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       AM hosts say David Seymour Snapchatting school students 'icky', 'looks
       bad'
        
 (HTM) Source
        
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       Seymour said he was just being courteous.
        
       "I've done absolutely nothing wrong other than be responsive using the
       technology of the time," Seymour told reporters on Tuesday.
        
       "I've always sought to behave the same online as I am in person.
       Courteous, responsive, and polite. School kids come up to me and ask
       for selfies, I think it would be a terrible thing if New Zealand got
       to the stage where I had to say 'no sorry - you don't have permission
       from your parents'."
        
       But the concerned mum is now calling for guidelines around how
       politicians communicate directly with young people on social media.
        
       And AM hosts agreed when discussing the issue on Wednesday that the
       communication, while not inappropriate, felt "icky".
        
       Melissa Chan-Green noted how the ACT Party is against lowering the
       voting age to 16, so questioned if the party should be targeting them
       by way of messaging students about their policies, including via
       Snapchat.
        
       "I think it was just an appalling lapse of political judgement, or
       political optics from Seymour," Burr responded.
        
       "I agree to his point we want politicians to be accessible to everyone
       so you can actually reach out to them and stuff like that, but just
       the optics of a grown man politician in a power position, in a
       position of power, messaging someone who is children - under the age
       of 16 they're still children - and yes you've been to their schools
       and you've got Snapchats and stuff and selfies with them but
       Snapchatting them in an app where the messages delete and the photos
       delete it just looks bad.
        
       "Even though nothing bad was done according to all the people who came
       forward… it just feels icky doesn't it?"
        
       Newsreader Amanda Gillies said when her husband described the story to
       her before it ran on Newsroom, detailing how at the time Snapchat was
       new and cool and Seymour was on Dancing With The Stars "twerking on
       stage" and connecting with young people, she thought it was okay.
        
       However, on reflection Gillies said the contact still made her
       uncomfortable.
        
       "It was until I thought 'how would I feel if my teenage daughter in
       her uniform was Snapchatting an older man who's a politician' and
       that's when I thought 'I don't feel comfortable with that'."
        
       She added that at first she thought about how he talks to people in
       the street, but then decided this kind of contact "borderline crosses
       the line".
        
       "We say there was nothing inappropriate but if it was my teenage
       daughter in her school uniform, young, and having this sort of
       interaction that's where I just feel it's not right and that's where
       we've got to be so careful.
        
       "I think part of the issue is when they [politicians] go to a school
       thing or when they're in a public street it's public, there are people
       around, there are teachers, there are people of age. I think it's that
       whole slide into your DMs [direct messages], it's the private nature
       that direct contact with no supervision."
        
       Chan-Green then raised the question of, if we think it's inappropriate
       for someone like Seymour to be able to message children online, should
       we be letting those under 16 on social media?
        
       Reading out audience feedback, several viewers agreed that it should
       be up to parents to supervise or stop their children communicating
       with Seymour and then no response would occur.
        
       "If as a parent you feel uncomfortable with your children being on
       social media or your young teens being on social media then you should
       do something about that," Chan-Green said.
        
       But Burr said: "You can't control it though."
        
       "Kids are gonna find a way around it, they'll just use someone else's
       phone… He [Seymour] shouldn't lower himself to that level."
        
        
        
        
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