✨ More Than Robots #72 December 2023
“My God, It's Full of Stars”
This edition is so full there’s no room for an intro. Find more More Than Robots on Threads
📖 Research
A problem hiding in plain sight?
Contrary to what is commonly assumed, children are not economically inactive. They are free to spend, make, and lose money online… almost all young people aged 13-18 (96%) buy things online, either physical goods or digital purchases.
Digital Youth Index
14% of young people lack access to a learning device. 15% of young people do not have access broadband at home.
Online risks to children: evidence review
Risk is not an inevitable outcome of being online. Risk can be increased or decreased through the design of online platforms
How AI is being abused to create child sexual abuse imagery
Perpetrators can legally download everything they need to generate these images, then can produce as many images as they want – offline, with no opportunity for detection. / See also Assessing the scale and scope of child sexual abuse online
Creating a Positive Foundation for Greater Civility in Online Spaces
Intentionally and meaningfully engaging young people in the work of innovation from the earliest stages of ideation through release is necessary to truly address tech innovation for civility in an inclusive way, while simultaneously empowering youth to play a more active role in shaping their digital environments
Survey on the impact of online disinformation and hate speech
67% of internet users have encountered hate speech online (including 74% of those under 35)
Understanding online communications among children
Eleven to eighteen-year-olds are more likely to say they feel confident communicating online (71%) than in person (53%)
🗳 Take Part
Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse Intervention Survey
The Marie Collins Foundation is developing a free intervention tool that can be used by professionals with children who have been harmed through Technology Assisted Child Sexual Abuse (TACSA)
🧰 Resources
Does your school need an AI policy?
Templates for school AI policies, plus a roundup of handy AI resources. See also Creative and critical engagement with AI in education
Common Abuses on Mastodon: A Primer
Decentralized social networks may be the new model for social media, but their lack of a central moderation function make it more difficult to combat online abuse.
Teaching digital wellbeing: evidence-based resources
‘Ideas and insights for anyone who is interested in supporting youth in thinking about their tech-filled lives and how they can start building digital agency’
Cyber First Navigators
Help for young people to understand how to stay more secure from online threats, such as scams and hacking. See also Cyber security family quiz
Digital Futures for Children
A new research centre to ‘support an evidence base for advocacy, facilitate dialogue between academics and policymakers and amplify children's voices, in accordance with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General comment No. 25’
Online Safety Act Network
New network to ‘inform, coordinate and support effective, ongoing civil society engagement and advocacy with policymakers, regulators and Parliamentarians during the Online Safety Act (OSA) implementation phase’
💡Inspiration and opinion
Protecting Women And Girls From Violence In The Digital Age
Gender-based violence online is emblematic of long-standing problems of gender inequality, structural violence and discrimination against women anchored in society and is also a demonstration of current broader trends
Social media isn't dying. It's turning into broadcast media
What we used to do on social media -- update friends and family about our lives -- is moving to messaging apps.
Encryption - a little history and the death of politics
Techie tools came to be seen as legitimate weapons in a fight against the endemic corruption and uselessness of politics. The more weapons we can have and the stronger they are the greater are our chances of being “free”.
…and finally
Maybe this is the future of Life on Earth