What better day than Safer Internet Day to take cyberbullying prevention and intervention to the next level – or at least break the discussion about it wide-open? And just four days after the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child brought digital rights into the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “In relation to the digital environment, it’s a game changer,” writes psychology professor Sonia … [Read more...] about Safer Internet Day 2021: Ground youth safety & rights in dignity
Risk & Safety
Pepe the Frog, GameStop & the gamification of reality
You probably heard about GameStop, the WallStreetBets subreddit, Robinhood app and what’s been called the biggest “short squeeze” in 25 years – all of which was last week boiled down to the phrase “meme stock mania.” You also may’ve heard of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character created for a comic book in 2005 that somehow, in a weird, circuitous, Internet way, became a meme for the alt-right, … [Read more...] about Pepe the Frog, GameStop & the gamification of reality
Online safety after Trump’s deplatforming
Among many other things, the past 24 hours were a pivotal moment for content moderation – for online safety worldwide. I'm usually not US-centric in the way I think about online safety, but what happened in Washington and online, yesterday and since, and then with the global platforms, showed us how far our thinking – and questions – about Internet safety have come. Last night Facebook and … [Read more...] about Online safety after Trump’s deplatforming
Finally! Solid cyberbullying data on tweens
There is no better source on cyberbullying than the Cyberbullying Research Center, at least in the US. And this month, National Bullying Prevention Month in the US, CRC, in partnership with Cartoon Network, released data on a whole new group of kids: 9-to-12-year-olds. It may surprise you that we know very little about tweens’ experiences with cyberbullying. But that’s because of COPPA, the … [Read more...] about Finally! Solid cyberbullying data on tweens
A simple exercise for (digital) parenting
This is inspired by all the families in Parenting for a Digital Future, the book I reviewed earlier this week (I also added this as a sidebar in that post for readers' convenience). It's a little exercise to explain and expand on the statement I led the review with: “family context eclipses screen time.” Please customize to make it meaningful to your family. Instead of watching the clock to … [Read more...] about A simple exercise for (digital) parenting