We don't hear about it much, but an important, historically unprecedented experiment is being conducted in Internet-connected schools, libraries, homes and workplaces in every country under every sort of government on the planet. It's about how to protect people and their right of free expression – e.g., children and other protected classes – at the same time in social media. It's unprecedented … [Read more...] about The global free speech experiment for participants of all ages
Social Media
Facebook to work with women’s rights activists on content
Last week activists Soraya Chemaly, Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project, and Jaclyn Friedman of Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) published in the Huffington Post "An Open Letter to Facebook" about depictions of violence against girls and women posted on the site. This week Facebook responded with some substantive promises, some based on an ongoing review of hate speech policy and some … [Read more...] about Facebook to work with women’s rights activists on content
Stickers, emoji & other social-media conversation add-ons
You may've noticed this too: Online and on-phone conversations have gotten very mixed-media – very artful, in a sense. Have you noticed that our children are among the most creative mixed-media conversationalists now? It's delightful to see the fun they have with this. Take stickers, for example. Because they're now part of Version 3 of the Path app, as I mentioned in my last post, and Path's … [Read more...] about Stickers, emoji & other social-media conversation add-ons
‘Healthy divas & divos’ good for social media culture too
They're "healthy divas," not drama queens, people. Two very different things, the Wall Street Journal points out. The distinction and the reported emergence of this positive kind of diva in media culture might be a positive for kids who, when they have time for entertainment, lean toward the celebrity-watch variety – not to mention for online and school communities. "Divas (and their male … [Read more...] about ‘Healthy divas & divos’ good for social media culture too
How ‘crowdreporting’ could actually be a bad thing
It could help increase the visibility of the very content people want deleted. Here, in a guest post for NetFamilyNews, is an account by Maureen Kochan, our director of community at ConnectSafely.org, of how that happens: By Maureen Kochan Many users of Facebook have come across questionable content on the site on occasion. Chances are they reported it and moved on. But sometimes pages or … [Read more...] about How ‘crowdreporting’ could actually be a bad thing