This is a pivotal year for children’s online safety and human rights. One important reason is the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s call for public comments to help it develop the first General Comment on the digital part of fulfilling children’s human rights. Those rights are extensive. There are 54 articles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, falling into 3 categories labeled … [Read more...] about Digital youth: Honor ALL their rights
Search Results for: "moral panic"
We need to manage the social media backlash too
It's like a moral panic on steroids. Adding to the "reckoning" already under way since the 2016 election (see Related links below) is the news yesterday of a new, high-profile coalition of some of social media's creators and backers and Common Sense Media. The steroids part is the funding ($7 million from individuals, the Omidyar Network and Common Sense Media), the PR ($50 million in donated … [Read more...] about We need to manage the social media backlash too
‘Blue Whale’: Clickbait or a new form of online grooming?
A reader in India, where a "Blue Whale" scare has now taken off, asked if it's a genuine threat, so here's an update (see also sidebars below about the all-important Russian context and lessons from India, because there's are cultural as well as universal pieces to this global puzzle): In answer to the question in the headline up there: maybe both. Blue Whale is also now quite likely a … [Read more...] about ‘Blue Whale’: Clickbait or a new form of online grooming?
Insights from under 18 Net users in 4 countries: Research
Young people worldwide are beginning to see the Internet "as a human right, a necessity." That's from Global Kids Online, a research project and network now encompassing 33 countries (and counting). It just released findings from South Africa, the Philippines, Serbia and Argentina, summarized here. "My favorite apps are social media – Whatsapp and Facebook. Also Instagram," 15-year-old Siyanda … [Read more...] about Insights from under 18 Net users in 4 countries: Research
‘Disconnected’: Crucial book for closing the ‘ethics gap’ online
I don't know about the millions of people in developing countries going online for the first time with mobile phones but, here in the developed world, something strange happened when we moved onto the Web nearly 20 years ago. It's as if we checked our thousands of years of social-norms and ethics development at the door of cyberspace. Somehow we saw that space as "technology" and got stuck there – … [Read more...] about ‘Disconnected’: Crucial book for closing the ‘ethics gap’ online