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Scottie's common sense, Bob Mac's sunset beer, LIV rumors | Monday FinishThe cellular telephone or rather its modern incarnation – the smartphone – has become almost an extension of our body. It is 24/7 with us, giving us updates about our near and dear and also about the wider world. It enables us to do a thousand and one things in addition to the basic function of telephony. Even that has become so advanced that we can talk to another person on the other side of the world face to face free (save for the data charges). Smartphones enable us to go to any corner of the World Wide Web with a single touch. But for most people, this means easy access to social media or new media including Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Reddit, Telegram and BlueSky. In fact, this is how most people get their “news fix” in the morning – not the traditional newspaper, TV or radio. Just half an hour after waking up, they know what their friends and relatives are up to and also what world leaders are up to. Double-edged sword But like most things in life, the smartphone is like a double-edged sword. It is not only a treasure trove of information, but also a minefield of misinformation. For example, reliable sites on the Internet will give you the correct facts on vaccines and vaccination, but Facebook et al is full of misinformation on the same subject. Millions of people were misled by such false posts and did not take the Covid-19 vaccine and some of them did not survive the pandemic. What is even more worrying is the proliferation of smartphones among children, including even those still in the kindergarten. The Internet and the deep labyrinth known as the “dark web” is a dangerous place for children to be. Children can also access content that is unsuitable for them. Many children have been lured online by sexual predators. Many others are bullied online, a process termed cyber bullying. Unable to bear these taunts, some children, even in Sri Lanka, have taken the extreme step of taking their own lives. Educators also complain that smartphones are a major source of distraction, negatively impacting students’ ability to concentrate on lessons. Incoming notifications, or even the mere proximity of a mobile device, can be a distraction resulting in students losing their attention from the task at hand. Leaving all that aside, looking at a screen virtually all day long can harm the developing eyes of children and also inhibit their physical activities. The GEM Report’s gender edition highlighted how social media can negatively affect mental health while reinforcing harmful gender norms. It found that girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from eating disorders exacerbated by social media use. Facebook’s own research revealed that 32 percent of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram. The report further noted alarming trends related to TikTok’s algorithm, which targets teenagers with body image content every 39 seconds and promotes content related to eating disorders every eight minutes. For the past several years, educationists around the world have been alarmed by these developments to the point where they began to call for a ban on mobiles for schoolchildren during school hours. Their call was based on everyday observations as well as scientific research. At home, of course, it is up to the parents or guardians to restrict smartphone usage or give the children free rein. In response, several countries have taken steps to ban phones in the classrooms, at least for children aged less than 16. Parents have also universally applauded the move while even the children have somewhat grudgingly warmed up to the idea. Overall, a new analysis from the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report team found that more than 60 countries now ban smartphones in classrooms by law or policy. Algeria, Cambodia, Chile, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Niue and the Russian Federation are some of the countries that have introduced bans. Getting rid of smartphones from schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom was found to improve learning outcomes, according to a study cited in the report, especially for students that were not performing as well as their peers. Sweden has implemented a ban on cell phones for students in Grades 1-9 during school hours, including breaks. In France, cell phones are completely banned in schools due to their potential to distract students, with exceptions made for people with disabilities. Bangladesh teachers and students have been banned from bringing mobile phones in classrooms, while Uzbekistan mandates that students turn off their devices before lessons commence and are only allowed to use their phones to communicate with parents or legal guardians in cases of justified and urgent need. In Scotland (United Kingdom) and the Netherlands, cell phone use is restricted to educational purposes only. In November 2023, the Dutch Government unveiled plans to extend the ban on mobile phones in classrooms to include primary and special schools, with exceptions being made for medical needs or educational purposes. Partial or total restrictions on cell phone use can also be found in Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Switzerland, and Türkiye. These regulations are often accompanied by guidelines on screen time and policies aimed at limiting social media use within educational settings. In the morning before class starts, one by one, the students at the Würenloser Gesamtschule near Zürich in Switzerland turn off their smartphones and drop them into a simple wooden box at the front of their classroom. The devices will remain there until the gong rings at the end of their school day. “I don’t even take it to school anymore,” one 12th-Grader said. “It only distracts me.” His peers agree. “We talk more with each other instead of everybody staring at their screens,” his friend said. “Major problem” According to a recent Pew research, 70 percent of high school teachers believe phone distraction is a “major problem,” and a third of the students said they are distracted by digital devices during lessons. On average, US teenagers spend nearly five hours a day on social media, according to a recent Gallup survey. The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who wrote the bestseller The Anxious Generation, has expressed concern about the “rewiring” of an entire generation and noticed clear links between rising phone addiction and declining mental health. But educationists say that the solution is not as simple as banning all digital devices. The problem is not the use of these devices per se, but excessive use and the kind of content that students access. Students who spend one to five hours per day on digital devices including tablets and laptops for learning at school and home score significantly higher in their mathematics lessons than those who spend no time on such devices, according to a recent OECD report: Studies have also shown that simply taking digital devices away is not an entirely successful strategy. Children need alternatives that can prove more enriching than digital and social media temptations. These can be group activities, sports, quiz programs, music and dance, school clubs, broadcasting and debating societies and foreign language classes. Some countries have gone even further, suggesting total social media bans for schoolchildren under 16, at school and home. Australia is the first country to take this extreme step, with its Parliament approving the measure last week. Under this proposal, Australia has passed a law to prevent children under 16 from creating (and accessing) accounts on social media platforms. This has attracted both plaudits (from parents and educationists) and criticism (from social media companies, human rights advocates and even social media experts). “This is about protecting young people — not punishing or isolating them,” said Australia’s Communications Minister Michelle Rowland. She cited exposure to content about drug abuse, eating disorders and violence as some of the harms children can encounter online. However, it is not exactly clear how the law could be implemented as it is difficult for the State to “police” online accounts. It has also raised privacy concerns. The law requires social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to verify the age of users and prohibit those under 16 from opening accounts. However, it is rather easy to give false dates of birth and other information online, as the social media companies do not have tools to verify them. There is also a debate on which platforms could be subjected to the ban. The Australian Government has named TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) as sites it is likely to include. Three broad categories of platforms will be exempt: messaging apps (like WhatsApp and Facebook’s Messenger Kids); gaming platforms; and services that provide educational content, including YouTube, Vimeo and Khan Academy. Access platforms Those 15 and under will also still be able to access platforms that let users see some content without registering for an account, such as TikTok, Facebook and Reddit. However, some experts have suggested that the social media companies should devote more resources to content moderation and removal of harmful content, an argument that has its merits. Other countries are looking at the Aussie experiment before taking similar steps. This brings us to the question whether Sri Lanka should follow these examples. There have been several reports of children here causing self-harm to themselves over social media posts and comments. There is no doubt that parents should exercise some control over their children’s online habits. Many devices have parental control settings, but it is even better not to provide young children with digital devices of their own. If the parents give their devices to children, it is better to set a time limit. Quite apart from social media, some mobile games can be extremely violent and could have a corrosive influence on young minds. As we said earlier, it is a minefield out there on the Internet and parents and teachers have to guide young ones with care.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s defection to Donald Trump and the Republicans comes after years of criticism the former Democrat laid at Trump's feet. Kennedy, whom Trump has nominated to be the next U.S. health secretary, has previously called the president-elect a "bully" and a "terrible president" and described his early political rise as "scary." In a video that was widely shared online this week, amid widespread discussion of Trump's cabinet picks, commentators claimed that Kennedy had disparaged Trump's supporters too, saying he called them "belligerent idiots," "outright Nazis," and "bootlickers." The Claim A post on X, formerly Twitter , by user Republicans against Trump, posted on November 21, 2024, viewed 3.9 million times, said: "[siren emoji] CNN has uncovered an audio in which RFK Jr scorched Trump and his supporters, calling them "belligerent idiots," "outright Nazis," "cowards," and "bootlickers." The post included audio in which Kennedy said: "One of the things that you write so beautifully, and your stuff is so fun to read, but you write about Trump, quote, 'The way that you build a truly vicious nationalist movement is to wed a relatively small core of belligerent idiots to a much larger group of opportunists and spineless fellow travelers whose primary function is to turn a blind eye to things.'" The Facts CNN did not report that Kennedy said those words about Trump supporters himself, and Kennedy did not do so either. CNN reported earlier this week that the recording was taken from a March 2016 episode of the Ring of Fire radio show, during which Kennedy praisingly repeated the words of journalist Matt Taibbi. "'We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up,'" Kennedy quoted. As was said in the clip, Kennedy doesn't resist or challenge Taibbi's words, calling them "beautifully" written and "fun to read." The passage itself doesn't outright call Trump supporters "belligerent idiots" but strongly connects them to that insult. Importantly, these weren't Kennedy's words, although his praise of the passage suggests he, at the very least, sympathized with its sentiment. "Like many Americans, I allowed myself to believe the mainstream media's distorted, dystopian portrait of President Trump," Kennedy said in a statement sent to Newsweek by the Trump-Vance transition team. "I no longer hold this belief and now regret having made those statements. President Trump has a tremendous vision for our country that will not only make our country healthy again but will lower the cost of living for all Americans, stop endless wars, protect free speech, secure our Southern border, and make our country great again. "I am proud to serve in President Trump's administration." As reported in October 2024 by The New York Times, Kennedy has ridiculed Trump for many years, including during his run as a candidate in the 2024 race, calling him a "terrible president" who would not be "capable of meeting the expectations and fulfilling the promises that he raises with his rhetoric." In a Newsweek op-ed from 2018 , Kennedy, who was a Democrat at the time, said that Trump's "presidency has not just discredited our nation, but the entire American experiment in self government." Trump was not kind to Kennedy prior to his dropping out of the 2024 race, either. Kennedy ran against Trump as a Democrat, then an independent, before ending his campaign in August and endorsing the president-elect. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social in late May, Trump called Kennedy "one of the most Liberal Lunatics ever to run for office," adding that he is "a Phony Radical Left fool whose poll numbers are TERRIBLE, and getting worse." The Ruling Needs Context. According to a CNN report, the audio recording of RFK Jr. is from 2016 and was of Kennedy reading a passage written by journalist Matt Taibbi. While these weren't his words, Kennedy repeated them in praise. FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team

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