Young Scots told to avoid the news... in case it’s ‘upsetting’
A TAXPAYER-funded charity has been criticised after telling young people to avoid the news because ‘upsetting’ stories could damage their mental health.
Young Scot, which received almost £2million in public money last year and campaigns among 11 to 26-year-olds, said it ‘might be a good idea to unfollow news channel accounts’ on social media because they ‘mostly just post negative news’.
Young people were also advised not to read comment sections on news websites because they might see ‘nasty’ opinions.
The charity suggested they should instead read content from ‘nice’ sources that post only positive articles about ‘people doing amazing things’.
The organisation deleted the warnings, issued this week on its Instagram account, after criticism and Young Scot admitted the advice had been ‘a mistake’.
Annie McGuire, a former broadcaster who is now a journalism lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, said she was ‘genuinely shocked’ by the warnings.
She told The Times: ‘They told the young people of Scotland to unfollow the news because it can be depressing, rather than hitting out at fake news, targeted advertising, unrealistic body images, toxic behaviour or cyberbullying.
‘I’m glad Young Scot took the Instagram story down and would really encourage them to run a similar guide to how young people can engage with the news and use their critical thinking to form responses to it, beyond just “feeling depressed”.’
The organisation, which describes itself as the national youth information and citizenship charity for Scotland, received around £1.8million in grants in 2017-18. Most of this came from the Scottish Government.
Its Instagram post suggested that young people embark on a ‘clean-up’ of social networks and claimed that exposure to ‘a lot of negative stuff’ could leave people ‘feeling down and cynical about the world’.
John Toner, Scottish national organiser for the National Union of Journalists, said: ‘It is vital that young people engage with the democratic process and they cannot do so unless they are fully informed.’
John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, said there were ‘obvious dangers’ in trying to censor news.
He added: ‘Does Young Scot not trust the ability of young people to make their own judgments or believe they are robust enough to have their views challenged by different opinions? The more young people engage with reputable news sources across a spectrum of views the better.’
A spokesman for Young Scot said: ‘Our Instagram story was about looking after your mental wellbeing and being able to unplug for a little while. In trying to set this out, we expressed ourselves clumsily.
‘We absolutely do not advocate young people switching off from the news. When our poor choice of words was pointed out we immediately took down the story and will learn from this. It was a mistake.’
Young Scot chief executive Louise Macdonald said: ‘We tried to express in simple terms something which required much more nuance and thoughtfulness. We phrased it poorly.
‘It was spotted by a senior journalism lecturer who tweeted about it. As soon as she did we took the content down and issued an explanation and statement.’