Raising Awareness About Digital Dangers (RAADD) will be holding a fundraiser on Aug 19 with the aim to raise awareness of children’s mental health and online safety.
The event will be held at Beveragino (81 Joseph Street) in Port Carling from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. There will be wine, cheese, a silent auction and Grammy Award winner Beverley Mahood will emcee for the evening.
Founder and CEO of RAADD, Margot Denommé, says she created this movement to shine a light on the dangers of smartphone and social media use for children.
“We’re giving parents practical tools to work with, to try and help put up guardrails for their children who are on social media,” said Denommé. “It’s all about prevention through education and awareness.”
Denommé compares RAADD to Mother Against Drunk Driving (MADD), saying that although drinking and driving has always been illegal, it took a movement to see a change.
“The culture shifted, and the view of drinking and driving became so taboo in society,” said Denommé. “It’s coming together through collective action and having those discussions to shine a light on those dangers.”
According to Denommé, bringing awareness to digital danger is important because it is present in every family in some way.
“The addictive algorithms are keeping our children online versus outside and playing,” she said “Our childhood is such a precious time, and we are consumed with looking at a screen.”
She goes on to explain that over the years there have been “whistle-blowers” who have left major social media companies and exposed the reality of the algorithm.
“The moment a teenage girl takes a selfie; they are bombarded by their algorithm with beauty products,” said Denommé. “And it’s with knowledge like that, that we understand the way big tech is working and working against us and working against our children – we have to come together through collective action and fight this fight.”
Before founding RAADD, Denommé used to be a crown attorney. Over her 26-year career she said she saw multiple kids who were suffering with low self-esteem or damaged self-worth, which resulted in them committing actions that led them to be before the justice system.
“When I worked with them, it would just break my heart that they were down this road,” said Denommé. “I would always try and find the societal good in finding them solutions to their problems.”
Denommé said when she had her own two daughters, she became hypervigilant and wanted to know what kind of content they were consuming.
“All of the images they would be comparing themselves to had been photo edited in some way. So, I thought, we’re going to have a generation of kids who are comparing themselves to people – that quite frankly don’t exist,” she said.
Denommé says she encourages parents to delay giving their children smartphones and it is best to start with a flip phone for the basics of calling and texting to communicate with parents.
On the RAADD website, you can find resources such as the ‘Family Smartphone Guide’ which is a step-by-step guide on how parents can talk to their children about online dangers.
“The number one tip is to have open communication between your child and yourself,” she said. “The Centre for Child Protection have indicated that child online predators have gone up by 815% in five years.”
Denommé says that in many cases children feel left out in the classroom when their peers have already received smartphones and so there is another movement called ‘Unplugged Canada’.
“It provides an opportunity for parents to come together; in whatever grade their children are in and agree that they are going to delay giving their child a smartphone until at least 14 years of age,” said Denommé. “Parents sign a pledge […] and they come together to fight that fear of missing out.”
“RAADD works as a not-for-profit under the Veritas Foundation, focusing on prevention through education and awareness to protect kids online.” Said Denommé.
For more details on RAADD and how you can take part visit, Raising Awareness About Digital Dangers (raadd.) | Digital Safety
