A flash of insight occurred the other day as I was listening to a conversation between two completely remarkable lawyers: Vivek Maru, founder of Namati, the nonprofit organization behind the Global Legal Empowerment Network of more than 3,000 organizations and 13,043 individuals in 170+ countries, and Preeta Bansal, who was general counsel and senior policy advisor to the federal Office of … [Read more...] about Future safety: Content moderators and digital grassroots justice
Literacy & Citizenship
Media literacy and an invasion: The view from Estonia
As I write this today, less than a week into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I’m wearing three hats: those of a digital safety specialist, a proud board member of the US’s National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and a digital nomad who loves Estonia, where I’m based this year. The third hat first, with a little geographical and cultural context. The start of the invasion was … [Read more...] about Media literacy and an invasion: The view from Estonia
9 things that make viral hoaxes challenging
Remember “Blue Whale”? Almost five years ago, when I was getting to the bottom of that murky hoax, it wasn’t yet understood as one. It was being called a “suicide game,” and those two words were scaring parents around the world, literally. I was looking all over the Web for reliable sources and found my best one – still one of the world’s top experts on the subject, I believe – to be Georgi … [Read more...] about 9 things that make viral hoaxes challenging
New game to help middle schoolers be media literacy masters
It’s definitely not your typical American high school – not the one in “Agents of Influence.” But high school is the backdrop, which is smart for a media literacy videogame aimed at middle schoolers, right? Especially a sketchy, slightly dystopian fictional one like “Virginia Hall High,” in which the game is set. First, the school occupies what used to be the HQ of “the Omni-Directional … [Read more...] about New game to help middle schoolers be media literacy masters
Yup. New ‘Blue Whale’ with a Momo-style twist
Here we are again. Remember “Blue Whale,” then “Momo”? Well, the B.W. challenge, or self-harm “game,” has been warmed over and repackaged with a new name and face with the creepiness of a Momo. This time it’s a weird, scary version of the cartoon character Goofy. [I don’t know—does familiarity make it less scary or more so?] In any case, its predecessors were both hoaxes, so it would be hard for … [Read more...] about Yup. New ‘Blue Whale’ with a Momo-style twist