MP’S painful Snapchat lesson
Social media, and the connectivity it brings to the world, is one of the boons of the modern age.
However, it harbours dangers in the ways that its technology amplifies and polarises political debate. Its effects on young people, including its harms, are not fully understood – especially when it puts them in the way of online groomers. It enables people with evil intentions to troll and to bully, sometimes with disastrous results.
The investigation of dubious Russians interfering in the US elections might even expose social media’s potential to alter the course of national and international events.
The technology is so new and so rapidly developing that our rules of engagement with it are still developing, and are in some senses, lagging behind the applications we are using.
But some things are plain common sense. For instance, an adult professional male in a position of relative power should not communicate repeatedly with a teenage girl on Snapchat.
Even when the communications are completely innocent and above board, this is asking for trouble. Especially on social messaging app Snapchat, where communications delete themselves.
The National Party’s Hutt South MP, Chris Bishop, seems to have fallen foul of this. Parents have told Stuff they approached him, and complained to one of his colleagues, about Bishop messaging their teenage daughters via Snapchat before his electorate victory in last year’s general election.
None of the parents spoken to were concerned Bishop’s intentions were anything other than misguided. He has declined to discuss the matter with Stuff.
The case is being discussed as an example of how social media carries particular perils.
Bishop is 33 years old – youthful for a second-term MP – and has fans among young people in his electorate. Hutt Valley teenagers have set up a fan page on Facebook for the man they call ‘‘the Bish’’. It has more than 800 followers.
Bishop is the National Party spokesperson for youth affairs. He was for four years president of the New Zealand Schools Debating Council. There are innocent reasons why a party youth affairs spokesperson and local MP would want to reach out to young people, even those who are still a few years from voting age.
Yet there are boundaries. Mainly, these are about protecting the young person. Young people’s lives today are complicated enough, without asking them to conduct friendships with prominent adults in their community to whom they are not related.
Grown-ups’ transactions with young people should be positive, respectful, have their best interests at heart and need to be transparent. When teenagers receive direct messages on a transient channel such as Snapchat, all responsible adults should take note.