from one person to another through semen or vaginal fluids, nor whether the virus could persist in these bodily fluids for longer periods of time.

We do know that most people who get monkeypox will have a mild and self-limiting but unpleasant and potentially painful disease that may last up to several weeks. We do not yet know what health impact there will be in individuals who can have severe outcomes from monkeypox, particularly young children, pregnant women and people who are immune-compromised.

As of now, an effective response to monkeypox will not require the same extensive population measures as we needed for COVID-19 because the virus does not spread in the same way. But and this is important we do not yet know if we will be able to contain its spread completely. For that, we need a significant and urgent reduction in exposures through clear communication, community-led action, case isolation during the infectious period, and effective contact tracing and monitoring.

Monkeypox has not been at the forefront of research and development in the field of infectious diseases. As such, tools to manage it including readily available diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics are not likely to be immediately or widely accessible to countries. While one vaccine (MVA-BN) and one specific treatment (tecovirimat) were approved for monkeypox in 2019 and 2022 respectively, these countermeasures are not yet widely available.

We will interrupt transmission if we act now in:

By achieving these measures, we can help:

We have learned a lot from our COVID-19 experience, in terms of cross-country collaboration and information-sharing mechanisms, heightened surveillance, and risk communication as a public health intervention, including at the community level. We have also seen how misinformation amplified online and through other sources can lead to negative public health outcomes.

All of these lessons can and should better inform our actions going forward. Let us therefore bring government, civil society and health partners together to tackle this public health challenge decisively and effectively, guided at all times by science and medicine, and imbued with respect and compassion.

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Statement - Monkeypox in the European Region: what we know so far and how we need to respond - WHO/Europe