Quebec Competencies Chart - Diversity and Media Ownership
Quebec Competencies Chart - Diversity and Media Ownership

Quebec Competencies Chart - Diversity and Media Ownership

Ottawa, ON, March 8, 2004—Canada’s Media Awareness Network (MNet) was honoured today as a global leader in Internet safety education by WiredSafety. The WiredKids Excellence in Internet Awareness and Education Award is part of a new international awards program established by U.S.-based WiredSafety, the world’s largest online safety, education and help group.

Quebec Competencies Chart - First, Do No Harm: Being an Active Witness to Cyberbullying

The strength and weakness of the internet as a research source is just how much information there is: a badly-phrased search can drown you in irrelevant, misleading or unreliable results. This is why some research has shown that companion reading can actually backfire if people don’t have effective search skills..

Media violence has been taken up as a public policy issue by a number of Western countries. Central to the debate has been the challenge of accommodating what may appear to be opposing principles—the protection of children from unsuitable media content and upholding the right to freedom of expression.

In Canada, consumers have certain rights to use copyrighted material without permission or license from the owner of the copyright. These rights are defined in the Copyright Act as Fair Dealing exemptions and were redefined in the 2012 changes to the Act. A good knowledge of Fair Dealing can be extremely helpful in understanding what you and your students can do with media in class. It's important to note that the Copyright Act provides very little definition for many of these terms; instead, most of the specifics of Fair Dealing have come from court rulings, and the new exemptions and other changes done in 2012 will likely also be further defined in the same way.

Most of the time, young people use digital tools like smartphones and platforms or games and social networks to communicate with friends and family. Teens may also use online spaces to find support, community and mentorship. All of these are healthy ways to use technology, but it’s important for them to know that some online relationships are unhealthy.

Since its earliest days, the internet has been hailed as a uniquely open marketplace of ideas and it’s become an essential means for people to access information and services. The downside of this is that, alongside its many valuable resources, the internet also offers a host of offensive materials – including hateful content – that attempt to inflame public opinion against certain groups and to turn people against one another.

They say the future comes when you aren’t looking. This Media Literacy Week, we are reflecting on how the pandemic has changed how we interact with media and each other. Certainly a few years ago, not many of us could have imagined we’d be spending a fair portion of our lives doing video chats, which were considered obsolete and mostly reserved for keeping in touch with friends and family far away.

It is natural for adolescents to be curious about sex: MediaSmarts’ research suggests that one in six grade 7- 11 students use the Internet to look for information about sexual health. Twenty percent of kids that age look for pornography online, but a third see it without looking for it — and close to half take steps to keep from seeing it.