“What Makes a Man: The White Ribbon Conference 2013″ is a discussion focused, two-day event exploring how the ideas of masculinity and gender affect everyone in all walks of life. This conference is hosted by White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement of men and boys working to end violence against women and girls. Their mission is to promote gender equity, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity that embodies the best qualities of being human.
The first day of the conference was held at Daniel Spectrum and had several provoking discussion groups throughout the day. One was the “Cybersexuality: Gender, Youth and Consent in the Age of the Internet”. This was a “Living Room” style panel, set up in a lounge-type stage where the panellists could sit on sofas while discussing topics and taking questions from the audience in a communal atmosphere. The panel included young facilitator, Steph Guthrie, and three teenagers ranging from 15 to 17, as well as a Crisis Line worker and a University student. The panel started with questions from the facilitators directed to the teenagers on issues regarding sexting, selfies, cyberbullying, and online consent. The panellists went around sharing their personal experiences as well as opinions and views from the youth perspective, as youth using social media today.
The youth delved into the topic of online consent and its relationship to social media sites like Facebook, and Twitter. When a photo ends up on a social media site, it automatically becomes public domain in the eyes of social media users. People reblog and retweet. Search engines create backups and databases, making it nearly impossible to remove or delete content. It will be out there in the cyber world forever. This brings up the issue of consent in the sense that you are not getting permission or agreement before using the content. One young panellist shared his experience of how a friend had published a picture of a private conversation on a social media site. He did not consent to this and was not comfortable with a private message being up there for everyone to see. He reacted by asking for it to be taken down.
Another provoking question was “What role does technology play in relationships on social media”. For the panellists it’s a tool to communicate, research, and “stalk” people of interest, and get to know more about the person before any commitment is even made. All three teenagers explained how social media is now a part of their life when building relationships, building friends, and building community. Another aspect of social media the young people believed was important was how social media can be a form of expression and a way of finding their voice and connecting with communities. One panellist described his personal experience connecting with the LGBTQ community, which he identified with much easier through social media than he ever could have in a school setting. All three youth panellists thought there should be more discussion on responsibility and safety of social media within the education system.
What really came out of the discussion was that “internet is us”. Young people on Facebook need the confidence to use social media as a platform for advocacy and community building, and although consent is an issue, it shouldn’t overshadow the positive aspects of online interaction. Young people have grown up with social media and will continue to use it. Having good blogs for youth and positive tools for young people to access, is the future for youth online. Set up positive sites- take the negative out. Let’s not be so reactive, let’s be proactive!
