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
Young artists & activists wrapping 2020 in light
So many of us lost heart, our voices, our strength at different points in the past year, and possibly none more than young people. “Since the start of the pandemic, mental health-related emergency department visits increased by 31% for 12-17-year-olds,” Mental Health America cites data from the Centers for Disease Control as showing. And according to YPulse, 64% of Gen Z-ers themselves say their … [Read more...] about Young artists & activists wrapping 2020 in light
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
Beyond ‘The Social Dilemma’ to social solutions
The Social Dilemma, now on Netflix, is a polemic, not a documentary. I mean, the Oxford English Dictionary says a documentary “provides a factual record or report,” and this film does not do that. There’s nothing wrong with a polemic, or a wakeup call. It’s perfectly reasonable to create a film with the intention to wake people up from using tech and media unthinkingly. It is wrong to represent … [Read more...] about Beyond ‘The Social Dilemma’ to social solutions
‘Automated fame’: 1 of the TikTok stories of the moment
You’ve undoubtedly seen news stories about Charli D’Amelio, 2020’s 16-year-old TikTok phenomenon, with 6 billion likes and 82 million followers since she joined the app last spring. It was the part about “automated fame” that really caught my attention in a New Yorker story this past weekend. Charli became “the most popular creator on TikTok” partly just because of who Charli is – a very grounded … [Read more...] about ‘Automated fame’: 1 of the TikTok stories of the moment