This is not a review of TikTok. You can find many reviews, both credible and not so much, with a quick Web search. This post offers a bit of context on the app, its parent company and where social media's headed – for bigger-picture parenting. (BTW, if your child is a big fan of TikTok, a great family media literacy lesson would be to pick 3 random reviews or articles and, with open minds and … [Read more...] about The TikTok sensation
Risk & Safety
The Internet’s changing. Internet safety needs to too.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced a sea change for Facebook, one that "will mean taking positions on important issues concerning the future of the internet," he wrote. I think he's right, and not just because Facebook is the Internet in some countries or because its products have affected elections and the public order (or lack thereof) in many countries, including ours. I agree, too, … [Read more...] about The Internet’s changing. Internet safety needs to too.
Safer Internet Day 2019: Risk vs harm, online & offline
What better way to mark Safer Internet Day than with clarity on the difference between risk and harm? Because, where online safety's concerned, the two words have been used interchangeably – inaccurately – for years. It was EU Kids Online, after surveys of more than 25,000 9-16 year-olds across Europe, that first made the distinction, reporting that, "as with riding a bike or crossing the road, … [Read more...] about Safer Internet Day 2019: Risk vs harm, online & offline
Facebook’s ‘Oversight Board’ & Internet safety’s next big step
This could almost be a sidebar to what I wrote earlier this month about the new middle layer of user care that’s organically developing for the new conditions of today’s media environment – a layer of care that’s independent of government and corporations and lies between “the cloud” and long-established care on the ground. But this news is too big for a sidebar! [Disclosure: In addition to the … [Read more...] about Facebook’s ‘Oversight Board’ & Internet safety’s next big step
Digital safety 2019: The new ‘middle layer’ of user care (Part 2)
Part 1 of this series was 2018 highlights. Now it’s time to shine light on some interesting ideas and developments that people have surfaced for a better Internet in 2019 and beyond. We’ll look at a new middle layer of user care that’s being discussed by some – and gradually being built out, little by little, worldwide. Called for by the conditions of our new media environment, it’s a new layer of … [Read more...] about Digital safety 2019: The new ‘middle layer’ of user care (Part 2)