Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
5 January 2025
Welcome to this first 2025 edition of the Winding Down newsletter!
There has been quite a lot in the online press recently about ‘underage’ kids and social media. So… I’ve picked out a few pieces that I found useful. The first was a discussion on whether it’s actually possible and technologies involved. The second is a study about how eleven and twelve year olds use their smartphones, and the third is a piece about the very pragmatic way they handle the issues in Finland.
The last piece in the main section is about the money the last UK government spent on lawyers while trying to avoid answering freedom of information requests from citizens!
The quote is from philosopher Bertrand Russell, and the pictures are gorgeous snowy landscapes and northern lights. Scanner contains URLs pointing to material on space debris, public domain day, a VW data leak, AI and its weaknesses, e-waste, electric wallpaper, a risk model for crises, and humans evolving even at this late stage! Finally, Coda has a note on about new UK government consultation on AI/copyright.
Enjoy!
Australia to ban social media for kids under sixteen
There has been a lot of discussion about whether ‘underage’ (however you want to define that) kids should be refused access to social media. This is one of those cases where you either agree or don’t agree. I suspect most people would agree, given the level of disgust with most high profile social media. However, getting agreement one way or the other is only the beginning. The real problem is how to identify the age of children logging on to social media if you want to disallow it.
Needless to say, there are plenty of digi-tech ideas on this so here is a discussion on the topic, based on Australia’s upcoming intention to keep kids from accessing social media.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/07/as-australia-bans-social-media-for-kids-under-16-age-assurance-tech-is-in-the-spotlight/
Eleven and twelve year olds and smartphones
A study just published on the Physorg web site looks at how eleven and twelve year olds use their smartphones. And, surprise, surprise, it turns out they mostly use them to talk to family and friends! It seems that children in this age group aren’t really attracted to social media. As the article points out, “They use them mainly to watch videos, mostly on YouTube, but they rarely access Instagram and Tik Tok.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-year-olds-smartphones-family-friends.html
How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
It seems that Finnish youth are taught how to use their smartphones socially, and how to spot and avoid the dregs of social media. In a wider sense they have a collaborative approach to what they call media literacy with training available to adults as well. Personally, I am inclined towards this way of thinking – training is a much better way to handle these problems than attempted banning!
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-finnish-youth-disinformation.html
The UK’s Conservative government spent almost £1 million on lawyers to fight transparency in 2023 alone
In UK law there is a facility for citizens to request, and obtain, copies of government documents. It’s called the Freedom of Information Act (aka FOI). The group Democracy for Sale did some investigating into why a specific case took so long and found out the government had fought the case in court and appeals, spending more than £50,000 in legal costs. The case was dismissed.
Democracy for Sale then asked the government for information on the cost of lawyers fighting FOI cases on its behalf. It turned out to be at least £937,000...
https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-tory-government-spent-almost
Quotes worth remembering:
“War doesn’t determine who’s right, it determines who’s left.”
Bertrand Russell
Pictures:
Enjoy these 15 gorgeous images of snowy landscapes
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/let-it-snow-snowy-landscapes-180983498/
Northern Lights photographer of the year – 2024 (Thanks to Fi for drawing my attention to it)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2024/dec/31/northern-lights-photographer-of-the-year-2024
Scanner:
Massive space debris crash-lands in a Kenyan Village
https://www.sciencealert.com/massive-space-debris-crash-lands-in-kenyan-village
Happy Public Domain Day!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/happy-public-domain-day-popeye-rhapsody-in-blue-the-sound-and-the-fury-and-thousands-of-other-captivating-creations-are-finally-free-for-everyone-to-use-180985744/
Massive VW data leak exposed 800,000 EV owners’ movements, from homes to private spaces
https://www.carscoops.com/2024/12/vw-group-data-breach-exposed-location-info-for-800000-evs/
AI was supposed to make the UK benefits system more efficient. Instead it’s brought bias and hunger.
https://theconversation.com/ai-was-supposed-to-make-the-uk-benefits-system-more-efficient-instead-its-brought-bias-and-hunger-245616
Scientists predict AI will generate millions of tons of E-Waste
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-predict-ai-to-generate-millions-of-tons-of-e-waste
Electric wallpaper among projects powering a net zero future in Scotland
https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1118502_en.html
Geographers present new risk model that offers more nuanced view of complex crises
https://phys.org/news/2024-10-geographers-nuanced-view-complex-crises.html
Humans are evolving right before our eyes on the Tibetan Plateau
https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-are-evolving-right-before-our-eyes-on-the-tibetan-plateau
Coda: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
The UK Government is currently seeking views on ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence’.
This consultation seeks views on how the government can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the UK creative industries and AI sector together. If you have views on this issue, now is your chance to air them. You have until 11:59pm on 25 February 2025 to make submissions!
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/copyright-and-artificial-intelligence
Footnote:
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
5 January 2025
Alan Lenton is a retired on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist (among other things), the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.com/alan/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.com/alan/winding/index.html.
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