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The first social media babies have grown up – and they’re angry

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The first social media babies have grown up - and they’re angry

The idea of a child giving consent for images of themselves to be posted is tricky. Photo / Getty Images

By RNZ

Parents and children performing for social media clicks and views is “murky ground” says American journalist Kate Lindsay.

“Social media likes and engagement can motivate us to post certain things or behave in certain ways. When you bring a child into that, a child can very easily become a prop … and that creates a troubling dynamic,” she tells Kim Hill.

Currently, children of parents who were or are “oversharers” on social media have few legal options, she says.

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One such child of an oversharer, 24-year-old Caymi Barrett, has become a vocal advocate for the protection of children on social media, even though her mother was not an influencer or content creator.

“[Caymi’s] mother was a regular kind of parent, just like any other, but who was new to Facebook. And perhaps, as a lot of people weren’t at the time, she wasn’t quite aware of just how public social media could be. So she would accept every friend request and had a large audience of strangers and also at the same time really use Facebook as a scrapbook for [photos of] Caymi.”

Posting family-related content can also be a 'super lucrative' business. Photo / Getty Images
Posting family-related content can also be a ‘super lucrative’ business. Photo / Getty Images

The Facebook page wasn’t a highlights reel, though, as Caymi’s mother included details of her medical issues, a car crash and “unflattering” personal information.

One summer, she posted about a skin condition Caymi had. Although the condition had healed when Caymi returned to school, her classmates refused to sit near her and the teacher even made her sit at an isolated desk.

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Parents like Caymi’s mother are not “cartoon villains”, Lindsay says. In years past, there wasn’t an awareness that social media would still be around and become even more prevalent.

Unfortunately, this problem is only getting worse. Yet in the United States, lawmakers who are not social media savvy don’t understand why this is a serious issue, she says.

While legislation is one part of improving the situation, we also need to figure out how to socially enforce what is and isn’t acceptable when it comes to the “slippery slope” of social media.

“Social media can kind of trick you and then get you to post more … That’s a feeling that so many people feel. And parents, I imagine, benefit from that social media validation even more.

“Social media likes and engagement can motivate us to post certain things or behave in certain ways. When you bring a child into that, a child can very easily become a prop … and that creates a troubling dynamic.

“Also, I think it’s worth considering the dynamic that that child is then going to have with their own social media because they’re going to mimic what they were raised on. If it’s a relationship that’s very performative or very oversharing or just toxic in any way, that groundwork is being laid by how their parents are treating social media with them.”

If every parent on social media becomes a little bit more thoughtful and aware of how their posts may impact their children, this would do wonders, Lindsay says – “just exercising judgment in terms of what it is you’re sharing – is this for you or for them?

“Now that we know every person grows up and assumes a social media identity of their own, is that an identity they would want to inherit?”

Depending on the platform, parents are usually able to take down any content they’ve posted of their children, Lindsay says. Private accounts, limited accounts, face covering and Instagram stories that disappear can also help keep images and videos of children in “a nice closed loop”.

She also recommends parents keep an eye out for their children always “performing.

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“When you see the little ways that the child growing up can feel like they need to perform, you see how a parent’s relationship with social media is going to inform a child’s relationship with social media.”

The idea of a child giving consent for images of themselves to be posted is tricky because it requires saying no to your parents, she says.

Parents are usually able to take down any content they've posted of their children. Photo / Getty Images
Parents are usually able to take down any content they’ve posted of their children. Photo / Getty Images

“I think it’s really hard for any child [to say no to content being posted], especially when they see what they’re doing makes their parents happy. That’s what they want, they want their parents to be happy. So really consent from a child in this scenario can only mean so much. It really is up to the parents to create an environment where a child can feel comfortable really sharing how they feel about this and the parent makes sure that they’re not accidentally encouraging this kind of relationship.

“It’s incumbent upon the parent to make sure they’ve created a really open environment where the child can feel comfortable expressing those thoughts and keep it being an open conversation that can change day to day.”

Lindsay recommends parents keep up an open conversation flowing with their children about social media content, delete anything that makes anyone in the family feel uncomfortable and be mindful of the potential audience, i.e. a child’s future employer.

– RNZ

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Facebook Faces Yet Another Outage: Platform Encounters Technical Issues Again

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Facebook Problem Again

Uppdated: It seems that today’s issues with Facebook haven’t affected as many users as the last time. A smaller group of people appears to be impacted this time around, which is a relief compared to the larger incident before. Nevertheless, it’s still frustrating for those affected, and hopefully, the issues will be resolved soon by the Facebook team.

Facebook had another problem today (March 20, 2024). According to Downdetector, a website that shows when other websites are not working, many people had trouble using Facebook.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has had issues. Just a little while ago, there was another problem that stopped people from using the site. Today, when people tried to use Facebook, it didn’t work like it should. People couldn’t see their friends’ posts, and sometimes the website wouldn’t even load.

Downdetector, which watches out for problems on websites, showed that lots of people were having trouble with Facebook. People from all over the world said they couldn’t use the site, and they were not happy about it.

When websites like Facebook have problems, it affects a lot of people. It’s not just about not being able to see posts or chat with friends. It can also impact businesses that use Facebook to reach customers.

Since Facebook owns Messenger and Instagram, the problems with Facebook also meant that people had trouble using these apps. It made the situation even more frustrating for many users, who rely on these apps to stay connected with others.

During this recent problem, one thing is obvious: the internet is always changing, and even big websites like Facebook can have problems. While people wait for Facebook to fix the issue, it shows us how easily things online can go wrong. It’s a good reminder that we should have backup plans for staying connected online, just in case something like this happens again.

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Christian family goes in hiding after being cleared of blasphemy

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Christian family goes in hiding after being cleared of blasphemy

LAHORE, Pakistan — A court in Pakistan granted bail to a Christian falsely charged with blasphemy, but he and his family have separated and gone into hiding amid threats to their lives, sources said.

Haroon Shahzad (right) with attorney Aneeqa Maria. | The Voice Society/Morning Star News

Haroon Shahzad, 45, was released from Sargodha District Jail on Nov. 15, said his attorney, Aneeqa Maria. Shahzad was charged with blasphemy on June 30 after posting Bible verses on Facebook that infuriated Muslims, causing dozens of Christian families in Chak 49 Shumaali, near Sargodha in Punjab Province, to flee their homes.

Lahore High Court Judge Ali Baqir Najfi granted bail on Nov. 6, but the decision and his release on Nov. 15 were not made public until now due to security fears for his life, Maria said.

Shahzad told Morning Star News by telephone from an undisclosed location that the false accusation has changed his family’s lives forever.

“My family has been on the run from the time I was implicated in this false charge and arrested by the police under mob pressure,” Shahzad told Morning Star News. “My eldest daughter had just started her second year in college, but it’s been more than four months now that she hasn’t been able to return to her institution. My other children are also unable to resume their education as my family is compelled to change their location after 15-20 days as a security precaution.”

Though he was not tortured during incarceration, he said, the pain of being away from his family and thinking about their well-being and safety gave him countless sleepless nights.

“All of this is due to the fact that the complainant, Imran Ladhar, has widely shared my photo on social media and declared me liable for death for alleged blasphemy,” he said in a choked voice. “As soon as Ladhar heard about my bail, he and his accomplices started gathering people in the village and incited them against me and my family. He’s trying his best to ensure that we are never able to go back to the village.”

Shahzad has met with his family only once since his release on bail, and they are unable to return to their village in the foreseeable future, he said.

“We are not together,” he told Morning Star News. “They are living at a relative’s house while I’m taking refuge elsewhere. I don’t know when this agonizing situation will come to an end.”

The Christian said the complainant, said to be a member of Islamist extremist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and also allegedly connected with banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, filed the charge because of a grudge. Shahzad said he and his family had obtained valuable government land and allotted it for construction of a church building, and Ladhar and others had filed multiple cases against the allotment and lost all of them after a four-year legal battle.

“Another probable reason for Ladhar’s jealousy could be that we were financially better off than most Christian families of the village,” he said. “I was running a successful paint business in Sargodha city, but that too has shut down due to this case.”

Regarding the social media post, Shahzad said he had no intention of hurting Muslim sentiments by sharing the biblical verse on his Facebook page.

“I posted the verse a week before Eid Al Adha [Feast of the Sacrifice] but I had no idea that it would be used to target me and my family,” he said. “In fact, when I came to know that Ladhar was provoking the villagers against me, I deleted the post and decided to meet the village elders to explain my position.”

The village elders were already influenced by Ladhar and refused to listen to him, Shahzad said.

“I was left with no option but to flee the village when I heard that Ladhar was amassing a mob to attack me,” he said.

Shahzad pleaded with government authorities for justice, saying he should not be punished for sharing a verse from the Bible that in no way constituted blasphemy.

Similar to other cases

Shahzad’s attorney, Maria, told Morning Star News that events in Shahzad’s case were similar to other blasphemy cases filed against Christians.

“Defective investigation, mala fide on the part of the police and complainant, violent protests against the accused persons and threats to them and their families, forcing their displacement from their ancestral areas, have become hallmarks of all blasphemy allegations in Pakistan,” said Maria, head of The Voice Society, a Christian paralegal organization.

She said that the case filed against Shahzad was gross violation of Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which states that police cannot register a case under the Section 295-A blasphemy statute against a private citizen without the approval of the provincial government or federal agencies.

Maria added that Shahzad and his family have continued to suffer even though there was no evidence of blasphemy.

“The social stigma attached with a blasphemy accusation will likely have a long-lasting impact on their lives, whereas his accuser, Imran Ladhar, would not have to face any consequence of his false accusation,” she said.

The judge who granted bail noted that Shahzad was charged with blasphemy under Section 295-A, which is a non-cognizable offense, and Section 298, which is bailable. The judge also noted that police had not submitted the forensic report of Shahzad’s cell phone and said evidence was required to prove that the social media was blasphemous, according to Maria.

Bail was set at 100,000 Pakistani rupees (US $350) and two personal sureties, and the judge ordered police to further investigate, she said.

Shahzad, a paint contractor, on June 29 posted on his Facebook page 1 Cor. 10:18-21 regarding food sacrificed to idols, as Muslims were beginning the four-day festival of Eid al-Adha, which involves slaughtering an animal and sharing the meat.

A Muslim villager took a screenshot of the post, sent it to local social media groups and accused Shahzad of likening Muslims to pagans and disrespecting the Abrahamic tradition of animal sacrifice.

Though Shahzad made no comment in the post, inflammatory or otherwise, the situation became tense after Friday prayers when announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers telling people to gather for a protest, family sources previously told Morning Star News.

Fearing violence as mobs grew in the village, most Christian families fled their homes, leaving everything behind.

In a bid to restore order, the police registered a case against Shahzad under Sections 295-A and 298. Section 295-A relates to “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs” and is punishable with imprisonment of up to 10 years and fine, or both. Section 298 prescribes up to one year in prison and a fine, or both, for hurting religious sentiments.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, up from eighth the previous year.

Morning Star News is the only independent news service focusing exclusively on the persecution of Christians. The nonprofit’s mission is to provide complete, reliable, even-handed news in order to empower those in the free world to help persecuted Christians, and to encourage persecuted Christians by informing them that they are not alone in their suffering.

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CHARLOTTE HORNETS MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us on X: Facebook – All Hornets X – …

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