What?! A little videogame play a day is actually good for children? That's what an Oxford University researcher found in a study of 5,000 UK 10-to-15-year-olds that looked into both the positive and negative impacts of videogaming. "Young people who spent less than an hour a day engaged in video games were better adjusted than those who did not play at all," the BBC reports, citing the study … [Read more...] about A bit of videogaming is good for kids: Study
Social Media
‘Revenge porn’: Exposing cruel disclosure
This is a sidebar to my earlier post about social norms as one of the solutions to social cruelty online, zooming in on one form of it. "Revenge porn" needs to be understood and exposed for what it is so it can be neutralized. Its power to harm will lessen as we stigmatize the shaming rather than its victims. So let's be completely clear about what revenge porn is: malicious distribution of … [Read more...] about ‘Revenge porn’: Exposing cruel disclosure
For our kids & ourselves: Presence in a digital age
Presence has never been harder or more needed – in this age of hyper transparency, connection, opinion and information, all in a media environment that's networked, so that "speed of delivery" is a calculation of the past (it's all just here already). Presence is needed by adults as much as children. It means different things to different people, including "attentiveness," "focus," and … [Read more...] about For our kids & ourselves: Presence in a digital age
Manage Net risk but focus more on opportunities: Researchers
That's what the authors of the latest "Net Children Go Mobile" report conclude: It's great that the UK is "in many ways … leading in children's Internet safety," but "complacency would be ill-advised" and this success could be leading to a new kind of risk: reduced opportunity in and with connected media for British children. "By comparison with some other European countries, the UK appears to … [Read more...] about Manage Net risk but focus more on opportunities: Researchers
Social media in Saudi schools … sort of
In the US, social media is banned in most schools but ubiquitous in the rest of students' lives. In Saudi Arabia, social media is banned but will be taught in school. Maybe we could learn something from each other. "The textbook for [Saudi Arabia's] first year secondary students, entitled Computers and Information Technology, would contain information on using, designing and managing websites … [Read more...] about Social media in Saudi schools … sort of