Latest news with #Bamberg
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
639 matches: Bamberg's Tadda sets German basketball league record
Bamberg's Karsten Tadda in action during the German Bundesliga Basketball match between Ratiopharm Ulm and Bamberg Baskets at ratiopharm arena. Tom Weller/dpa Former German international Karsten Tadda of Bamberg Baskets played his 639th match in Germany's basketball top flight on Thursday to set a Bundesliga record in the sport. Tadda, 36, achieved the mark in his penultimate career match against ratiopharm Ulm. Tadda has spent 18 years in the league and will retire on Sunday after Bamberg's last season game against Rasta Vechta. Tadda won five German league titles and three German Cups with Bamberg, and one Champions League with Telekom Baskets Bonn. He earned 89 national team games between 2012 and 2019.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Bedford council criticised over advertising for beer festival
Council criticised over adverts for beer festival The three-day event is being revived after not being staged since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 Promotion for an upcoming beer festival does not breach a council's own "healthier" advertising policy which banned the plugging of alcohol, it said. The Bamberg Beer Festival in Bedford, on 23-25 May, celebrates the town's twinning relationship with the German town of Bamberg. Bedford Borough Council, which organises the event, has been criticised after a press release advertising it highlighted the availability of "authentic German beers" and encouraged residents to "enjoy great beer". However, a council spokesperson said the event had been booked prior to the policy being agreed at an executive meeting on 23 April.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC House passes bill requiring parental consent for social media
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testifying at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Screenshot courtesy of C-Span) COLUMBIA — A bill requiring children to get permission from their parents before signing up for social media profiles passed the House on Wednesday. As the state House debated, Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee about his son's suicide over a sextortion scam. Under the proposal representatives passed 90-17, parents would have to give consent for their children to create a social media account. And social media companies would have to put safeguards in place for children using their platforms, such as limiting who can message them and what they can see. A similar bill passed the House 113-1 last year. This time around, legislators raised concerns over parental rights, privacy concerns and a requirement that the state create educational programs about social media. Another perfunctory vote, expected Thursday, will send the bill to the Senate, which did not take up last year's similar version. Representatives agreed that overuse of social media can be a problem for children's mental health. The question became whether it should be up to legislators to control how people use social media. 'Why does the government need to do what any parent can already do, given the evils of social media?' said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia. 'We agree they're evil, but if they're evil and you're a parent, why don't you do it?' As technology rapidly develops, parents who didn't grow up with the same challenges are overwhelmed trying to protect their children, said Rep. Travis Moore, a sponsor on the bill. 'These are not issues parents individually can handle, in my opinion,' the Roebuck Republican replied. The proposal would affect more than just parents, said Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg. SC teens would need parent permission for social media under House bill Social media sites would be required to verify the ages of everyone making an account in order to prevent people under the age of 18 from signing up. Bamberg, the only 'no' vote last year, said that lead to adults needing to provide personal information to social media companies. 'I ain't giving my Social Security number to anybody to have a damn Facebook,' Bamberg said. 'I don't believe in that.' But Moore said there's nothing in the bill requiring that. Verification won't go that far, he said. 'Acceptable methods' listed in the bill for obtaining consent include providing a toll-free number for the parent to call, allowing the adult to respond to an email, coordinating a video conferencing call, or collecting information from a 'government-issued identification of the minor's parent,' then deleting it. Bamberg proposed requiring companies create a separate platform for children to use, similar to YouTube Kids, a version of the video site designed for children. The child-friendly sites would require parental consent and put in place the safeguards required in the bill without requiring proof from adults, Bamberg said. His proposed amendment failed 73-30. Some of the representatives who changed their minds to oppose the bill included members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, who pointed to a section that would require the state Department of Education to develop programs teaching students how to safely use social media. Rep. Jordan Pace, a Goose Creek Republican who leads the Freedom Caucus, attempted to remove that part of the bill, claiming that the educators involved in developing the curriculum might attempt to add liberal viewpoints. That won't happen with GOP Superintendent Ellen Weaver at the helm of the agency overseeing public K-12 schools, said Rep. John McCravy, a leader in the Legislature's Family Caucus. Before her 2022 election, Weaver led the conservative think tank Palmetto Promise Institute and before that, worked for former GOP U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. If the education department did create programs with which the Statehouse's ruling Republicans disagreed, they have the power to intervene, said McCravy, R-Greenwood. 'I think it's worth it to educate our children of the dangers that are on the internet, of the dangers that are on social media,' he said. Legislators threw out Pace's amendment 91-15. At the same time as his colleagues were debating the bill, Guffey gave an emotional recounting of his son's suicide to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during a general discussion on protections for children online. Guffey's 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, died by suicide July 27, 2022. Guffey had sent explicit photos to an Instagram account he believed to be a young woman. The person running the account threatened to leak those photos unless Guffey continued to send him money. A 24-year-old Nigerian man was brought to the U.S. last month to face federal charges of child exploitation resulting in death, child pornography distribution, coercion and enticement of a minor, cyberstalking resulting in death, and interstate threats with the intent to extort. Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, removed the profile with which Guffey had been interacting but didn't erase others believed to be connected, Rep. Guffey told the committee Wednesday. Nigerian man faces life in a US prison for sextortion that led to death of SC legislator's son Those accounts attempted to extort Gavin Guffey's 16-year-old brother and 14-year-old cousin, the legislator said. At one point, he received a message reading, 'Did I tell you your son begged for his life?' the Rock Hill Republican told the committee. 'I vowed at that moment I would make it my life's mission to protect children online and would not stop,' Guffey told the committee. Since his son's death, Brandon Guffey has done advocacy work relating to children's internet safety. In his two years of advocacy, he's worked with families of about 40 teens who died by suicide after being sexually exploited on the internet. He called online safety 'the greatest threat to the next generation' and criticized Congress for not doing more to thwart it. 'Right now, we have too many politicians making decisions based on their next election and not enough leaders making decisions based on the next generation,' Guffey said. SC Daily Gazette reporter Shaun Chornobroff contributed to this article.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Carolina bill regulating social media use for minors sparks debate over balancing online safety and parental rights
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) — A bill aimed at protecting children from potentially harmful content online passed the South Carolina House on Wednesday despite objections from some who argued it infringes on parents' rights. The bill requires social media companies to make 'reasonable efforts' to verify the age of users on their platform and prohibits children under the age of 18 from creating accounts without a parent's permission. It would also restrict targeted advertising on minors' social media feeds and block adults from communicating with children they aren't already connected with. Rep. Travis Moore (R-Spartanburg) said the bill would create a similar safety standard for tech companies as the state has for physical products like car seats, cribs, and children's toys. 'These platforms, like physical products, must now be designed with a duty of care to protect children,' he said. But, Minority leader Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-Richland) said parents should and already can regulate their child's social media use and questioned why the government needed to step in at all. 'Why does the government need to do what parents can already do given the evils of social media?' Rutherford asked. 'We'll agree they're evil, but if they're evil and you're a parent, why don't you do it and why do you need the government to do it for you? 'This issue is so pervasive, so widespread that these are not issues parents can individually handle, in my opinion,' Moore responded, asserting it fits into the core government function of maintaining public safety. South Carolina lawmakers on both sides of aisle support banning smoking in cars with kids Rep. Justin Bamberg (D-Bamberg) — the sole lawmaker to vote against a nearly identical bill last session – argued that while the bill has good intentions, it is not the government's responsibility to 'raise people's kids.' 'I do understand that the ambitions behind this [are] admirable…but this is not the way to do it,' he said. 'It's not the state of South Carolina's job to raise people's kids,' Bamberg continued. 'The state can assist a parent, but the state should not be making all of the decisions for kids and taking that away from parents.' He suggested the legislation could have unintended consequences, including for adults wanting to join new platforms because all users — regardless of age — would have to go through the same verification process to create an account. How to best balance the need to protect children from dangerous online content with parental rights and privacy has been a focal point as lawmakers nationwide consider bills restricting minors' access to social media amid safety concerns. Bamberg offered an amendment to South Carolina's that he said would balance those concerns by requiring companies to develop age-appropriate versions of their platforms, such as YouTube Kids. His amendment was tabled, or effectively killed, in a 72-30 vote. The debate, which grew contentious at times, also focused on a section of the bill Rep. April Cromer (R-Anderson) described as one of its 'red flags.' It would direct the state Department of Education to develop model programming by next March to educate children in sixth through 12th grade on the potential dangers associated with using social media. Some of the material could be suggested by educational experts, psychologists, and tech companies themselves. 'Does that mean we're asking Facebook, X, and all of them to help give us guidelines to help protect the kids at the same time?' Cromer said, adding that she too felt the legislation encroached on parental rights. Rep. Jordan Pace (R-Berkeley), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, also expressed concern over the price tag. The curriculum would cost approximately $750,000 to develop initially with recurring costs upwards of $500,000 per year, according to estimates from the SC Dept. of Education. Proponents of the curriculum said it is critical for students, especially teenagers, to have a 'basic, level understanding' of the risks on these platforms. 'Our young people are being exposed to things that many of us would never understand,' said Rep. Brandon Newton (R-Lancaster). Moore further accused Pace of mischaracterizing the section's language and intent by saying it would mandate public schools to implement the curriculum. 'Do our schools have to do that? No,' he said. The same language, he said, was included in last year's bill to address concerns raised during the committee process about media literacy. 'It was included in the bill to address the concerns of people who now want to pretend they have an issue,' Moore said. 'Nothing has changed in this language. It did not fly in under anybody's radar. It was the product of debate, compromise, and we all approved it.' The exchanges over Pace's amendment – which was ultimately tabled – offered the latest glimpse into the ongoing tension between hardline Freedom Caucus members and mainstream Republicans, who suggest their more conservative counterparts are more interested in scoring social media points than governing. After several hours of debate, the bill passed by a 90-17 vote. It now heads to the Senate where its fate is uncertain. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
