The plenary session of Barcelona City Council agreed this Friday to declare “the effects of the abuse of social networks and digital platforms on the well-being and mental health of boys, girls and adolescents as a public health problem.” In a text proposed by the Government of Mayor Jaume Collboni that has had contributions from the municipal groups of Junts, ERC and the Commons, only Vox has voted against. Formally, it is an institutional declaration and also plans to offer guidance and digital training to minors and families, the creation of a guide to good practices, and to urge other administrations to “promote appropriate measures in matters of public health.” and mental and establishing public controls over algorithms†. The statement comes after the announcement by the city of New York, which has gone much further and sued major social networks for “fueling the mental health crisis.”
The proposal has been defended by the Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Maria Eugènia Gay, who has argued that the abuse of social networks is a “new phenomenon that increasingly contributes to issues such as the distortion of body image.” , eating disorders, sleep disorders, dissatisfaction or increased exposure to cyberbullying.” The councilor also recalled that the survey of risk factors in adolescence indicates that kids in the city spend up to eight hours watching screens on weekdays.
Coordination between Collboni and ERC
The ordinary plenary session of the month of February began with a minute of silence in tribute to the victims of the Valencia fire. Before, there was an effusive greeting between Mayor Jaume Collboni and the president of the ERC municipal group, Elisenda Alamany, with whom this week he reached an agreement on the budgets and with whom everything indicates that he will agree on a Government agreement, lack of knowing what will happen to the commons of Ada Colau. The harmony between the PSC and the Republicans has been replicated in two votes linked to the social use of Catalan.
First, in the executive part of the plenary session, the constitution of a study commission on the use of language in the digital sphere and among young people has gone ahead. And then, in the part of promoting and controlling the groups, an ERC proposal has been approved (with the support of the PSC, Comuns and Junts) that urges the municipal executive to take into account the use of Catalan when it comes to obtaining subsidies from the City Council. It is, ERC has defended, that just as the subsidy plan establishes “strategic objectives of a transversal nature such as that the projects have an intercultural or gender perspective… the promotion of social use is included.” of Catalan as a transversal objective to favor its presence†in any project, Alamany has defended.
What affects the most is what happens closest. To not miss anything, subscribe.
SuscrÃbete
Without any other notable issues in the executive part of the plenary session, during the promotion and control part the prominence has been taken by other current issues such as the drought, the mobilizations of farmers and ranchers (a text supporting their demands unanimously), or the invasion of Gaza. Regarding drought, a commons proposal for measures to control the use of water by the tourism sector has been approved. But it has been substantially lowered after negotiating the text with the PSC. Finally, it provides subsidies to reduce domestic consumption by renewing appliances, reinforcing energy advice points or urging the Barcelona Metropolitan Area to segregate hotel consumption and penalize the most exaggerated ones. But the idea of ”penalizing the waste of water in luxury establishments or large consumers” or of making their consumption public has disappeared from the text.
The mayor avoids condemning the presence of Israel in Mobile
Faced with the harmony with ERC, although without going any further or raising the tone, there has been a clash between the mayor and his former partner and predecessor, Ada Colau. The leader of the commons has asked him in an intervention in the prayers section to “take a position contrary to the presence of the Israeli embassy and Israeli companies” present at the Mobile World Congress, and to “not participate in the official greeting wherever the Israeli institutions and institutional representatives of Israel are in the city.” Colau recalled that after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the GSMA banned Russian companies from the show and now Israeli firms are allowed to participate. Collboni has responded that she will participate in the official agenda from her position as president of Fira de Barcelona, as Colau did in her day: in the previous lunch and dinner, in the inauguration and in the visit of stands. “In the Gaza conflict our position is clear, the same as that of Spain, President Pedro Sánchez, or Josep Borrell,†has responded and has made it clear that he would respond from the presidency of the Plenary “the same thing I did. in private†: “I will not participate in any boycott†. At Colau's insistence, Collboni has assured, without giving more details, that his speech at the official dinner next Sunday “will be liked by the councilor and the majority of Barcelonans.â€
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya in Facebook y Xcome here to receive our weekly newsletter