Have You Heard...?
#TIPS4FAMILIES | Every few weeks my list of news items, tips, and the occasional indignation begins to burst at the seams. So here are a few items I'm talking about now...
Unfortunately there is no way to (today) offload the contents of our busy brains to *the cloud* — although my own mental over-processing does cause me to often stare into the clouds.
That said, making a list and talking to our families and friends about what captures our attention is actually very important — it’s a way to give key issues the visibility required to effect change.
Here are a few to consider this week…
The Good
👀 🔥 Must-Read Report About Social Media & Privacy — There are probably few that would consider a Federal Trade Commission report exciting reading… but I could not recommend it more. The Consumer Protection Bureau’s paper is full of hand-over-mouth gasping detail that even a quick skim will leave you thinking about. I’ll be summarizing in more detail over the coming days (so return to the site frequently) but for now, it’s worth whatever review you can give it. «READ NOW»
💪 🦹♀️ Podcast Chat Regarding Talkspace/NYC Teen Issue — As a follow up to the letter I authored with Leonie Haimson of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union, expressing our concern for the NYC Talkspace partnership directed to teenagers, we joined Leonie’s radio show/podcast recently to discuss details and updates to our findings since the letter was sent. «LISTEN NOW»
The Bad
👎 😈 More Sneaky Auto Opt-in Efforts — Another day, another reason to be outraged about the practice of automatically opting consumers in to allowing AI tools to train on our info. As you might recall LinkedIn automatically “opted in” users to its AI training tool a few weeks ago. And now this week there is news that e-learning platform Udemy announced that it would also train its gen AI tool on user-created content…automatically. And not only were teachers/creators opted in, but they only had a three week window to opt out (if they even noticed that option at all…) «READ MORE»
Want to learn more about how to think about opt-in and -out options? Read my article on the subject here…
The Ugly
🥲 🙈Fighting Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII) — Unfortunately we now have a name for a pernicious issue plaguing kids … and mostly our girls. According to a recent report, the sharing of images, both real and deepfaked, is on the rise and often not dealt with sufficiently by schools. «READ MORE»
You can also read my recent piece on how and why deepfake imagery will continue to disproportionately affect teen girls and what we can do to stop it…
👎 🤬 *These* Are the People Hooking our Kids on Their Platform??? — Snap, Inc., the parent of the ubiquitous platform, Snapchat, which reaches (according to the company) 90% of 13-to-24-year-olds in 20+ countries managed to keep relatively under-the-radar a $15 million class action lawsuit it lost recently. The settlement came after a three-year investigation into employment discrimination, equal pay violations, and sexual harassment and retaliation of female employees.
Yes, friends, according to the suit, “…women encountered a glass ceiling and were told to wait their turn, were actively discouraged from applying for promotions, or lost promotion opportunities to less qualified male colleagues.” Also alleged was that “…women suffered unwelcome sexual advances and other harassing conduct.” What a role model the company is for our kids. 🙄 «READ MORE»
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