Screen Time

Misinformation is tearing our country apart, and trust in our institutions, and in each other, is at an all time low. Some experts think we're at a breaking point, and new technologies are only going to make misinformation more persuasive - and more corrosive. To learn about the importance of social media and AI regulation for the protection of our information ecosystem, we talk to Facebook whistl...

A TikTok influencer with tens of thousands of followers is convinced that the world is controlled by an evil cabal of pedophiles. How does someone come to harbor such extreme views? And what happens to our politics - and our society - when those views start resonating with a growing number of people? In this episode, we meet Colin Big Bear Ross, a Freedom Convoy influencer who strongly believes in...

In the winter of 2022, thousands of Canadians descended on Ottawa for the Freedom Convoy. It was one of the largest displays of civil disobedience in the country's history - a movement by Canadians, for Canadians. But if that's the case, why did Russia's state controlled TV networks send correspondents there? And why did messaging groups devoted to the Convoy start posting press releases from the...

After Alexandre Bisonette was arrested for murdering six Muslim men in cold blood, investigators looked into his internet history and found that he'd fallen down a far right rabbit hole. In this episode, we take a step back from the pandemic to tell a story about online extremism, the political utility of conspiracy theories, and how misinformation can lead to bloodshed. With the help of Canada's...

Before a COVID vaccine had even been announced, prominent anti-vaxxers were working on a plan to discredit it. It's unclear whether their plans were driven by greed or by ideology, but one thing is clear: there's big money in espousing conspiracy theories. And a doctor who lost his medical licence for spreading COVID misinformation tells his side of the story. Could the line between truth and fict...

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it suddenly seemed like conspiracy theories were everywhere. But where did those ideas come from? And why did so many people believe them? Selena Paley, the co-founder of an alternative media outlet called Freedom Central, explains her anti-vaccine views and talks about her experience as part of the Freedom Convoy in 2022. Journalist Justin Ling then tells the story...

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it suddenly seemed like conspiracy theories were everywhere. Did Bill Gates put a microchip in the vaccine? Is the World Economic Forum trying to take over the world? Was the pandemic orchestrated by a secret cabal of elites? A recent poll found that 1 in 4 Canadians believe in online conspiracy theories. Which means that we're no longer just living in different info...

When it comes to data, tech companies treat anyone 13 and over as an adult. How did this happen? Hosts Taylor Owen and Nicole Edwards explore how the internet's definition of a child goes back to a single American law passed in the 1990s. Then, we hear from Baroness Beeban Kidron, an advocate for children's digital rights and member of the UK House of Lords. She has pushed through new legislation...

Every parent is forced to make tough choices about how much freedom to give their child online. How do you decide what the limits are? And what's the right level of risk? In this episode, hosts Taylor Owen and Nicole Edwards set out to find out just how worried we should be about teens' online safety. Two experts in children's digital rights weigh in. Sonia Livingstone, author and professor of soc...

YouTube is an ever-expanding video library that's home to a huge range of content-most of which is intended for adults. The difficult task of curating children's experiences on the platform often falls to parents. Co-hosts Taylor Owen and Nicole Edwards explore the reasons YouTube Kids isn't a quick fix for this problem, and how YouTube's profit model and design affects its youngest users - from r...

How can parents tell if a teen's social media use is harming their mental health? Hosts Taylor Owen and Nicole Edwards are joined by a teen with a powerful story about the complicated relationship young people have with these platforms. Guest Sarah Banet-Weiser, Director, Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication, unpacks what makes photo and video apps so magnetic, and why they generally a...

Is a rise in screen time changing the way children's brains develop? Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Boston Children's Hospital Digital Wellness Lab, explains how the infant brain works and how it responds differently to online and offline activities. Pediatrician and clinical researcher Dr. John Hutton walks co-hosts Nicole Edwards and Taylor Owen through his research using MRI to study the eff...

The metaverse might seem like an abstract world, but kids may already be living in it. Some researchers say popular gaming platforms like Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft are early versions. With kids spending so much time playing virtually, hosts Nicole Edwards and Taylor Owen find out whether online friendships are as healthy as in-person socializing for youth. Guest Katie Salen Tekinbaş; is a gam...

A show about how technology is changing childhood. Episode 1 will be released on March 10th. Donate to TVO: http://tvo.org/give See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.