Information & Ethics committee  Outside education we don't have recommendations on policy, because that's outside our mandate. What I can say from our research is that many people who have been victims of some of the things that you've been describing have said that when they have gone to law enforcement for su

Information & Ethics committee  The short answer is it's complicated, but yes, there are ways of doing it and it would be valuable.

Information & Ethics committee  One fundamental aspect of digital media literacy is understanding the difference between fact and opinion. It's one of the things we teach, starting in elementary school, because it's fundamental to having any kind of reasoned debate, as you say. Beyond dividing those two, beyon

Information & Ethics committee  I certainly wouldn't say that critical thinking has vanished from society. It's a difficult thing to measure, but what we do know is that, as Ms. Hill referenced, the heart of critical thinking is intellectual humility. It is being willing to recognize that we might be wrong. It

Information & Ethics committee  I would add, too, that the most recent major change has been the use of recommendation algorithms and sorting algorithms that curate our information ecosystem. We have moved on from an environment in which most of the information we consumed was curated by humans. Even if we did

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't take a position on the specific legislation, but what I can say is this: There certainly is a role for appropriate legislation and regulation in addressing disinformation. It is also not possible, as the British scholar Sonia Livingstone has said, to be literate in some

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say that the literacy program that we recommend and the programs that we currently deliver would address that. It wouldn't be targeted. It's not targeted specifically at that, but certainly any digital media literacy program is going to address how to evaluate whether or

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll start with the second part of that question. Our model of digital media literacy is composed of four competencies. The first of these competencies is access, the ability to access digital media and other media as well. It is the one that underpins the other thre

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. For the past few years, barely a day has gone by without disinformation making the headlines. Whether it's doctored videos of politicians or conspiracy theories about vaccines, it affects our health, our democracy and even our ability to tell what's real

Status of Women committee  I would add as well that most of the well-documented negative effects of pornography are also found to be caused by other forms of sexualized media that aren't explicit. For most of the things that we see in youth that we are fairly confident are caused or influenced by pornograp

Status of Women committee  I think that's a question that's a little more technical, if I can speak for Jane, than either of us is qualified to answer. What I will say is that I'm not certain that there is any power in the world that will prevent teenagers from accessing pornography. I don't mean to be fl

Status of Women committee  I'm using upvoting and downvoting in a generic sense. I'm using “upvoting” to mean taking any action that boosts content, that spreads it, and particularly that makes it seem more relevant to the algorithm, and “downvoting” to mean anything that does the opposite, that limits the

Status of Women committee  There are a number of things that I think can be done at the federal level. One of those is supporting the development of digital literacy resources. Most of the provinces that are adopting digital literacy in the curriculum don't necessarily have resources for teachers to use, a

Status of Women committee  Technically, we have a number of easy steps that can be partially effective. If you're talking on an individual level, almost every search engine has a “SafeSearch” setting. There are also content filters that are available. Most ISPs make those available. There are commercial

Status of Women committee  As an educational organization, MediaSmarts doesn't take a position on legislation unless it's directly relevant to our educational mission, but as part of our mission, we do educate adults and youth about their legal rights and the remedies available to them should they choose t