Family context eclipses screen time. If you get nothing else from the new book Parenting for a Digital Future, that one takeaway would help so many educators, policymakers, pediatricians and advocates trying to get “Internet safety” and “digital wellbeing” education right, i.e., as free of generalized pronouncements of what is and isn’t good for children as possible. It has a number of … [Read more...] about #P4DF: The book about (digital) parenting
Key SEL report from UNESCO, insights from youth in 6 countries
In what video panel discussion could you watch a high school student in Bhutan lead his peers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Japan and South Africa, along with their adult moderator, in a mindfulness practice – after which you’d hear from a neuroscientist at a U.S. university and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Education? That would be this video, created by UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of … [Read more...] about Key SEL report from UNESCO, insights from youth in 6 countries
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
New org for content moderation pros
This is a world first and great news at a time when everybody could use a bit of that: The Trust & Safety Professional Association opens its doors today. TSPA is a membership organization designed to support the content moderation community, the people all over the world who do the extremely challenging work of protecting social media users and freedom of expression at the same time. The … [Read more...] about New org for content moderation pros
An Oversight Board & what’s actually, urgently, needed
Below you'll find background and context to this pivotal point for social media. For a more prescriptive view, click to "Social media's turning point: 5 steps needed now, no turning back." Suddenly things that looked like important, almost radical (potential) fixes a few months ago now seem like “band-aids” or symptom treatments. Suddenly we need a great deal more. By “we,” I mean us, our … [Read more...] about An Oversight Board & what’s actually, urgently, needed