I'm going to actually start while they try to set this up, tell you a little bit about what I'm going to talk about. Open data, of course, is a movement and it has to do a lot with the idea that the government has information on you. Now, we all know a lot about that, but legitimately they collect all kinds of stuff. They collect bus schedules, they collect voting records and things like that. So the reason there's an open data movement is because, in fact, there's a need for it, right? We want to know the bus time. And let's face it, governments are not always the best writers of software. I'm a professor. I spent a frantic two hours yesterday trying to deal with a government grant software in Canada because it was designed by civil servants. So often it's best to actually say, let the community go out and design it. In New York City, for example, all the subways have a sign up, are transit apps or whiz kids certified. And what that means is the MTA didn't do them. They actually let other companies create applications to use their data, which they make available openly. So one reason, of course, why governments open up their data is in the interest of giving better service to customers. Another one, of course, relates to the fact that if they have the data, they figure sooner or later somebody is going to put it out on WikiLeaks anyway, so they might as well release what they have. So the ability to actually go out there and see all the government data seems to be a natural thing. It resonates with, you know, the whole spirit of DEF CON, which is data wants to be free. Data wants to be open. And as a result, governments are opening up more and more of their data. The other thing of course is they're cheap. They don't want to go out there and spend money on building applications if other people will do it for free. So the reality is we have a lot of good reasons, and I am not, this is kind of the big preamble, I am not against open data. I think open data is great. There are open data hackathons that are held all over the world and they basically have the advantage of getting the best minds to take the government's data and think of creative uses. So if you have four kids and you need to take one to the soccer field and one to the baseball diamond and you want to somehow optimize that, that's really good. The problem, of course, is that a lot of the data that the government collects is related to people. So I'm still hoping that we're going to see images, because I do have images to share with you, but I'll tell you that one example relates to voting. And it's pretty obvious in the democracy that we want to know what the voting results were. So just as, and this is an example that I cooked up to illustrate one of the problems with open data, we have a city in Alberta called Edmonton. It has a wildly popular mayor named Stephen Mandel. He got over half, well over half the votes in every ward, but when they published the results, there were some minority candidates, people who only got a few votes who got zero votes, in fact, in some areas. So let's say, for example, Mr. Dowdell, who was one of the other candidates, his wife was in the hospital and he goes and, you know, he says, yes, dear, I voted and I voted for you. And he goes and pulls down the online data and guess what? He got zero votes in the citywide hospital poll. Well, that's a type of torturing of data that the government never anticipated. They never anticipated that we would ask questions like that of the data. So, you know, the term torturing data in my title really relates to doing exactly what most people in this room love to do, which is to go out there and find things that you're not supposed to be able to find. So when people ask, you know, what is DEF CON? I say it's basically not people who are doing things that they shouldn't do. It's people doing things that they shouldn't be able to do. And you can do that with data quite effectively. So again, while we're praying to the AV gods there, I'm going to start telling you about an example and we'll go through it quickly when the video comes up. There actually was a challenge called the open data challenge held in Europe and they got entries from most of the EU countries. And the one that won was actually from Slovenia. I don't speak Slovenian, so I can't really say the name, but it translates as from our taxes. And what they did was they actually took all the government contracts that were registered online and they started going out there and putting them together and finding out what names were in common, which people were the directors of different companies, which people were the lawyers who represented the deals and so on. And an interesting thing happened. A woman named Ludmilla decided that this was invading her privacy and she actually convinced a judge in Slovenia to go out there and to order the NGO that created this award-winning application to take down the data. Now somebody asked me before the talk how technical this is going to be. This is about as technical as it gets. They didn't have that data. That data was scraped off government databases that were maintained by the government. So here we have a judge and it proves the old saying that judges are about 10 years behind the average member of society in understanding of technology. Yes, that's right. Yes, thank you. And so the judge is ordering them to take down this information and they can't take it down because they don't really have it. I mean what I suppose they could do is put filters into their program that somehow allow them to go out there and to get that information trapped so that it couldn't be revealed. But it just kind of shows a misunderstanding, a fundamental misunderstanding. Do we have any hopes back there, guys? Hope springs eternal, okay? Well, I could just hold the screen up and give everybody a telescope or something like that, right? So let's talk about some other kinds of open data. We have a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta who had the misfortune to do two things wrong. On a government trip, he solicited a prostitute and he got caught. Okay, so about three weeks ago and his name was Mike Allen and it was all over the news. So I said, okay, what else can I find out about Mike Allen? So I went to a database. I went to the Ramsey County, Minnesota, Sheriff's Office database and sure enough there is poor Mike's information on what he was doing, the fact that it was gross, they use the word gross misconduct, and his home address. And that's where things get pretty interesting because if you think about it, having his home address up there, it's private information in a sense, but hey, he was arrested, some sheriff from Minneapolis took that and posted it. Now we have, you know, different countries have different regard for privacy. So anybody from Germany here? Okay, all right. So if you're from Germany, you're the best, right? You have like the people from Facebook say they can't even operate in Germany, right? It's like, you know, everything's against the law there. And then you have other countries. Now Canada I would say is between Germany and the U.S. So a lot of things that you can get away with in the U.S. in terms of posting information on people would not fly in Canada. To take that specific example, I'm sure that if this guy was arrested, they wouldn't just willy-nilly put up the information about where he lives because what's the need for that? But in the United States, there's certainly a tendency to do more and more of that. And one of the photos, if we ever do get to it, I'll be able to show you is from Henderson County, Florida. Now Henderson County is a place you never want to get arrested because sheriffs in the U.S., those from Germany you don't know, are elected officials. So sheriffs, dog catchers, people like that, they all get to be what they are by having people vote for them.  They're actually a good sheriff. What better way to show that you're a good sheriff than to actually arrest people? And sure enough in Henderson County, they post the mugshot of everyone who's arrested. So if you're, you know, done for speeding or whatever down there and there's a really seedy, and again we may have the slide one of these days, when we do, you'll see some really seedy-looking characters, people you would probably cross the street to avoid who have been arrested. But you'll all see a photo of a 12-year-old boy. And I captured that information off the government database and use it in my presentation. Now I obscured his name. His first name is Bobby. I obscured his surname. I put one of those black bars across his eyes so you can't actually see what Bobby did or you know his personal identity. But the sheriff didn't do that. So the first thing to realize is that he's up there, a minor child, 12 years old, and he's being sort of permanently tarred in some ways. They say, well not really permanently because after all it's only up there for 30 days. And the answer is yeah, but it's been in my presentation for over a year now. When data is out there, it is, there's no way to really call it back. There's no way to bring data back into the fold if you've let it lose. And this brings a lot of vulnerabilities. The reality is that quite a bit of data is being put out there captured by people. They say that if you put a photo up on Facebook or something like that, I mean at the very least it's been copied by the NSA, but it's probably been copied by a lot of other people as well. So there's no way to actually call back data from where it's from being posted somewhere. One aspect again, I'm just randomly remembering my presentation. I usually print out a little cheat sheet but I trusted the tech here. Yeah, so anyway, another aspect of this relates to DNA information. How many of you know Ancestry.com or Ancestry.co or whatever? Yeah, all the different national versions. I won't ask because you know it's embarrassing to put your hand up. Who has profiles on that? The business model of Ancestry of course is they allow you to sign up for 14 days for free and do all kinds of exploring with their data. So they are using public information, census data, they're using military records, prison records, all kinds of things. Those are particularly useful for Australia. Lots of prison records down there. And so they take all this data and they make it freely available to you for 14 days and on the 15th day they charge you like $299 if you don't cancel your membership. Now it's an interesting model because they're taking public data and eventually making money from it but you know we assume that that's probably okay.  So they know your family tree so you have enriched their database and guess what? You can never, you can cancel your account, you can you know check into the hotel of California, you can never check out your data. It is permanently part of their database. So a few years ago they got a brain wave, they said you know what would make this a lot better? Send us your DNA and then we'll tell you you know if you're descended from you know Adam or Noah or you know whoever, whoever's way way back in your family tree. And some people I think were actually dumb enough to send their DNA and doing that of course provides a tremendous amount of information and if you think about it with DNA information it's not just about you, it's about your siblings, your family, all kinds of people who didn't give any consent for you to give that information.  Now I was down in Utah and I thought I'd visit Ancestry.com and I tried to find out all about this and they said oh well we just keep the database here that's the genetic genealogy project and it's with the real smart people down in California. So the the genetic genealogy project is something to really worry about okay the possibility is out there for somebody to get tremendous amounts of information on you. Do we have any hope back there? Hope swings eternal? You're you're getting closer. So everyone leave your laptop at the door right so a couple of principles on dealing with this data okay the New York City released with great fanfare in 2009, New York City data mine and they had 110 databases there and they said you know these are all interesting things like all the women's organizations in New York City are now in this database well they realized a day later that they had forgotten to take out the private email addresses and the secret questions so what is your what was your first pet is the most common secret question and fluffy is the most common answer so that information was disclosed out there and you know the next day there are only 109 public databases from New York City because they had to go in there and they had to take back some of that information. I want to explain an experiment to you that I did with what's called openfili.com so Philadelphia is one of the leading cities in making their data open and they went out there and they actually put online contribution records now again because it's an international audience it varies a lot from country to country but in the United States there's laws about campaign contributions particularly those over $200 that say that if you make a contribution you have to go out there and you have to give your name your address and your occupation and those things are publicly available information but what Philadelphia did is they took all the contributions even the ones of $1.49 for the last seven years retroactively and they put them up in this wonderful database now we're going to get technical one more time it was put up there with a front end that said you can query this database but hey you better not go out there and actually download it like it's not for downloading okay so here's how you download it and any of my computer science students who didn't get this would get an F first you say tell me all the people download all the people whose first name begins with A then you do all the people of last name begins with A then you do the last names beginning with B and C and D see the pattern so within about eight minutes I had a comma separated file of all of these contributions and then I started to torture the data and have a little bit of fun with it so I said well what can I find out who in this room knows who Ronald Rivest is okay who's sort of RSA Rivest Shamir Adelman okay there is a candidate her name is Shelly something or other in Philadelphia and all of her contributions seem to be local except one came from Massachusetts well who was it it was Ron Rivest and he obviously endorsed this candidate enough that he sent money to her so you know by plotting the data on a bit of a graph I was actually able to find some interesting things the most interesting thing I found was that an awful lot of people in Philadelphia live in the same place 1719 Spring Street I mean thousands of people live there and I went what the heck is this so I run over to Google Maps and I bring it up and it is the office of the international brotherhood of electrical workers so I think you can see the scene Guido comes in he's going to get his job as an electrical worker and they say wait a minute you got come over here you know you got to make this contribution and he says oh yeah I got to do that when you fill out the form and you know when people do campaign contributions they're very scrupulous about putting some address down because they want to get the tax receipt but maybe he doesn't want to give his own address maybe he's in the witness protection program or something so they go up you will use the address of the union so a significant number of the contributions to certain candidates map back to that one building which is the headquarters of the union now then I thought I'd be a real sort of objective computer scientist and run a statistical study so I found out the most common names in the United States names like Jones and Smith and I did an analysis the only reason really to publish the name and address of political contributors that I could see is if there's two John Smiths and you want to know which one it is so I actually did a statistical test and I found they were 385 Jay Smiths and the the actual power or the need to actually resolve duplicates came down to only about three or four so there was almost no information added by having this but there was a significant privacy risk so what I'm suggesting to governments is that they need to go out there and think long and hard about how they put out the data why they put out the data now again I don't know if wherever we get the images and we're going to have like a flash dance of the images if we do get them up here but I have a a complete stalking exercise I did on a notable Albert and he actually was the president of an airline and I said to tell you the truth I started with the premier of the province and I said how well does he protect his privacy and my first test was is this phone number on listed and it was so then I worked down to other people and finally I found the president of a pretty big airline whose home phone number was listed in fact it's still listed if you look hard enough so then I went from his home phone number hey we have the technology okay so monkey or whoever's back there worked with me but worked with me darling and let's make this happen okay so go forward just just keeps I'll say next next next okay so we talked about this stop right there okay New York City okay this is one we didn't talk about New York City Day to Mind where the women's organizations are outed so there's a problem which is neglecting to read and redact data before releasing it next slide yes Toronto you know you call 311 you complain about something so sure enough in Toronto they build a database of that and they're supposed to be careful to anonymize it we have six digit poster codes they're only supposed to put in the first three well I looked at the database and sometimes they go blur and danforth they put actual intersections so just sloppy lazy data entry is the second problem next slide okay this is actually from my place in Calgary do any of you know see click fix great system you want to report a pothole you want to report a place where your criminals hang out you go anonymously on this system and you enter the data well sure enough in Calgary there's somebody who hates the car wash in his neighborhood so every day he puts in excessive noise dangerous ice so he just got a hate on for that car wash next slide okay this is the european data channel next slide who won there it is in Slovenian from our taxes next slide okay who wouldn't agree with that well the judge ordered them to take down the data next slide a little technical aside they couldn't take down the data so judges lagged behind technology we know that next slide election results there's the guy who got all the votes next slide did my wife vote for me well apparently not because all these people got zero votes next slide Philadelphia okay finance records next slide there it is the full home address is provided next slide okay that's the kind of computer that we had I had one of those Commodore pets anybody have a pet yeah they in the 1970s when they wrote the election law so maybe they were a little out of date next slide okay there's the kind of stuff I could get there's Ronald Revest's home address if you want to write to him in Arlington Massachusetts next slide yes that is Ron Revest and all of his family gave to this to gave to Barack Obama in this case next slide okay let's just keep going next slide okay so the donor files were downloadable next slide most common names Smith Johnson and Williams that's the number of Smiths and Johnson's very small number of duplicates next slide okay it was really useless and when I looked at the address on Spring Street next slide there it is it's the international brotherhood of electrical workers next slide okay problems underestimating our desire to torture the data inconsistent data like some people giving home address some giving the union and the wire requiring address needs to be examined in the light of new tools next slide okay there's the guy his name is slide Beto nice man next slide there's his home address in the phone book I took out his phone number it's still valid next slide there's his property tax assessment next slide there's details of his property tax next slide there he has plotted on a map his house is worth 710,000 his neighbors are worth less this spawned an industry of people writing letters to say dear Mr. Beto we see that you're assessed at this much money did you know your neighbor is assessed at 414,000 wouldn't you like us to appeal your taxes so the city actually have to shut down this database next slide they now have technical and legal safeguards which are dumb like you can only query 10 times from an IP address in a day while anybody in this room can spoof that one next slide next one okay here's anando county there's the sheriff nice smiley face next slide there's the not-so-friendly looking people who got arrested for things like uttering Ford's instrument and contempt of court next slide there's poor Bobby that's real note his date of birth 1997 that made him 12 years 12 months at the time of arrest shame on you sheriff next slide data journalism okay I lived in the Bronx for a long time the Rockland County newspaper released a map of all the people with pistol permits well sure enough one of them actually lived in the Bronx on Crosby Avenue a few a Middletown Road a few blocks from where I lived so this is public information you get some interesting results though like people who have multiple pistol permits and live opposite an elementary school next slide okay so here's a kind of provocative question should the rich have less privacy you know when we go out there and we do data journalism on rich people like corporate directors we could also go out there and find people who are abusing the snap food stamp program but it's an interesting societal question do we go after those people or do we just go after the easy pickings the high-profile ones next slide okay indirect risk there are companies collecting this data like checkpoint next slide ancestry.com they have six billion records mostly courtesy of the public next slide there's your DNA test they want your DNA and they charge you $99 to take it from you next slide or if you're in New York City there's mobile DNA testing all you have to do is flag them down there he is and he'll tell you who your daddy was right on the spot but who your daddy wasn't next slide please okay there's a complaint against them from Privacy International next slide tools that we use for this an inquiring mind that's the most important one having a motive like you know financial motive ID theft and so on scripting language is great for Wiki again getting technical on you here Python PHP scripts all this stuff is out there there are libraries of scripts and if you don't want to do that just go to a hackathon and some friendly person will show you how to do it next slide okay even if it's always been public data it's super public companies like checkpoint actually go out there choice point rather they actually go out there and they pay high school students to go into the basement of courthouses and hand copy people's divorce settlements because you're not allowed to photocopy them you're not allowed to download them electronically but they're public information once that stuff gets put into a public file as it is at choice point it can be accessed for a fee I knew one guy who could never get a job he didn't know why it was an engineer he'd always get interviewed never get hired and he finally got a friend to pull his private file from choice point and what was it he was a convicted murderer well he wasn't actually a convicted murderer they got a social security number wrong and you know his friends said well you know why you're not getting a job you're a murderer and he said I am not next slide okay so here are the dirty dozen inadvertent disclosure of data sloppy data entry malicious information the lag between law and policy making inferences from those small numbers like very few people who voted assuming nobody like me will torture the data my name is Tom and I torture data next inconsistent data where you know I did a project with the Rand Corporation years ago where we were collecting data on New York City fire trucks and we had people getting from the battery like battery park to Harlem and in a fire truck in three minutes and 40 seconds and we couldn't forget how that could be you know they're not helicopters we finally went and watched them and what happened is the guy who sits next to the driver was recording the data they would go out and put fires out all day and then they would go oh we forgot to do that for those Rand guys we better go fix it and they made up all the data data jigsawing taking different databases public and private putting them together facial recognition a whole big area coming up your face can be quite a vulnerable thing I know alessandro aqueasty stood here last year and talked about the fact that he can take your photo on facebook and your photo on match.com and he can find out if you're a sexy babe 235 if you're a hung dude 204 he can disambiguate those just using your face retroactive analysis going back so some recommendations we have to scan the file for PII that might be included think about ways it could be revealed indirectly this is all on the cd I don't need to read it to your next slide and I want to tell you a little bit about this image there's a great project out there concepts for all and it basically is I want to end on a hopeful note there was a poster program at the University of Quebec a mariole a poster design program I was going to be shut down because it's so expensive to print posters and all that and my friend who runs it discovered this thing called the internet so now all these images get posted on the internet they are beautiful images and the only condition for using them for something like this is that you say this was courtesy of Elsie at least Peixar so I've given her credit for that so I recommend that site to you I recommend that you talk to your government we are the people we are the democracy we get to decide supposedly what our governments do to or for us this is an area that you're going to be hearing much more about I promise to stay on time I think I've got five minutes for questions is that about right yep okay so let's have the first question thank you and thanks to all the hard-working goons who made made this image actually come up there we've paved the way for all the future speakers it's hard to get the first question I'll start with the second question okay who's got a question yes you're in turn him on turn him on please come up guys oh there we go I'd rather stay off the stage I don't want to be recognized uh so there's generally a movement in the United States to crack down on perceived uh voter registration fraud it's mostly bullshit but it's a way to keep black people from voting uh but uh in general in general I think governments feel like uh if you require people to provide an address it keeps them honest even if it isn't particularly useful is there another way you can think of to keep people more honest on forms you can take is there another way or should we just stop worrying about it I mean you know actual election fraud where somebody pretends to vote or votes twice uh I mean it's almost impossible to find an instance but I was wondering what you think about that you could take their DNA is all kinds of other things you can do I mean the the whole part of the address is the reason people did you know it yeah the uh you could do what he asked how how you could do something other than addresses to eliminate voter fraud and I joked that you could take people's DNA I mean there are countries in the world uh where people vote um and they they get their finger marked with ink right and sometimes they don't want to vote because having their finger marked with ink they might get that finger cut off by somebody or you know be punished for voting there are alternative ways to do it but I don't I I can't think of too many other ways if your contribution is small enough I think the reality is giving your address is optional you can give the address of your union and never go pick up the result so um campaign laws I guess the big idea is that the campaign law really needs to be reviewed when it was passed in the 1970s it didn't really have we didn't have the technology to do the kind of things that we do now with the data and it's only going to get bigger and the data now is going to stick around forever so they'll be able to go back not seven years but 27 years yes uh scraper wiki has a whole library of tools I mean to tell you the gods are us truth I I used excel because that's all I had to really use to take that uh but there's uh in the presentation there are those lists of scraper wiki and so on there are a bunch of places where you have kind of customized scripts that allow you to go out there and scrape public databases um you know the world is your oyster I I think just about every municipality now has some kind of data there and I just keep finding more and more and I haven't really found one yet that I don't have problems with so I guess the challenge to you for you know between now and next year is to find a lot more holes in open government and bring them to our attention one more question maybe going once yeah do it do you know if any of those terms of service for public data data requests have been tested in courts I don't and I actually asked Marcia Hoffman that very question and she's researching that because I thought that's a very interesting thing that all I can tell you is in Calgary I'll just summarize the story because of people doing what I did and also because of that secondary use of the data to actually try to commercialize it the city shut the database down for a period of time and when it came back there was a very elaborate terms of use that I violated here today because it says this is only for checking your tax records because when it first came out people were checking their bosses house assessment they were checking their ex-wife you know everybody that they knew and they now control it so what they've done and it's a good point they have two different levels of access if you want to just know and I should tell you you're allowed to know what your neighbor is assessed because that's an issue of fairness if you're assessed unfairly you have a right to appeal but you're not allowed to know how many square feet and all the other details so what they do now is there's a public facing one with just the number the assessment there's a deeper level that you have to sign up and be validated so that's how Calgary and I want to say Calgary did I think an admirable job of taking what was a real mess and making it good and hopefully other cities will follow that lead are we done thanks monkey thanks very much


I got yes, like you're gonna get you death in death in death.  I drink out. I drink it I'm just on magic. Just okay. Okay being made sure to be magic half shoot me. Yeah, he's gonna blind me soon You need to watch it carefully. He has blind for me. He has blind for me watching full blind full blind full blind. What's that? Keep going I'm gonna ship this channel Gonna fair off that Sure, I'll put some db. Just gonna play for a moment. She has it. Yeah, I can take the medium So party to get it. Okay. Yeah I'll cut you to push for a sheep on the other one. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh Oh I don't know why I could do what, better sense This gauge was unreal by the way Yeah, I did take gauge Look at the silence, it was 3-0 He's gonna show a fury to get in combat, take care I'm going, I'm going Okay, going, going, going I'm pushing I go this wall, I'm pushing There Link it up Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know what to put on It's done me, can't get it. One second It's down me, I'm trying to fit I can't do it, I can't do it Oh, Fesham! Fesham! Should I do the combat thingy? I don't know. I'm in. Keeping me. ID is death. Purging mage. Can you stop? Yes. I'll dip priest, I'll dip ship.    I'm full ship, full ship. I can't stop everything. I have CS for the priest, okay? I'll reship mage, sorry. I can ship priest, okay? I'll do it. I'll blink this. He's dead on me, okay? I can resap, I can resap. You can't resap, you can't resap. I'll try to reship. He's gonna fire me? I will. Priest resisted. Deep me? Getting shipped? You have to keep rock. Yeah, yeah, I will. I got fiend on him. I can't do anything, I can't do anything. I don't think so bro, I have... I don't have trinket ready man. I'm gonna get ship soon. I cannot stop, I cannot stop. You finished? I'll keep damage, I can keep healing maybe. I'm ship it. We can start on him. But then, he needs like... good damage. I try to kick him on frost, okay? I have frost if you want. I'll break his shield, there you go now. I'm dispelling, dispelling. Just go, just go, just go. No, no, I locked him. I got ship, you're gonna get ship. It's fake, fake, fake, fake, fake. Full ship. I trinket, I trinket. I'm just on major. Half ship me. He's gonna blind me soon, you need to watch out. Priest, priest, priest. I got him? You triggered it, I triggered it. Careful, he has blind for me, he has blind for me. Watch out. I'm gonna dance, I'm gonna dance rock here. I stopped, I stopped, I stopped ship. I ship me, ship me. MCS, MCS. I can't, I can't. I can't, I can't. Getting ship, getting ship. Death, death, death. Full, full blind, full blind, full blind. Watch out. Okay, they're not doing anything, they're not doing anything.  Third deal, third deal, let's go. Cheap ship me. Okay, rogue is fine too. Kidding me.


The next item of business is members' business debate on motion 14384, in the name of Ruth Maguire on outdoor classroom day. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those who wish to speak to press the request-to-speak buttons. I call on Ruth Maguire to open the debate for seven minutes, please. I begin by thanking all the members who signed my motion on outdoor classroom day and those who are in the chamber to take part in the debate this afternoon. Outdoor classroom day is a proven catalyst for more time spent outdoors at school, including playtime. The campaign is, of course, about more than just one day. It is a campaign to inspire more time outdoors every day. Time outdoors playing, learning, exploring and having fun, both at school and at home. To achieve that, the campaign has three aims. Number one, outdoor learning is part of every school day for every child. Number two, every child has a great playtime at school every day for at least 60 minutes, with the longer term aim of 90 minutes. Number three, schools act as advocates for more time outdoors so that outdoor play becomes part of every child's life every day. Playtime at school and around the school day is so important. The evidence is clear, compelling and robust. Play is not just nice to have. It is not a shame that children do not play outdoors as much as they used to. It is much, much more serious than that. Through playing outdoors, our children can improve their physical health. Children are two and a half times more active outdoors compared to inside, and they sustain physical activity for longer. Improvements to mental health is also a benefit. Being outdoors makes us happier. We all know that. Just think about how you feel when the sun shines on your face. However, multiple research studies from across the world show that whatever the weather, as long as we are dressed right, children and adults feel less stressed, more relaxed and happier if they have been outdoors. Being outdoors regularly and often helps children identify a safe, quiet space where they can reflect. Outdoors and away from screens helps children build positive relationships, making and sustaining friendships and developing the social skills that they will need throughout life. Outdoor play can also improve academic progress. Children need time to assimilate learning. After playtime outdoors, children are more attentive to lessons, more on task and behave better. In a study of more than two and a half thousand children in Spain, exposure to total surrounding greenness was associated with a 5 per cent increase in the progress of working memory, a 6 per cent increase in the progress of superior working memory and a 1 per cent reduction in attentiveness. Outdoor play also helps children connect to the places that they live and the planet around them. We only love what we know. Playing outdoors for sustained periods of time regularly and often leads to greater care and concern for the environment. More green space in urban neighbourhoods in Scotland is linked to lower levels of perceived stress and improved physiological stress. As Sir David Attenborough says, no one will protect what they do not care about and no one will care about what they have never experienced. Research by Tim Gill, the author of No Fear, compared outdoor learning with outdoor play and found that, while outdoor learning was important and crucial for understanding scientific facts, outdoor play left children with a love of the outdoors so that they would want to protect it. Children who are happier at schools, more attentive in lessons and feel healthy, are far more likely to succeed in school and grow up happy and healthy all their lives. Overall, Scottish teachers that responded to the survey were pretty robust and, right across the UK, 24 per cent said that nothing stops them taking lessons outdoors and 16 per cent said that nothing stops outdoor play. If I can quote one teacher in Scotland, she said, we usually ignore wet play time and put on our waterproofs and get outside. I give up my break time to supervise this. Midges can be pretty brutal at times and, however, we still go outside. That is a teacher from the west coast. Of all the teachers surveyed across the UK, 99 per cent said that they believe that play time outdoors throughout the day is critical for children to reach their full potential. The Scottish Government has committed to encouraging and supporting inclusive play-based outdoor learning as part of the outdoor learning coalition, but play time at schools is important to. Play time supports children's social, emotional and academic development within the school day. When schools stand up and tell the world that they believe outdoor play and learning is important, parents will listen and the wider community listens. If we want Scottish children to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors who want to protect the places that they grow up in and the environment of the planet, they need more time out of doors. If we want happy children, they need to play out of doors. We have to make playing and learning out of doors every day routine again. By supporting outdoor classroom day, not only today, but on 23 May and 7 November next year, and by supporting the goal that play time at school should be at least 60 minutes long, the Scottish Government can send the message that it believes outdoor play is important, not just at school but at every day. I am grateful to everyone who signed the motion to let the debate go ahead and I look forward to everyone's contributions and then if anyone wants to join me outside for some fresh air afterwards, we can do that too. We will move on to the open debate. It is quite heavily subscribed, so I can ask people to keep their contributions tight, and no more than four minutes please. I call Liz Smith to be followed by Jenny Gilruth. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I immediately thank Ruth Maguire for bringing the motion to the chamber, and it is an issue that is very close indeed to my own heart. I do not think that there is any doubt that this is a very important worthwhile fact global initiative, not just in Scotland, in which thousands of schools across the world will take part in the aim of promoting and inspiring outdoor education and play. In 2017, more than 2.3 million children worldwide took part, including 530,000 in the UK and Ireland, and this year more than 540,000 are expected to do so. I certainly, from my own region of Mid-Scotland and Fife, commend the initiatives in a number of primary schools such as Letham, Forg and Denny, Dunbarney, Fosaway, Port Moc and Muthall. I have just been looking at some of these this morning, and I am exceptionally impressed by some of the initiatives that they have. I did not need any conversion to the benefits of outdoor learning, partly because I am old enough to be of the generation where the expectations were that you did play outside, often unsupervised. It has to be said in the company of your own friends so that you made your own fun. I remember very long days outside, coming home perhaps only to eat and to sleep, sometimes not coming home at all. I have to say without parents having to come and find me, and the joy of being able to roam freely in fields and woods up trees with my friends and playing lots of games and sport. We thought nothing about the risks that it has to be said, perhaps we should have done, but I am very clear indeed that the experience built in me is a very strong resilience, a curiosity about the wider world and a tolerance—much needed, may I say, in today's world—when I think that tolerance is perhaps sadly missing. It certainly gave me a personal taste for the wilds of Scotland and the staying power that was required to complete them in rows, particularly on days when I was making a solo ascent in difficult conditions, and I have to tell Ruth Maguire that midges are not just west coast phenomenon. I was, I hope, well equipped and very experienced because of my outdoor training, but nonetheless this is a passion that I want to pass on to many other particularly young people. Ruth Maguire has mentioned all the scientific and educational information about just how valuable this kind of education is. I couldn't agree more with that, but actually I don't really think we need it at all because I think common sense tells us about the advantages for children's wellbeing and behaviour. Certainly, in terms of being able to lower anxieties and deal with some of the mental health issues that we are obviously seeing a growth in just now, outdoor play and education could hardly be more important. I particularly noticed the recent study by the University of Essex that had done quite a lot of quantitative analysis on this, and it was very impressive about some of the benefits that it could have. According to the results of a new study commissioned by Project Dirt, which is a wonderful term, 99 per cent of teachers in the UK believe that outdoor playtime at school is absolutely critical as children try to reach their full potential. For me, the more important statistic was that 45 per cent of UK teachers questioned whether they were able to do that, partly because of curriculum pressures and some of the issues around organisational features. However, I don't think that that's the only thing that is holding us back. I think that what is much more damaging is the pervasive cotton wool culture. I think that there's an increasing link, dare I say, to what we call the snowflake generation—some of the young people I was speaking to you about this—which provides us with a lot of food for thought in terms of how we raise our young people and make them resilient. I think that there are too many excuses now for parents to cling to in terms of overprotecting their children and having an impact that they might miss some of the most valuable learning. Yes, of course. No, I'm afraid that you've come to the end of your contribution. Perhaps someone else will let the leader of the debate come in. Thank you very much, Ms Smith. I call Jenny Gouruth to be followed by Jenny Marra. Can I start by congratulating my friend and colleague Ruth Maguire MSP on securing this afternoon's debate, a topic on which I know that she has campaigned tirelessly since her election in 2016? Outdoor learning is, of course, central to the ethos of curriculum for excellence. Indeed, in Ruth Maguire's contribution, she noted the four capacities of curriculum for excellence—a curriculum that puts the learner at its heart. As a secondary school teacher to trade, however, outdoor learning was not, perhaps, a natural inclination for me. Maybe that is because secondary schools in Scotland are subject specialists in nature, perhaps because of the age group that we teach, perhaps because of the impending doom that afflicts secondary teachers in Scotland around April, the start of the annual examination diet. However, when I thought about my own experiences in delivering outdoor learning, I realised that outdoor learning had always been part of the education that I had delivered as a teacher. Taking pupils from Elgin High School to Grannys Helan Haim in Dornach, taking pupils on the annual sponsored walk at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, taking primary seven pupils to Dunans in Aberfoil as part of their residential week at St Columbus High School. Each of those experiences were formative to me as a teacher because they allowed me to form relationships with my pupils outwith the formalities of the classroom. In Scottish educational discourse, we often talk about the impact of actions on pupil attainment, for example. The impact of being an active member of my school community and choosing to take part in outdoor learning experiences was that it dramatically improved the type of learning and teaching that took place in my classroom. It was also hugely beneficial in confirming with pupils that I and colleagues alike did not in fact live under our desks. What about the impact of outdoor learning on pupils themselves? A report published by Plymouth University in 2016 confirmed that outdoor learning can have a positive impact on children's development. On Australian research paper published in 1999, it claimed that outdoor education has clear potential, if well designed, to foster enhancements of personal and social aspects of learning and development. We know that access to green space is crucial to improving mental health outcomes. On Monday this week, I was delighted to be joined by pupils from South Park's primary school, England Rossus, as part of their community group. Earlier in the year, I had been contacted by a number of constituents who had concerns about litter and riverside park in the town, particularly because 2018 marks the town's 70th birthday, so I reached out to the local primary school to see if they might be able to help. The pupils from the community group excelled themselves. Bags and bags of litter were collected and the pupils took their jobs as members of the community group very seriously, which was pretty impressive to see—a few aspiring politicians perhaps—among them. They were directly involved in outdoor learning that meant something, though it was contextualised. Far different from a teacher delivering a lesson in a classroom teaching them about litter in school, that learning experience was meaningful. Although I was not able to offer pupils the financial payment as one requested, I promised to facilitate a visit from the community group to Holyrood in the future. Before closing, I want to make a short mention of Thornton primary school, which is taking part in today's outdoor classroom day. The entire school is involved with a range of activities on offer, including den building for younger pupils and an outdoor tour of what is on offer for parents and carers. Primary 7 is taking part in outdoor artwork and younger pupils are taking part in an environmental print mock. Headteacher Irene Johnson said that outdoor classroom day allows the chance to help children to learn about their environment by teaching them about seasonal changes. It is also important for road safety now that it is getting darker earlier. It allows children the chance to learn about something different to a classroom environment, which is beneficial for those who get restless and, dare I say it, bored in indoor lessons. I commend Irene Johnson and the team at Thornton primary school for all their work in ensuring that outdoor classroom day is as meaningful for pupils as possible. We need hard-working teachers like Irene to make educational opportunities like outdoor classroom day work, so thank you to the teachers in my constituency who are making a difference every day. Outdoor classroom day deserves to be celebrated in Parliament, and so too do the professionals who ensure that it happens in our schools every day. Jenny Marra, followed by Rona Mackay Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank and congratulate Ruth Maguire for bringing this important debate to the chamber today. I really want to just make a couple of observations, if I may, Presiding Officer. I am one based on some personal experience. A couple of years ago, I was picking up a couple of young brothers who I often take out during the school holidays, during the October holidays. I think that it was two years ago—it was beautiful October holidays—and, to my mind, a time of year where every child should be in the outdoors when the leaves are falling, when we are getting that crisp sunshine, and when it is not too cold to still enjoy the changing of the seasons. It was October recess that I spent the morning in my dundee office, and I went up at lunchtime to pick them up from their outdoor school club. I asked them what they had been doing. They had been sitting inside all morning watching Disney Frozen. It was not the first time that week—that beautiful week—as the sun was splitting the pavements of dundee that they had been watching Frozen. I have a real concern, and I support the motion and all that it says about outdoor classrooms and encouraging teachers to take children outdoor for their lessons. I think that there is a lot of value in that. However, I have a real concern that, during the holidays in Scotland, not enough children are outside playing. Ruth Maguire said in her excellent opening speech that there is even more evidence around outdoor play than there is around outdoor learning. I am really concerned about the quality of our care in the school holidays. I recognise that, after school clubs, there is homework to be done, and the children can be more tired, and there might be more reasons for being inside. However, to my mind, there is absolutely no excuse for outdoor school clubs during the school holidays holding the children inside to watch repeats of Disney films. I think that it is disgraceful. I have done a little bit of investigation to see, Presiding Officer, where the regulation comes of these clubs. I think that it rests with local authorities and with the care inspectorate, but I do not know if a lot of that has been done. I would be very interested in the minister responding to that at the end to see if we can get some standards across the board. I know that there are a number of providers. There are private providers, local authority providers, but how much time are those kids who their parents have got to work and they are in these clubs? How much time are they getting outside? I think that there should be a heavy presumption that they should be outside unless the weather really does not allow them to be so. I would like to touch in my remaining time, Presiding Officer, on why of all the obvious benefits, but health is a particular concern. The Scotsman reported three years ago that there are instances in Scotland of rickets. This is a disease that we thought we had seen go in the 1930s. There was reoccurrence of it in the 1960s in Dundee, and I have heard reports recently that reoccurring again. That is partly due to a lack of exposure to vitamin D that comes from the sunshine. Of course, the Government's health project—I currently have vitamin D supplements for my baby son—is given out at the book bug sessions and all the sessions that health visitors do across the country. However, the best thing that we can do is to get our children outside in the sunshine. I think that there are huge health benefits here, and there is the recorded risk now for MS as well, with a lack of exposure to sunshine. With those health benefits and the benefits that Ruth Maguire outlined for children's wellbeing, their mental health and what Liz Smith said about their robustness, I think that that is very good. We need to get them outdoors as much as possible. Rona Mackay, followed by Fulton MacGregor. I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing this important debate to the chamber. Outdoor learning is and always should have been a hugely important part of children's education. I look back to the dark ages when I was at school, and it was literally that, no daylight during class time except to play netball for a PE lesson, and only then if it was deemed sunny enough. The times are definitely changing and for the better. However, as has been mentioned, we know that for the last decade or more, children are spending well over the recommended daily time playing video games and watching television and way under the recommended time spent outdoors. I agree wholeheartedly with Jenny Marra's point about holiday and after school clubs. It is something that I had not even considered, but it is an excellent point. Spending too much time inside negatively affects not only children's health and obesity levels but also their academic performance and ability to concentrate during class. A recent survey of children from 125 schools found that, after spending time learning outdoors, 90 per cent of pupils felt happier and 92 per cent enjoyed their lessons more. Likewise, 85 per cent of teachers saw a positive impact on pupils' behaviour and 92 per cent found that their pupils were more engaged with learning. Children who spend more time learning outdoors also developed problem-solving and communicatory skills at a much faster rate than those who learn inside the classroom. Crucially, it helps children with attention deficit disorders. We need to teach children from a young age that learning is an on-going, exciting process, one that occurs not just within the confines of the school walls but everywhere and all the time. Of course, outdoor play and learning begins before school, and that is why I am delighted with the rise in the popularity of forest nurseries. I have an excellent one of my constituency of Strathkelvin and Bearsden and all the early years providers I have visited in my constituency prioritised having outside space for children to play in all weathers. Such a change from 20 years ago when my son was at nursery. It is important to remember that children do not mind rain, wind or snow. It is adults that object and this can often affect children's attitudes to going outside outdoors when they are older. The Scouts are experts in outdoor learning and I thank them for the briefing. The Scouts prepare young people with skills for life and I know that to be true because my niece and nephew are both active Scouts and are flourishing as a result of their involvement with them. Scouts Scotland is the largest coeducational youth movement in Scotland with 51,000 or so members and last year 26,000 young people took part in outdoor learning at three scout adventure centres. They believe that learning in the outdoors allows young people the chance to develop skills for life that are useful in the outdoors but also back in the classroom. Building fires and learning how to cook being part of a team are all skills that many children miss out on which would enhance their future pathways. They also believe that learning in the outdoors away from school or home can be a powerful positive impact on young people's academic achievement and I think that that has been proved from what we have been learning today. The Scouts believe that many parents or carers may feel that they do not have the confidence or the skills to participate in outdoor learning with their children. In my view, possibly time could be a factor in that too. The Scouts run parent and child camps not just for Scouts but for anyone wanting to enjoy outdoor family experiences so that the facts are clear. Less support outdoor classroom day. Outdoor learning leads to healthier, happier young people and healthier, happier adults. Fulton MacGregor, followed by Alison Harris. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I want to thank Ruth Maguire for bringing this debate to the chamber and I know that it is an issue that she has been very passionate about. It is one that I also believe in, Presiding Officer. Indeed, I had a question to the minister just a few weeks ago on the 3 October. I welcomed her response when she highlighted that play-based learning is an effective and appropriate way to deliver education and that the curriculum for excellence gives teachers the flexibility to introduce play in early primary years and beyond. In June, when she was in Scotland talking about the Norwegian outdoor kindergarten model, she said that it was very interesting. In the part of Norway where this model operates, the weather is often very cold and there are even points in the year where there is little to no hours at all of daylight and yet they have almost entirely outdoor-based system. The results are absolutely fantastic. The question that she was asking when she did a lecture here was why can't we do that here in Scotland where the weather is much better? I would encourage any members if they get the opportunity or time to check out tourism work. The case has been mailed by Ruth Maguire and other speakers about the benefits of playing outdoors on development and learning and mental health and other aspects. I want to take the rest of my time to comment on a couple of examples in my constituency. It would be fair to say that I could mention any school in my area and pick out some of the amazing examples. For now, I am focusing on just three. One school that tries to incorporate outdoor learning not just in this day but every day is Glen Manor primary in Middysburn. I have previously visited the fantastic vegetable garden that pupils have. I understand that they are currently harvesting the last of the year's veg and preparing the vegetable beds for winter whilst composting old leaves in veg. There are so many lessons to be learned from something as simple as a vegetable garden responsibility, nutrition and cooking skills, the science of how things grow, patience, how to be more environmentally friendly and how to reduce food waste, all very important issues. Another great example is from the town head primary school in Coltbridge, who are involved in a full day of activities today for the whole school. For example, they are doing numerous outside and recognising shapes in their environment, planting scrubs, flowers and a bug hunt. The children are also involved in building bug hotels and hedgehog homes. They have even taken their literacy outside and finding things around the grounds to make a poem from. Of course, like Glen Manor and the other schools, outdoor learning is already a very important part of their curriculum. They are one of the first schools to be part of the seven locks project, a two-year project, which takes place every Friday at Trampillia locks. It involves linking the community, environment and school with outdoor learning and painting school, which is a primary school for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, to take part in the project and to dare on the scooters for outdoor learning. A final example is St Timothy's in Coltbridge, where they have been involved in outdoor learning activities all week. For example, the P1s went on a forest walk this week to learn about autumn and apply it to science. They are in a partnership with the fabulous parent action for safe play, which involves children working with their gardener in the orchard and polytunnel, which have been developed in the grounds of the school. Their nursery classes are involved in forest walks and Trampillia are also on a regular basis. There is fantastic work going across my area and, as I said, I could have mentioned many other schools that I know personally from my own sons—nursery forest walks. It is not just the schools, the BBs and the air cadets that are based in my constituency, and others do a fantastic job in promoting outdoor learning. I recently attended and presented at the first Coltbridge Boys Brigade prize-giving and heard about the camping and other outdoor works that they were doing in the prizes that were being given out to some of the members for that. I will end by saying that I do try where possible to practice this myself. Today, I am very much looking forward to the weekend to get out with my own children. As always, as others have said, regardless of the weather, because they do not care, they make use of the great spaces that my area has to offer, such as Garko's Nature reserve, Trampillia locks and Dimbeth Park, to name a few. Alison Harris, followed by Tom Arthur. I am pleased to be speaking today's members' debate on the outdoor classroom day, and I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing it to the chamber. Today, as we all know, is outdoor classroom day, and, worldwide, children are taking to the outdoors to learn. Here in Scotland, more than 600 schools are participating, giving thousands of children the opportunity to head outdoors to learn, play and develop. It is important that our children get the chance to do this, because the world of today is very different to how it was 30, 20 or even 10 years ago. Back in my day, perhaps mostly because there was a lack of other things to do, children would often go out and play with their friends as soon as the school bell rang. I think back that we did not have computers, mobile phones, etc. In 2016, there was a survey by Persil, and they found that, these days, nearly three quarters of children in the UK spend less than an hour playing outdoors each day. One notable reason for this is the fear that it is not safe to play outdoors anymore in your own area. While there is a range of factors contributing to the statistic, it is no coincidence that the fall in outdoor play has happened at the same time as a rise in computerised play, with the same survey also showing that children now spend twice as long playing on screens as they do outside. Although I believe that the huge advancements in technology have been beneficial and should be fully taken advantage of, it is also important to encourage a balance in children's lives growing up. It has been shown in studies and in actual practice that outdoor learning has many positive effects. Perhaps most obvious is that it improves children's health. Taking part in outdoor classes gives them the opportunity to get their daily hour outside. Beyond health, educational benefits have been observed, including the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, concentration and even social skills. The more I say, the more I think I will join Ruth Maguire outside afterwards for some fresh air. The benefits to education have been witnessed by teachers and early learning and childcare providers, who have said that the change in environment gives children new topics to think of and encourages both leadership and teamwork in accomplishing tasks. However, teachers and childcare providers have highlighted some barriers to outdoor learning, too. One teacher, who spoke with my office, praised the idea of outdoor learning in principle but said that, amongst teachers, there was a general feeling of a lack of understanding on what the desired learning intentions and outcomes were meant to be. Having graduated with a degree in primary teaching within the last three years, she added that she had experienced a distinct lack of training in the delivery of outdoor classes, which she said led many teachers to avoid the practice due to lack of confidence. That view is shared by other educationalists across the country. On top of that, a couple of drawbacks exist. First, extra care needs to be taken to ensure the safety of the children. That has a real cost attached to it. Secondly, being based in Scotland, we are perhaps not as well-equipped for all-year-round outdoor learning as countries such as Australia, which in many ways pioneered the outdoor learning project. Let us encourage our children outdoor, but let us also leave the decision on the level of outdoor learning to the qualified professionals—Scotland's teachers and early learning providers. They should be the ones to decide how they want to approach the delivery of outdoor learning. Today, on outdoor classroom day, I welcome the promotion of outdoor learning. I think that it is one solution to the problem of encouraging Scotland's children outdoors, and I think that it is letting them experience the joy of being outdoors. Perhaps more training could be provided to our teachers across Scotland in the delivery of outdoor learning, because, if done correctly, studies have shown that it can improve our children's attainment, their health and help-build character. I certainly think that it is important to have a balance between outdoor and indoor classroom learning. If I just leave you with the former Secretary of State for Education, Food and Rural Affairs, Liz Truss once put it this way, our children should be climbing trees, not the walls. The final two contributions in the open debate are from Tom Arthur, followed by Alison Johnstone. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is a real pleasure to have the opportunity to take part in this debate. I thank my colleague Ruth Maguire for securing the debate and to thank all of the speakers who have preceded me for an array of thoughtful contributions, which have certainly helped to develop my understanding of the benefits of outdoor learning and outdoor play. Many of the arguments, as I said, have been very well rehearsed already, and it is potential for improving socialisation, physical and mental health and wellbeing. I think that another key area that has been touched on is its pedagogical utility. In my experience, I have always felt that there was a strong correlation between excitement about a subject and one's capacity to learn that subject. In my pre-political life, I was a piano tutor, which did not afford much opportunity for any outdoor teaching. However, a method of teaching that involved the child simply sitting at the piano and not having the opportunity to go up, to dance, to sing, to a broader degree of physicality would be quite limiting. That is an incredibly important part of the learning process for a musical instrument. It certainly applies to academic subjects as well. I have been struck by some of the comments in the debate as well. With regard to the advance of computerised play, I can perhaps divide my childhood into two separate eras before and after PlayStation. I was very fortunate to grow up in Barhead with my parents' property backing on to the Levenburn. There was nothing I loved more as a kid to go in the burn, building dams, fishing and going on adventures. Equally, just a short walk away was the foot of the Ferenese braze, but again, I and my brothers would go and play. I share this to give an example of how childhood experiences have such an impact later in life. One of the favourite holiday locations of my family growing up was Neath Caravan Park at Gair Lochhead. My younger brother Martin would regularly go down to the beach and disappear for hours collecting seals and crabs and all sorts of other beasties that he could find. He went to university to study psychology and in the end he did not enjoy it. He is now almost 30 years old back studying zoology and absolutely loving it and completely engaged. After years of perhaps not being engaged, I find it fascinating how he has returned back to that original experience that enchanted him and energised him as a child. It is absolutely vital that we make sure that our young people and our children have that exposure to the outdoors, because we know all the benefits that it brings. In particular in areas such as problem-solving, there will be skills and abilities that children will acquire with outdoor learning, which will simply be impossible to deliver in the classroom. Of course, I have another constituency connection that I wish to highlight. I very much want to commend the work of Wallace primary school in Eldersley, in my constituency of Renfrewshire South. They, at the moment, are seeking funding via the Aviva community fund. They vote for that closed very, very soon, but they have within the perimeter of their school a wooded area. They are seeking to develop that to enhance their outdoor learning offer to their children and young people. I very much want to commend Wallace primary in their endeavours. I encourage all constituents in Eldersley across Renfrewshire South to back the project. I also want to highlight the work of Eldersley community council, who, through the Aviva community fund, are seeking funding to install a play park in Eldersley, for which there is currently a lack of. Although it is important that our children have the opportunity for outdoor learning and play in school, we want to ensure that they are able to do that outwith school hours, particularly during the summer holidays, as other members have alluded to. However, in that note, I would like to conclude and, very finely, extend an invitation to the minister to come along and see the wonderful work that has gone on at Wallace primary for herself. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Tom Arthur describes his experience of play as before and after playstation. I think that it is probably fair to say mine is before and after etch a sketch, which at the time was regarded as quite high-tech. Seriously, I would like to thank Ruth Maguire for bringing this subject to the chamber today. It is really important, and I think that it deserves more attention and recognition than it gets. I, too, would like to thank those organisations like the Scouts for their briefing today, but also for their long-standing commitment to getting our young people outside and for helping them to develop an appreciation of the outdoors and its many benefits. I would also like to thank Police Scotland for its on-going work on the agenda. As Rona Mackay has pointed out, the Scouts are calling for more investment in helping parents and carers to take part in outdoor learning with their children. They are running parent and child camps that are open to those who are not involved with the Scouts, so there is good work going on in the city, too. Cram and Primary School, the Lawrence and Castle Forest Kindergarten, is part of an Edinburgh City Council pilot, and it offers 600 hours of nursery and 500 hours of forest annually. We would all benefit markedly from that. The children there are definitely experiencing a lot of benefits, and I believe that the minister is aware of that pilot. It is not an accident that the entire shortlist of the UK's best nurseries at last year's nursery world awards were made up of outdoor operators. The children of the Lawrence and Castle don't bat an eyelid if they are out in its raining, but that is not the case everywhere. In an independent survey of March this year, parents mentioned that their children used the excuse of wet weather, fears about getting muddy, tiredness and a dislike of the cold as reasons for not playing outside. One in 10 children said that they would rather stay indoors to avoid getting dirty or touching germs, and 30 per cent were just simply too engrossed in video games to go outside. So there is work to be done. There is a culture. We have to develop a habit and make sure that children understand what fun they can have outdoors. I think that outdoor classroom day is really important. It is about encouraging more time to learn outside, but also about learning through play every day. It is clear that there is more focus on this area required. As an athletics coach, I know that outdoor play is crucial for developing physical literacy. It develops self-confidence. It develops strength, balance and co-ordination. Children and play should just go together. Those words should go together, shouldn't they? Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child tells us that every child has that right to play, but for too many children in 2018, sadly they do not. We know in other parts of the globe that children as young as five are going out to work all day, every day, in situations that we here in Scotland can barely imagine—factories, mines, quarries. Children in Scotland, too, we need to do all we can to make sure that in this wealthy affluent country that we are contributing to that right to play, that we are making sure that it happens, that we are not hindering that right to play, unstructured play outdoors can be transformational. Children benefit so much from the fact that they have overcome a big challenge, that they have taken risks in failing to do something the first time they try, but eventually getting there is key to building resilience. It's absolutely key to good mental health and good physical health. I'd be grateful. I look forward to hearing the minister elaborate on how she's going to take this agenda further forward in Scotland. It's clear that there are good things going on, but it's clear that there's more that we could be doing. I'm absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to close today's timely debate on outdoor classroom day. I'd like to thank my colleague Bruce Maguire for highlighting this really important educational initiative. For all the hard work that he's done campaigning on this issue, I'm really delighted that the Parliament is celebrating this initiative. I'm also delighted to find so many passionate advocates across the chamber because it's something that I feel very passionately about, perhaps having grown up in that very West Highland territory with all the Midgees and mountains. Most of the Midgees. We know the benefits of outdoor learning and exercise and play for children are significant. Playing, learning, having fun outdoors helps to improve wellbeing and resilience and increases health through physical activity. It provides children with the opportunity to develop a lifelong appreciation of the natural world. It naturally encourages good stewardship of the environment, a growing body of research also shows a positive impact on educational attainment, which a number of you mentioned. We should therefore be very proud that Scotland is a country that recognises values and promotes outdoor learning and play. The Government is committed to continuing that tradition throughout all stages of the learner journey, and that's why we've created a policy framework in which outdoor play can be delivered as a foundation of the educational experience. It was great to hear this morning from Carly Sefton. I visited happy days nursery in Dalkeith. I had, we were shaking apples of a tree, I fell off a scooter, I had a great start to outdoor classroom today. It was great to hear from Carly Sefton, who is the CEO of learning through landscapes that Scotland is leading the UK in promoting outdoor learning. She mentioned the world, so she quite rightly recognised that academics from all over the world are coming to Scotland to learn from what we're doing. In my own portfolio, we've provided £862,000 of funding to Inspiring Scotland to support eight local authorities across Scotland to develop and increase success to the outdoors as a focus of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare. I'm determined that this expansion can provide an opportunity for us to really define outdoor learning as part of our children's early experience. Liz Smith I'm very grateful to her for doing that and entirely agree with what you're saying. I think that there's a lot of really good things happening in the early years. I think that, just to pick up the point that Jenny Marra made, it's the next stage that's vital, as children go slightly older, where many of them can drop off from these activities, that we really need to be focusing on continuing the interest in outdoor education. I think that there's a lot of issues there about staffing and about provision, would you agree with that? Mary Todd Certainly, and I'll go on to respond to the point that Jenny Marra made just very shortly. Outdoor access and play are already central in the new health and social care standards, and we're going to ensure that outdoor play is also a key component of the new national standard for early learning and childcare. Just last week, we launched a position statement in partnership with Scotland's national coalition on outdoor play-based learning. That's an important coalition of 50 organisations and national bodies who've committed to work together to embed playing and learning outdoors as an everyday activity and to celebrate it as a fundamental part of growing up in Scotland. Our commitment to early learning and play definitely does extend beyond early learning and childcare in curriculum for excellence. We have a framework through which outdoor learning and play can be used to deliver education in all curricular areas between the ages of 3 and 18. We encourage teachers to engage with motivating, exciting and diverse outdoor environments through continued support provided by Education Scotland. We've also taken the important step of embedding outdoor learning within the curricular theme of learning for sustainability. Scotland is a world-leading reputation in the field of sustainability education, and we recognise that contact with the natural world will help our young people to understand the importance of environmental sustainability. In response to Jenny Marra's point, we are currently developing a strategic framework for after-school and holiday childcare. Right now, we recognise that that is a significant part of tackling the attainment gap. Given our commitment to outdoor play and our track record so far, I have absolutely no doubt that outdoor learning will be a part of that. I thank the minister for that commitment. Will she go as far to say that, during the school holidays and out-of-school care clubs, there should be a presumption that the children should be outdoors as much as possible? Mary Todd. I'll certainly consider it. I would go further. The after-school clubs that I visited outdoor learning is an important part of the after-school component. It is really important that children have played outdoors every single day, so I would not restrict my intentions for embedding outdoor play just to the holidays. Alison Johnstone. Thank you. At the cross-party group on children and young people, we have previously had a discussion about the fact that some children do not have appropriate clothing or footwear for those wet days. We have had a discussion about the need in school cloakrooms to make that part and parcel. If school is kept, there are wellies and appropriate clothing for all children to use for those very important things. Mary Todd. Certainly, in early years, they are almost universally provided as part of the nursery equipment. Children and young people have many rich opportunities to engage in outdoor learning and play activities as part of their education. However, play and access to outdoor needs to continue beyond the school and nursery gates, and our play strategy launched in 2013 recognised that. It sought to deliver a whole range of actions that enable Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up. We have provided funding to the go-to-play programme, recently renamed Thrive Outdoors. Thrive Outdoors are doing incredible work, including the play ranger programme. Inspiring Scotland's work as part of the active play programme has been proven to increase physical activity and is absolutely, definitely linked to emotional, social and cognitive development. I will conclude, because I have lots more to say. This is an absolute personal passion of mine, but I want to thank all the members for their thoughtful contributions this afternoon. Outdoor learning and play is absolutely vital in enriching the educational and social development of our children and young people. Outdoor classroom day is a fantastic vehicle by which those associated benefits can be delivered. I am delighted to accept Tom Arthur's invitation, and I am willing to accept any invitation from colleagues to visit outdoor learning initiatives in their constituencies. I would like to restate the Government's commitment to the agenda and our desire to ensure that outdoor learning and play is not just delivered today, but every day for the benefit of all our children and young people. Thank you. That concludes the debate, and this meeting is suspended until half past two.


Just a quick reminder, you only have five days left to grab one of the YouTube's figures. I'm very proud of these and I would appreciate any support. It's- you can't buy it after this. This is it. It's a final chance. Okay, please grab one. Thank you. Who's ready for story time with Woodhawker, baby? All right. Adam Cole does that a lot better. Sorry if that was cringe. Do you guys remember years ago? We're talking half a decade ago. One of the first videos I made that really blew up on the internet was a very cringy video. I struggled to go back and watch it. I don't know why I used to yell so much in my videos. I'm kind of yelling now, but it's because I'm excited. It was about WWE 2K18 on the Switch and how it was the worst Nintendo Switch game. Yeah, what did they do to this thing? And now you might seem a bit biased because I don't know if you know this about me, but uh I'm a little bit of an AEW fan and I'm not so hot on the WWE. But back then when I made that video, AEW didn't even exist. So I wasn't being biased then. But we're off topic because none of that matters anymore. You don't have to play terrible wrestling games on the Switch because AEW has come to the rescue with Bite Forever. Now this game released a hot couple of weeks ago and I'm a little late to making this video, but don't worry. It's gonna be a good one. I actually have a couple of AEW wrestlers playing this game with me. Ethan Page and Evil Uno. And also Sean was there. Sorry about that. Okay, before we get to the gameplay of Ethan Uno and- Hold on, sorry. I'm getting a phone call. Oh, what timing? It's it's Adam Cole. Hey man, what's up? Yeah. Hey, um, quick question, man. Where was my invite? I wanted to invite you, but I just figured you were busy. You do realize that I'm in the game, right? Yeah, yeah.  I found out yesterday you could do the Panama sunrise from outside of the ropes to the ground. Wait, wait, you can?  I know already. Just invite me next time, all right? Sure, yeah, no. 100% I will.  Why don't we stream it some- Okay, he uh, yeah, he hung up. Can't believe he called me. I mean, and he was so nice. Oh, what a guy. Anyway, so I want to review this game because I really wanted to while I was making my Zelda review. I appreciate everybody that gave love on that video. I can't believe how long it took, but I hope the work showed. It took two months to make that. Goliath of a video. I just need a break to talk about something else I love. And that just so happens to be wrestling. I know AEW Fight Forever might look a little rough around the edges compared to the more recent wrestling sim games that WWE produced. But it's an intentional nostalgic style. They opted for a more arcade-y style graphics and gameplay. Although they did do their own completely created from the ground up motion capture for this game. And they even had AEW wrestlers help out with that motion capture, including Kenny Omega, who helped make the game alongside Audrey Edwards as well as Yooks. And if you guys know wrestling games and some of the best wrestling games that we've ever had back in the day, back when they were actually good wrestling games, they were all made by Yooks. On top of that, Kenny Omega isn't just any wrestler. Kenny Omega is fantastic. Kenny has a vested interest in video games. In fact, his signature move is the V trigger and his finisher is the one-winged angel. Yeah, like Sephiroth. And then I mentioned Aubrey Edwards. She is a ref for AEW, but on top of that, she's also the promotion's project coordinator. And before AEW, she worked at Fifth Cell Games, where she was lead producer on the Scribble North series. Let's just start wrestling.  Oh, that's familiar to me. Wait, why didn't you change the name? Why is it custom wrestler? Oh, skateboard. Oh, are you kidding me? You can ride the skateboard? Yeah, man. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Oh, your legs didn't have. Thing always wins. It's still, it's staying. Come on. Wrestling and video games go so hand in hand. It's clear that so many video game fans also love wrestling and vice versa, but so many wrestlers love video games. Evil Uno, who we played the heck of game with today, is a streamer on Twitch, as well as Adam Colt, Colt Cabana. So as you can imagine, having these video game lovers and wrestlers also working on the game, AEW Fight Forever has so many little details. Like if your character is the current champion in the game, you can grab your title's belts from around the ring. A lot of the wrestlers recorded actual voice lines. Definitely my favorite though is when you taunt as Jeff Hardy. He makes some weird grunting noise that doesn't even sound human. Other things, like you have full control over the camera, lighting, pyro. Then there are some wrestlers like Orange Cassidy. He has this unique gimmick where he puts his hands in his pockets and he wrestles like that. And they actually built him a whole extra bonus move set so that you could do that in the game. Oh, my God. My collectibles.  The YouTubers versus the wrestlers. I don't care. You biting my foot? My Ethan's a real foot guy. That's a classic. Can we do tag moves or no? Yes, we both have X same time. Here's one. No. How about this one? What is happening? What the heck was that? Whoa, what the? They put this in here. Oh, my God. Geez. Yeah. Oh, nice. No. What's my leg? She's not my friend. Stop him. Just kick him in the back of the head. Ethan Page. Ethan Page. Oh, you're what? I'm okay with it. There's tons of weapons and they all feel good to use.  What is this? Tony or nuts? Who did that? I did. Oh, no. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. No. I can get behind this. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. If I might, here comes beat-em-ups. Why are you so mad? Look at you. You're like eight feet tall. I'm six too. What's happening here? We just like kissing. We make it out. Get this man out. No. Wait, what? This game might not have as much content as a WWE game, because they've been making those for years and they have a base that they work on. AW had to build everything from scratch, so it might feel a little more light, which is why so many of these little details are so impressive considering this game is also totally okay with just embracing the silly. There is a exploding barbed wire match, which is so much fun to play in the game. And at the end of the countdown, the ring is supposed to explode. And it looks crazy when it works. There was a time where it didn't and it's very funny. The campaign is another good example of that. It's a single player campaign and it's kind of yakuza-y, where you do a lot of spending your time deciding if you want to work out or go out or do a fan signing or eat something.  It leads to a lot of really funny moments. But the campaign is very quick and also very bare bones. It was fun for a while, but I always tend to just stick to playing the exhibition matches. It is also lacking a lot of content in general. There's not that much match variety in what you can do and you can't even do a four-person ladder match that I assume are coming somewhere down the line. If you look at some of the leaks, there is a battle royale mode plan. You play in a big stadium and you have 30 wrestlers and there's even item drops around the world kind of like in Fortnite.  And if you think it's insane that they might add that, this game also has mini games like Mario Party. So I don't think it's stretching too far of the imagination to imagine it might happen. Funny enough, in the matches on Switch, it looks fantastic. I have no issues and the frame rates are crazy good. The Switch handles this game really well and I think, again, that's part of the nostalgic art style. The only place that it looks bad at all is in the cut scenes for the single player. It doesn't really matter because it's just a cut scene but you would also think these would be where it looks the best because it's not even an actual match. Why does it look so bad? Even the online! Oh my God! I've played so many online matches and they're all rock solid. Sean and I play for hours at night sometimes and we never have a single issue. I want to stress, it might look like I have some kind of monetary vested interest here. I'm just a really big fan. I started watching AEW a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. I've seen every show since. Both Kim and I are such big fans. We started going to wrestling shows whenever they were nearby in town and just by happenstance, we ended up running across Adam Cole and Ethan Page and Charlie who works at AEW and is such an insanely nice guy. He gave me this ring apron from an actual show we went to. This turnbuckle that's signed by so many of the wrestlers, he went and got that for me while we were at a show. All right, that was a lot of fun. Thank you guys so much for playing. You can find me at twitch.tv slash evil uno. And Ethan, I'm going to guess. In fact, I'm going to tell people where to go. Ethan Page blog because this man's is at 94,800 subscribers and we need this guy to get a play button. So everybody go and subscribe to the channel. You can find two videos with me in them as well.  Find that only fans. RGT 85, all social media. Thank you for having me on. Pleasure playing with you gentlemen. It was a great time. Thank you very much. Very nice to meet you. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. I don't even expect this video to do very well because it's niche and I'm not a wrestling channel, but I'm so passionate about it. And I love this company and these people so much that I wanted to. So consider buying the game, not a sponsor. I just really like it. If you like AEW, it's a great wrestling game. If you don't know anything about AEW, it might scratch that wrestling game nostalgia you have from back in the day. Just don't expect it to be everything. It's got a ways to go, but I think it's bones for something that could be incredible. And I've already had hours of fun with it myself. I love it. All right. That's it for me. Oh, I'll give you one of these.