MP stops Snapchats to teens

Derek Cheng

National’s Hutt South MP Chris Bishop says he changed his policy on using social media app Snapchat to message young people after learning parents were “unsure” about it.

Fairfax reported yesterday that Bishop, National’s spokesman for police and youth, was confronted before last year’s election by a mother upset at him for messaging her daughter and other minors.

Witnesses reportedly said Bishop was taken aside and asked to stop what he was doing.

“I wanted to confront him, as many parents felt very uncomfortable that their children were messaged,” the mother told Fairfax. “He admitted it straight away and thanked me for bringing it to his attention.”

The parents felt his intentions were simply misguided.

Bishop responded on Facebook to the Fairfax story yesterday about using Snapchat to contact young people in his electorate. He said after hearing some parents were “unsure” about their kids communicating with MPs on social media, he changed his settings so he could only interact with people he knew personally.

“My intention in being accessible on social media is to help me be an effective MP and it has proven a good way of engaging directly with constituents, including young New Zealanders who generally aren’t that engaged in the political process.”

He described media reports of his Snapchat use as “pretty upsetting”.

“It would be sad if politicians were put off engaging with young people because of stories like this.”