At this transitional moment for digital tech and youth online safety, the new book Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adult Are Missing) feels almost miraculous to me. The first reason why is that it’s more about teens than screens. Since the beginning of public concern about youth online safety in the late 1990s, we have been almost obsessively focused on the technology, not so … [Read more...] about Why partner with teens on tech: Great new book
Carrie James
Digital wellness: What is, & isn’t, parody
“Social media seriously harms your mental health” goes the message on the back of smartphones ironically held in the perfectly manicured hands of super models and other social media influencers, two of whom get “hundreds of thousands of likes on nearly every photo they post to Instagram,” the Verge reports. The message is on the back of a clear plastic phone case that has gone viral but not … [Read more...] about Digital wellness: What is, & isn’t, parody
Signs of serious progress for digital citizenship
THIS JUST IN: In a historic development for the Internet and its users under 18, the Council of Europe today adopted a Recommendation – a comprehensive set of guidelines to European Union member states – for upholding children's rights in digital environments, their rights as digital citizens. "How to better protect and empower children as rights-holders... is at the core of the new … [Read more...] about Signs of serious progress for digital citizenship
Digital citizenship’s missing piece
At the end of a long, thoughtful conversation on stage in Chautauqua, N.Y., last fall, public radio host Krista Tippett asked millennial author and commentator Nathan Schneider, "What makes you despair and what gives you hope?" His answer to both parts of the question focused on agency – the capacity to act, learn by doing and make change. "I think the sense of despair I feel comes from … … [Read more...] about Digital citizenship’s missing piece
‘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