(Quebec) Quebec must increase awareness campaigns in schools to make adolescents aware of the risks associated with the use of applications like Wizz, according to the opposition. For the Parti Québécois, the issue must provoke “a collective awakening”.
“The words that come to mind are: awareness, awareness, awareness,” argued the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
“That’s why it’s important, sexuality education in schools. This is why we need to equip parents. That’s why we need well-funded community groups to support families before it happens, ideally, and then, if it happens, support them afterwards as well,” he added.
The interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party agrees: “ I think that, collectively, we could do more and better to educate our young people, to educate them, to say that it is excessively dangerous, this type of application, there are predators, on this, we must be careful », underlined Marc Tanguay.
The Press reported Tuesday that Wizzstyle application Tinder, helps connect millions of adolescents around the world, but at the same time offers a dream platform to sexual predators.
The Canadian Center for Child Protection also recommends that all parents consider blocking access to this application.
There is a “parental duty”, according to Marc Tanguay. But that said, the government also has the responsibility to ensure that the issue is addressed in the school environment, he believes.
“The government cannot, overnight, ban an application, that would be excessively difficult, legally, but it can through awareness campaigns […] say: be careful. It’s a huge red flag,” added the interim Liberal leader.
It was impossible to question the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, on the subject on Tuesday.
There must be a “collective awakening”, according to the PQ
For the Parti Québécois, which promised to make the time spent by young people in front of screens a priority, the situation depicted in The Press must contribute to a “collective awakening”.
“Today, there should be a collective awakening, an electric shock to say to ourselves: our 12-year-old, 13-year-old children would be on dating sites Tinder, then expose themselves to sexual predators, then we, as a government, will do nothing, we will look at that and then we will say to ourselves: “Well, that’s how it is”? », lamented Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
“What I explored, on screen time, is to give parents tools, to go there with a lot more prevention, awareness,” he added. According to him, screen time among young people is a “public health problem”.
With Léa Carrier, The Press