Online safety

What's up with the internet?

TAKARA 1: The wild and wonderful world of the internet can also be a dangerous one.

Staying safe online has been one of the biggest challenges our society has faced since the internet became such a central part of our lives.

And the problem isn’t going away.

CLIP: (cut of random news headlines about internet safety - 15 seconds)

TAKARA 2: And those threats can come in so many forms - whether it’s misinformation, privacy concerns, being scammed, viruses or being hacked…the internet can be a scary place if you’re not careful.

Especially so for children and teenagers. People seek solace or community online, and that can be such a rewarding outlet for millions of people around the world.

But some of the darker corners of the internet can encourage harmful behavior, and then there’s the threat of cyberbullying in all its various forms.

Yes, we’ll be getting into all that on this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Internet?, brought to you by CIRA - the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.

And I’m your host, Takara Small!

CLIP: (Record scratch SFX)

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TAKARA 3: There are so many strands to this, so we’ve got some great guests lined up to help us unravel the subject.

Helen Hayes is an academic based at McGill University in Montreal. Helen is the project lead for a Youth Assembly on Online Safety - that’s run by McGill University and the university's Media, Technology and Democracy Center and is funded by the team here at CIRA.

CLIP: (Helen Hayes interview - 15 minutes)

TAKARA 4: Now, if you can cast your mind back two years ago you may remember The Facebook Files.

It was a bombshell that hit the world’s biggest social media company when a whistleblower leaked tens of thousands of internal documents.

The leaks showed that Facebook and it’s parent company Meta knew about the harms it’s platforms were causing, but the company chose to prioritize profit rather than stopping them.

And those harms were extensive, folks.

As well as platforming hate speech and misinformation, the documents showed Facebook amplified content that provoked anger in people, because that led to more engagement.

The company also knew how harmful Instagram was to teenagers, especially young girls. That corresponds with a number of studies which blame social media for an epidemic of mental health problems in young people.

Well the whistleblower who shone a light on all this was a woman called Frances Haugen, and we’re really excited to have her join us for this episode.

Frances is an ‘algorithmic product manager’ and data scientist, so she’s really well versed in how social media sites work.

She began by explaining what she thinks are the biggest dangers to online safety right now:

CLIP: (Frances Haugen interview - 22 minutes)

TAKARA 5: And that was Frances Haugen - the Facebook whistleblower joining us from Puerto Rico.

Okay so next week is the final episode in this series, and we’re going to do a bit of a recap, and try to figure out how we can make some progress.

We’ll be taking a look back over everything we’ve discussed in the series so far, and hearing from some of our expert guests to see what solutions they’ve got in mind.

CLIP: (Episode 6 cut - 6 seconds)

TAKARA 6: