WASHINGTON (AP) — A nearly six-hour grilling of TikTok’s CEO by lawmakers brought the platform’s 150 million U.S. users no closer to an answer as to whether the app will be wiped from their devices.

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday pressed Shou Zi Chew over data security and harmful content, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned due to its Chinese connections.

In a bipartisan effort to rein in the power of a major social media platform, Republican and Democratic lawmakers hurled questions on a host of topics, including TikTok’s content moderation practices, how the company plans to secure American data from Beijing, and its spying on journalists.

Chew spent most of the hearing attempting to push back assertions that TikTok, or its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are tools of the Chinese government. But he failed to answer uncomfortable questions about human rights abuses committed by China against the Uyghurs, and seemed taken aback by a TikTok video displayed by one lawmaker that advocated for violence against the House committee holding the hearing.

The rare public appearance by the 40-year-old Singapore native comes at a crucial time for the company. TikTok has ballooned its American user base to 150 million in a few short years, but its increasing dominance is being threated by a potential nationwide ban in the U.S. and growing fears among officials about protecting user data from China’s communist government.

There’s also symbolism for lawmakers in taking on TikTok, which has been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology, as well as heighted tensions due to recent balloon politics and China’s relationship with Russia.

“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said in her opening statement.

Chew told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denied it’s a national security risk. He reiterated the company’s plan to protect U.S. user data by storing it on servers maintained and owned by the software giant Oracle.

“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.

Nevertheless, the company has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or that it could be used to promote narratives favorable to the country’s communist leaders.

In 2019, the Guardian reported that TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square and included images unfavorable to the Chinese government. The platform says it has since changed its moderation practices.

Concerns about the platform increased when ByteDance admitted in December that it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists, and people connected to them, last summer while attempting to uncover the source of a leaked report about the company.

Aware of its weakness, TikTok has been trying to distance itself from its Chinese origins, saying 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group.

“Ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns,” Chew said.

But for many others, it is. The Biden administration has reportedly demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes in the company to avoid a nationwide ban. China has said it would oppose those attempts. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a separate committee hearing Thursday that he believes TikTok is a security threat, and “should be ended one way or another.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “everyone was watching” Thursday’s TikTok hearing at the White House. But she declined to comment on specific actions the administration could take to address its TikTok concerns.

In one of the most dramatic moments of the hearing, Republican Rep. Kat Cammack played a TikTok video showing a shooting gun with a caption that included the House committee, with the exact date before it was formally announced.

“You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintaining the data security, privacy and security of 150 million Americans where you can’t even protect the people in this room,” Cammack said.

TikTok said the company on Thursday removed the video and banned the account that posted it.

Concerns about what kind of content Americans encounter online, or how their data is collected by technology companies, isn’t new. Congress has been wanting to curtail the amount of data tech companies collect on consumers through a national privacy law, but those efforts have failed.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat and one of the few allies TikTok seemingly has on the Hill, said lawmakers concerned about protecting users shouldn’t target TikTok, but must instead focus on a national law that would protect user data across all social media platforms. Chew also noted the failure of U.S. social media companies to address the very concerns for which TikTok was being criticized.

“American social companies don’t have a good track record with data privacy and user security,” he said. “Look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, just one example.”

Committee members also showed a host of TikTok videos that encouraged users to harm themselves and commit suicide. Many questioned why the platform’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin, does not carry the same potentially dangerous content as the American product.

Chew responded that it depends on the laws of the country where the app is operating. He said the company has about 40,000 moderators that track harmful content and an algorithm that flags material.

Wealth management firm Wedbush described the hearing as a “disaster” for TikTok that made a ban more likely if it doesn’t separate from its Chinese parent. Emile El Nems, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, said a ban would benefit TikTok rivals YouTube, Instagram and Snap, “likely resulting in higher revenue share of the total advertising wallet.”

To avoid a ban, TikTok has been trying to sell officials on a $1.5 billion plan, Project Texas, which routes all U.S. user data to servers owned and maintained by the software giant Oracle.

As of October, all new U.S. user data was being stored inside the country. The company started deleting all historic U.S. user data from non-Oracle servers this month, in a process expected to be completed this year, Chew said.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw noted that regardless of what the company does to assure lawmakers it will protect U.S. user data, the Chinese government can still have significant influence over its parent company and ask it to turn over data through its national security laws.

Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states have already banned the use of the app from official devices. Similar bans have been imposed in other countries including Denmark, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, as well as the European Union.

A complete TikTok ban in the U.S. would risk political and popular backlash from its young user base and civil liberties groups.

David Kennedy, a former government intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec, said he agrees with restricting TikTok access on government-issued phones but that a nationwide ban might be too extreme.

“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?” Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”

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Coachella, Calif. – The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department reminds everyone taking a trip to visit friends or family over the Memorial Day Weekend to always buckle up and keep children in child safety seats.

This year’s Click it or Ticket campaign is from May 23-June 5. During this time, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will have additional officers on patrol actively looking for drivers and passengers who are not wearing a seat belt. This includes vehicles where children are not secured in child safety seats.

“Wearing a seat belt should be an automatic for all drivers and passengers,” Sgt. Matos said. “It’s the safe thing to do, especially when it comes to securing children in child safety seats.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 10,893 people killed in crashes throughout the country in 2020 were not wearing seat belts. In California, 756 people killed in crashes in 2020 were not wearing seat belts, or nearly 20 percent of all traffic deaths in the state.

California law requires a child to be secured in a safety or booster seat until they are at least 8 or at least 4 feet, 9 inches tall. Children under the age of 2 must ride in a rear-facing seat unless the child weighs 40 or more pounds or is 40 or more inches tall.

California has a primary seat belt law, which allows law enforcement officers to ticket someone for not wearing a seat belt without committing another traffic violation.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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On March 19, 2022, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., deputies from the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Station Traffic Team conducted a distracted driving operation at various intersections throughout the city of San Jacinto. The goal of this operation was to educate drivers on the importance of driving without distractions and ultimately provide safety for all who utilize San Jacinto roadways.

At the conclusion of the operation, 67 citations were issued for distracted driving, 5 vehicles were towed, 3 misdemeanor citations were issued, and 1 person was arrested for an outstanding felony warrant.

For questions regarding this operation, inquires can be made by contacting Sergeant Dawn Blair at the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Station at 951-654-2702.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its fiscal year (FY) 2023 Skilled Nursing Facilities Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) proposed rule, which includes asking for public feedback on how staffing in nursing homes and health equity improvements could lead to better health outcomes.

The proposed rule builds upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advance health equity, drive high-quality person-centered care, and promote sustainability of its programs. The rule is an important step in fulfilling its goal to protect Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents and staff by improving the safety and quality of care of the nation’s SNFs (commonly referred to as nursing homes). The SNF PPS provides Medicare payments to over 15,000 nursing homes, serving more than 1.5 million people. Medicare spending to nursing homes is projected to be approximately $35 billion in FY 2022. Through the SNF PPS proposed rule, CMS is continuing its work to transform the SNF payment system to a more patient-centered model by making payments based on the needs of the whole patient, rather than focusing on the volume of certain services the patient receives.

“Everyone deserves to receive safe, dignified, and high-quality care, no matter where they live,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Today we are starting the necessary work to ensure our loved ones living in nursing homes receive the best care at the staffing levels they need. We are working hard to deliver on President Biden’s commitment to protecting seniors and improving the quality of our nation’s nursing homes.”

The SNF PPS proposed rule aims to realize the President’s vision for the nation’s nursing homes as outlined in his State of the Union Address, with a focus on providing safe, dignified, and appropriate care for residents. As part of this vision, the Biden-Harris Administration recently set a goal to improve the quality of nursing homes so that seniors, people with disabilities, and others living in nursing homes get the reliable, high-quality care they deserve. A key part of reaching this goal is addressing staffing levels in nursing homes, which have a substantial impact on the quality of care and outcomes residents experience.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted serious problems at some of the nation’s nursing homes that have persisted for too long. And we have seen the tragic impact that inadequate staff resources can have on residents and staff,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “The Biden-Harris Administration has promised that we will work with all stakeholders to do better for nursing home residents, and today’s proposed rule includes important steps toward our goal to promote safety and quality of care for all residents and staff.”

In the SNF PPS proposed rule, CMS is soliciting input to help the agency establish minimum staffing requirements that nursing homes will need to meet to ensure all residents are provided safe, high-quality care, and nursing home workers have the support they need. This input will be used in conjunction with a new research study being conducted by CMS to determine the optimal level and type of nursing home staffing needs. The agency intends to issue proposed rules on a minimum staffing level requirement for nursing homes within one year. 

CMS is also requesting stakeholder input on a measure that would examine staff turnover levels in nursing homes for possible inclusion in CMS’ SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, which rewards facilities with incentive payments based on the quality of care they provide to people with Medicare. Looking at the relationship between staff turnover and quality of care, preliminary analysis by CMS has shown that as the average staff turnover decreases, a facility’s overall rating on CMS’ Nursing Home Five Star Quality Rating System increases, which suggests that lower turnover is associated with higher overall quality. CMS will use the stakeholder feedback to inform a proposal of this measure to include in the SNF VBP Program in the future. 

In January, CMS began posting nursing home staff turnover rates (as well as weekend staff levels) on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website, and CMS will be including this information in the star rating system starting in July 2022. This information helps consumers better understand each nursing home facility’s staffing environment and also helps providers to improve the quality of care and services they deliver to residents. 

 The proposed rule also proposes the adoption of 3 new measures into the SNF VBP Program:

• The Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI) is an outcome measure that assesses SNF performance on infection prevention and management.
• The Total Nursing Hours per Resident Day is a structural measure that uses auditable electronic data to calculate total nursing hours per resident each day.
• The Adoption of the Discharge to Community – Post Acute Care Measure for SNFs (DTC) is an outcome measure that assesses the rate of successful discharges to community from a SNF setting.

 To advance health equity and address the health disparities that underlie the U.S. health care system, CMS is requesting stakeholder feedback on the role health equity plays in improving health outcomes and the quality of care in nursing homes. Specifically, CMS is seeking comment on how to arrange or classify measures in nursing home quality reporting programs by indicators of social risk to better identify and reduce disparities.

CMS is proposing a 3.9%, or $1.4 billion, update to the payment rates for nursing homes, which is based on a 2.8% SNF market basket update plus a 1.5 percentage point market basket forecast error adjustment and less a 0.4 percentage point productivity adjustment. The proposed rule also contains a proposed adjustment to payment rates as the result of the transition to the SNF payment case-mix classification model  ̶  the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) that went into effect on October 1, 2019. When finalizing the PDPM, CMS also stated that the transition to PDPM would not result in an increase or decrease in aggregate SNF spending. Since PDPM implementation, CMS’ data analysis has shown an unintended increase in payments. Therefore, CMS is proposing to adjust SNF payment rates downward by 4.6%, or $1.7 billion, in FY 2023 to achieve budget neutrality with the previous payment system. As a result, the estimated aggregate impact of the payment policies in this proposed rule would be a decrease of approximately $320 million in Medicare Part A payments to SNFs in FY 2023 compared to FY 2022.

For a fact sheet on President Biden’s remarks during the State of the Union Address on improving nursing home safety and quality, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/02/28/fact-sheet-protecting-seniors-and-people-with-disabilities-by-improving-safety-and-quality-of-care-in-the-nations-nursing-homes/

For a fact sheet on the FY 2023 SNF PPS proposed rule, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/fiscal-year-fy-2023-skilled-nursing-facility-prospective-payment-system-proposed-rule-cms-1765-p

To view the FY 2023 SNF PPS proposed rule, please visit: https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2022-07906/medicare-program-prospective-payment-system-and-consolidated-billing-for-skilled-nursing-facilities

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San Jacinto, Calif. – The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, San Jacinto Station is reminding football fans to stick to the “go safely” game plan and designate a sober driver if you plan on drinking at a Super Bowl LVI watch party.

“If you plan to have a drink or two, choose a sober way to get to and from wherever you are watching the game,” Deputy Ray Cortez said. “Have a ride-hailing service or a family member who hasn’t been drinking take you home.”

The Riverside County  Sheriff’s Department reminds the public that alcohol is not the only substance that impairs. Marijuana, prescription drugs, and over-the-counter medications can all affect your ability to drive safely. Do your research and understand the potential side effects of certain drugs.

“When it comes to getting to and from places safely, we’re all on the same team,” Deputy Ray Cortez. “The choice is simple: Don’t drive impaired.”

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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During the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season Nov. 30-Dec. 14, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will have additional officers on patrol looking for drivers suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Tragically, there is an uptick in impaired drivers during the holidays. During the 2019 Christmas (Dec. 24-Dec. 26) and New Year’s Day (Dec. 28, 2018-Jan. 2, 2019) holiday periods, there were more drunk-driving related deaths (210) throughout the country than during any other holiday period in 2019.

“We want everyone to enjoy the holidays and be safe,” said Deputy Ray Cortez. “The more people who plan ahead and find a safe, sober ride home from holiday parties, the better.”

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department reminds drivers that a “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.” Prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs and marijuana can also impair, especially in combination with alcohol and other drugs.

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators put executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on the defensive Tuesday, questioning them about what they’re doing to ensure young users’ safety on their platforms.

Citing the harm that can come to vulnerable young people from the sites — ranging from eating disorders to exposure to sexually explicit content and material promoting addictive drugs — the lawmakers also sought the executives’ support for legislation bolstering protection of children on social media. But they received little firm commitment.

“The problem is clear: Big Tech preys on children and teens to make more money,” Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said at a hearing by the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection.

The subcommittee recently took testimony from a former Facebook data scientist, who laid out internal company research showing that the company’s Instagram photo-sharing service appears to seriously harm some teens. The subcommittee is widening its focus to examine other tech platforms, with millions or billions of users, that also compete for young people’s attention and loyalty.

“We’re hearing the same stories of harm” caused by YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the panel’s chairman.

“This is for Big Tech a big tobacco moment … It is a moment of reckoning,” he said. “There will be accountability. This time is different.”

To that end, Markey asked the three executives — Michael Beckerman, a TikTok vice president and head of public policy for the Americas; Leslie Miller, vice president for government affairs and public policy of YouTube’s owner Google; and Jennifer Stout, vice president for global public policy of Snapchat parent Snap Inc. — if they would support his bipartisan legislation that would give new privacy rights to children, and ban targeted ads and video autoplay for kids.

In a lengthy exchange as Markey tried to draw out a commitment of support, the executives avoided providing a direct endorsement, insisting that their platforms already are complying with the proposed restrictions. They said they’re seeking a dialogue with lawmakers as the legislation is crafted.

That wasn’t good enough for Markey and Blumenthal, who perceived a classic Washington lobbying game in a moment of crisis for social media and the tech industry. “This is the talk that we’ve seen again and again and again and again,” Blumenthal told them. Applauding legislative goals in a general way is “meaningless” unless backed up by specific support, he said.

“Sex and drugs are violations of our community standards; they have no place on TikTok,” Beckerman said. TikTok has tools in place, such as screen-time management, to help young people and parents moderate how long children spend on the app and what they see, he said.

The company says it focuses on age-appropriate experiences, noting that some features, such as direct messaging, are not available to younger users. The video platform, wildly popular with teens and younger children, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. In only five years since launching, it has gained an estimated 1 billion monthly users.

Early this year after federal regulators order TikTok to disclose how its practices affect children and teenagers, the platform tightened its privacy practices for users under 18.

Pressed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., about a 19-year-old said to have died from counterfeit pain medication he bought through Snapchat, Stout said, “We’re absolutely determined to remove all drug dealers from Snapchat.” She said the platform has deployed detection measures against dealers but acknowledged that they are often evaded.

Stout made the case that Snapchat’s platform differs from the others in relying on humans, not artificial intelligence, for moderating content.

Snapchat allows people to send photos, videos and messages that are meant to quickly disappear, an enticement to its young users seeking to avoid snooping parents and teachers. Hence its “Ghostface Chillah” faceless (and word-less) white logo.

Only 10 years old, Snapchat says an eye-popping 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. use the service. It reported 306 million daily users in the July-September quarter.

Miller said YouTube has worked to provide children and families with protections and parental controls like time limits, to limit viewing to age-appropriate content. The offshoot YouTube Kids, available in around 70 countries, has an estimated 35 million weekly users.

“We do not prioritize profits over safety. We do not wait to act,” she said.

The three platforms are woven into the fabric of young people’s lives, often influencing their dress, dance moves and diet, potentially to the point of obsession. Peer pressure to get on the apps is strong. Social media can offer entertainment and education, but platforms have been misused to harm children and promote bullying, vandalism in schools, eating disorders and manipulative marketing, lawmakers say.

The panel wants to learn how algorithms and product designs can magnify harm to children, foster addiction and intrusions of privacy. And Blumenthal especially asked the executives whether independent research had been conducted on the impact on young people of the platforms. He said the lawmakers want to receive information from the companies on such research soon.

TikTok, in its first time testifying before Congress, received especially fierce criticism during the hearing, particularly from conservative Republican lawmakers who highlighted its Chinese ownership. The company says it stores all TikTok U.S. data in the United States, with a backup facility in Singapore.

“TikTok actually collects less data than many of our peers,” Beckerman said.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Beckerman that he dodged questions more than any witness he’s ever seen in Congress.

TikTok’s privacy policy states, “We may share all of the information we collect with a parent, subsidiary or other affiliate of our corporate group.” Senators drilled down on whether “other affiliate” includes ByteDance and what that means for Chinese access to data.

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Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Reminds Drivers to Look Out and Always Stop for Trick-or-Treaters Halloween Night.

San Jacinto, Calif. – With traditional in-person Halloween activities resuming this year, the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Station encourages everyone on the road to be extra careful as more children are out walking the neighborhood and collecting candy.

As everyone participates in Halloween and Día de los Muertos celebrations, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department offers the following tips for families to be as safe as possible on Halloween night:

Drivers

• Slow down and watch out for more foot traffic in residential neighborhoods.
• Take extra time looking for trick-or-treaters at intersections and entering/exiting driveways.
• Never drive distracted or impaired.

Parents and trick-or-treaters

• Make sure costumes fit to prevent trips and falls.
• Decorate costumes and bags/buckets with reflective tape.
• Have kids use flashlights or glow sticks to make it easier for drivers to see them.
• Walk on sidewalks, when available. Avoid darting into the street or crossing between parked cars.
• Stick to familiar, well-lit routes.
• Look both ways before crossing the street. Make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them.

If you are heading to a local bar, restaurant or house party and plan to drink, bring the designated sober driver with you, use a ride-hailing service, or stay the night.

In an effort to keep trick-or-treaters and others in the Halloween spirit safe, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will have additional deputies on patrol looking for drivers suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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The drive to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus is gaining speed and newly recorded cases have fallen to their lowest level in three months, but authorities worry that raucous Super Bowl celebrations could fuel new outbreaks.

More than 4 million more vaccinations were reported over the weekend, a significantly faster clip than in previous days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly one in 10 Americans have now received at least one shot. But just 2.9% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, a long way from the 70% or more that experts say must be inoculated to conquer the outbreak.

Newly confirmed infections have declined to an average of 117,000 a day, the lowest point since early November. That is a steep drop from the peak of nearly 250,000 a day in early January.

The number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has also fallen sharply to about 81,000, down from more than 130,000 last month.

Health officials say the decline in hospitalizations and new cases most likely reflects an easing of the surge that was fueled by holiday gatherings, and perhaps better adherence to safety precautions.

The drop-off in new cases comes as fewer tests for the virus are being reported. But experts say the decline in cases is real. It is more pronounced than the apparent slowdown in testing, and it is accompanied by other encouraging signs.

“We are seeing a real decline because it’s been sustained over time and it’s correlated with decreasing hospitalizations,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. “That tells you that there does seem to be something afoot.”

The question, he said, is whether the lower numbers can be sustained as new variants of the virus take hold in the United States. President Joe Biden has announced plans to spend billions to increase rapid testing by the summer.

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are still running at close to all-time highs, at an average of about 3,160 per day, down about 200 since mid-January. The death toll overall has eclipsed 460,000.

Federal officials are warning states not to relax restrictions on dining out and other social activities.

“We have yet to control this pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, said Monday.

The sight of fans, many without masks, celebrating the Super Bowl in the streets, in sports bars and at game-watching parties has sparked worries of new outbreaks.

“This isn’t how we should be celebrating the Super Bowl,” the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, Rick Kriseman, tweeted after a maskless party was hosted by Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in a hangar at the city’s airport, not far from where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the title.

“It’s not safe or smart. It’s stupid. We’re going to take a very close look at this, and it may end up costing someone a lot more than 50 cent.”

Police in Charleston, South Carolina, issued citations to nearly 50 people for not wearing masks in public during Sunday’s game.

Richard Medina of Los Angeles attended a friend’s backyard game party on Sunday, though he knew case numbers in Southern California remain high.

“It was outdoors, and felt like it was going to be pretty chill,” said Medina, who spent most of the past year in isolation with a roommate who hates sports. He enjoyed the escape but decided to leave after awhile.

“More people started showing up later, and it felt like the more people drank, the more they started getting sloppy about masks and keeping their distance,” he said.

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The documentary argues that while platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have at times been used to facilitate social movements and meaningful change, they can also make people more anxious, polarized, and inclined to believe misinformation. What’s more, according to the documentary, these apps are structured to make their users obsessed with them.

As many parents know, children can be susceptible to the most common pitfalls of social media, but there are some key steps that they can take to help ensure that children’s usage remains balanced, healthy and safe:

• Sorting fact from fiction: Information about the world is often delivered via social media tools. Unfortunately, much of that content is actually misinformation. Parents can help stem the tide of “fake news” by teaching kids how to sort fact from fiction and pointing them in the direction of trusted sources of information.

• Privacy measures: An enormous amount of data is gathered by social media companies. Parents should teach kids to be wary of sharing private information and opinions online. They can also add privacy settings to children’s profiles to ensure they are connected only to their friends and family.

• Social media and feelings: Social media usage can be an emotional roller coaster. Parents should consider having a conversation with children about the way social media makes them feel. As part of this discussion, parents can remind kids that while “likes” and nice comments may make them feel good, it’s important not to rely too heavily on social media for emotional validation or real connection with friends. Unfortunately, cyberbullies and online “trolls” are active social media users, too, making social media apps a sometimes unfriendly place.

• Monitoring usage: New tools are helping parents seamlessly monitor social media usage and protect kids from unsafe content. In fact, over 1.2 million families use the screen time management solution, OurPact. The app, which allows parents to block or limit app access automatically, gives families the flexibility to set schedules for usage around recurring activities like school and bedtime, keeping access well-balanced. Parents can even view screenshots of kids’ digital activity. Available at the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, parents can also sign up for an account at www.ourpact.com.

While the ever-evolving social media landscape can make it difficult for adults to keep up with the way their children are interacting with these platforms, parents can help protect their kids by communicating regularly and by using new tools.

-Statepoint

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