Regulatory Environment and its impact on the 3rd Sector

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Stephen1

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Topic # 40739 2-Sep-2009 16:59

40 years ago Youthline started. It seeked to engage, involve and evolve young people leadership abilities and then support them to provide a service back to the community.

Technology has always been an essential part of young people's life. The technogy that Youthline and young people utlised in 1970 is very differnt to 2010. Parents in both eras know the challenge of getting young people off the phone however parents now have the added advantage of being able to connect with the kids regardless wherever they are.

We are not experts in the telco arena but we have seen enough changes out there to get very nervous about signficant changes in the operating environment. We have seen enough information for us to wonder if decisions are made with a full understanding of the impact not only to organisations like our but to the wider community and particularily margalised people.

I am the Youthline CEO; I have started this discussion because we want to be informed with what is happening so we can be preapred for what might be around the corner. In the last year our help line has seen an increase in text from 5000 per year to over 200,000. Trying to predict the impact of regulatory decisions is a challenge and important if we are to be prepared.

Stephen Bell

Screeb

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Reply # 252684 2-Sep-2009 18:07

Please don't buy into Vodafone and Telecom's FUD. Regardless of regulations, we will NOT end up paying to receive calls and TXTs. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Stephen1

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Reply # 252844 3-Sep-2009 09:43

Thanks for the reassurance; but what i have seen does give me some concern. The broader issue is that regulators need to be aware of downstream impacts of regulatory decisions.

Stephen Bell

browned

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Reply # 252901 3-Sep-2009 12:54

I would suggest to you that the increase in txt msg's and cyber bullying will be more related to youth being more technology aware and using more technology on a day to day basis than cheaper costs of txt's. Rather than txt's being cheaper, handsets are less than $100. But then again Vodafone lets you send 2000 txt msgs for $10 a month. Maybe you should be talking more with Vodafone about this issue you have.

But again, just because Vodafone tell you something it doesn't mean it is true. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/2828501/More-mobile-spamming-sparring

But hey Celebrities used to tell is smoking is cool. How did that turn out?

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Stephen1

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Reply # 252916 3-Sep-2009 14:16

I am sure it is because young people are technolgy savvy.

the increase in text is good because as it means young people are connecting.

still leaves the question about how an environment can be created that protects rather than exposes organisations like youthline and young people to more risk.

there our upsides and downsides, being conscious of the whole picture sure would be useful!

Stephen Bell

Ragnor

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Reply # 252939 3-Sep-2009 16:19

It's the un-moderated anonymity that leads to the bad behaviour both with texting and online. The only way to reduce the problem is to increase moderation or decrease anonymity.

Mobile numbers should have to be registered to a person (like domain names in NZ and personal bank accounts), it should be trivial to find out who is using a number for the authorities.

Heuristic filtering of text messages before delivery (similar to how email spam filtering works) is probably going to be an valid option too. If someone sends too many messages detected as threatening they should temporarily be barred from sending more.

On the other side of the coin kids need to be taught earlier to not take anonymous messages seriously and not take "virtual" things too seriously.

Stephen1

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Reply # 252957 3-Sep-2009 17:45

I agree with getting young people to build a culture where anonymous messages and "virtual" things are not taken too seriously. We at Youthline will take this message out through our online activities and our health promotion sessions that we run with young people across the country. Actually young people are the best ?coaches? to one another with these things.
Registering numbers to people makes a lot of sense and sure would make it easier to manage what comes at us. Before the text volumes blew out in our call center we used to manage abusive callers by directing known numbers and blocked ID calls to a specialist triage call center that are well trained in managing these things.
With the shift to text we have built our own software platform so we can moderate and review issues. The difficulty is that perpetrators can change their number very readily so it is harder to get technology to ID and direct the calls to the specialist center.

Stephen Bell

browned

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Reply # 253195 4-Sep-2009 14:55

Stephen1: still leaves the question about how an environment can be created that protects rather than exposes organisations like youthline and young people to more risk.

And here lies another problem. the overbearing, over protecting society we live in.

The country voted Labour out for interfering in our lives to often (e.g. anti child abuse bill or a Sue calls it the Anti smacking bull).

Kids get bullied. That's just how kids are, if you are different you will get an earful or more. I hate to say it but the is just how it is. No amount of protection or help is going to stop this situation. Some kids are taught to have morals and respect others are not.

Parents need to take responability for their kids, not the governent, not youthline, not Vodafone or Telecom.

Kids need to learn from mistakes, I know I did when I was growing up. If someone is bullying and they break a law then hopefully they will learn from that. If someone is being picked on then they need to learn how to avoid it and or make the right noise to get it stopped.

Kids will eventually grow out of it.

Stephen1

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Reply # 253208 4-Sep-2009 15:31

its true bullying has always been a part of teenage life and sadly it is also true that some kids don't grow out of it!
adults need to be aware of the environment that we create around young people that either builds support or opens them to other risks.
youthline receives money from government for the school we run and for the crisis counselling we provide and we don't advise everyone about this before we issue a press release about things that concern us why should this be different.
$10 text work well enough for young people but what happens if text get to the same cost as email.
it would be different I would say!

Stephen Bell

browned

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Reply # 253214 4-Sep-2009 15:47

Stephen1:$10 text work well enough for young people but what happens if text get to the same cost as email. it would be different I would say!

If txt's become free, essentially what you are saying, then txt will quickly become obsolete due to mms and video msgs and or mobile email/data becoming cheaper as well. Email started as a basic txt msg, it now can be very rich in content and design.

You can't stop technology and if you think txting is going to be around forever you are mistaken.

I think another issue most geekzoner's have with your threads and or support of Vodafone is Vodafone has educated you on Vodafone's issues and problems. You as a company that spends $150+K a year in telco costs should know better than to believe the sales men.