Growing up in a digital age5th April, 2014

*Lost in cyberspace?

Michèle BartlettChair UKCP Faculty for the Psychological Health of Children

*http://

*html

*url

*The Digital revolution

*2002: First Blackberry introduced to the market

*2004: Facebook founded

*2007: First Apple iPhone released

*2008: First Android phones (Google, HTC)

*2009: First references to “sexting” appear

*2010: Askfm launched

*2011: Instagram is named iPhone app of the year

*2014: Tumblr hosts 174.2 million blogs

*What now?

*On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced on Twitter that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages

*In 2013, the word of the year was “Selfie”

*Facebook paid $19,000,000,000 for WhatsApp

in February 2014

*Negotiating development

*Social media as a “moving landscape”

*Different profiles for different contexts

*“Impression management”

*How young people understand “privacy”

*Networked “publics” exist as both real and imagined

*Cyberbullying

*70% of students report seeing frequent bullying online

*Only one in ten victims will report it to a trusted adult

*Girls are approximately twice as likely to be victims

*Bullying victims are 2-9 times more likely to consider suicide

The Online disinhibition effect

*You Don't Know Me (dissociative anonymity)

*You Can't See Me (invisibility)

*See You Later (asynchronicity)

*It's All in My Head (solipsistic introjection)

*It's Just a Game (dissociative imagination)

*We're Equals (minimizing authority)

*Altering Self Boundary

*Understanding the drama

*Is it bullying or is it “drama”?

*Discussion not surveillance

*Social process

*Increased visibility

*Framing as bullying institutes a “blame” culture

*Understanding how they fit into the broader world

*Sexting

*“The exchange of sexual messages or images”

*Biggest threat is from peers

*Often coercive

*Gender-specific risks

*Is part of a culture of wider sexual pressures on children and young people

*Affects even younger children

*Inadvertent criminals

*Anyone filming or taking sexual pictures of a person under 18 years of age and sharing them could be charged with a criminal offence such as distributing child pornography(includes downloading an image or opening an attachment on an e mail)

*A photograph, film, video recording or electronic image shall, if it shows a person under age and is indecent, be treated as an indecent photograph, film, video recording or electronic image

*Generation porn?

*Young people and pornography

*Over half of 11-14 year olds have viewed pornography, with four out of of ten of those saying it has affected their relationships with others their age

*Three quarters of 11-14 year olds described their reaction to watching pornography as disturbed, upset, worried, excited

*Pornographic material often contains violent portrayals of sex

*Boys are particularly primed for “novelty seeking” in a way that prizes pornographic imagery over “real” relationships

*Super Mario and all that

*Use of technology did not predict BMI

*Users of the internet had better reading skills than non users

*Video gaming promotes brain growth in areas related to spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning

*Long term studies correlate an increase in conduct disorders with excessive TV viewing but not with electronic games

*More than 70% of on line gamers play with a friend and multiplayer games become virtual social communities

*Snapchat

*Same networks, different space

*Social media alters the landscape of the “cool space”

*Video sharing, blogging and microblogging

*From “finding” friends to connecting with friends

*Technology offers new social possibilities

*Preoccupation is less with technology and more with friendships

*Digital natives?

*Current narrative assumes that all young people are “digital natives”

*How to empower young people to engage critically with unmediated information

*Censorship does not allow for personal evaluation of data

*Young people are using digital technology for experimentation and exploration

*A Platform for Innovation

*“Many of the most important things in the evolution of the Net were invented not by professors, but by students”

*Political engagement: Malala Yousafzai

*Positive campaigning: End FGM campaign

*Empowerment: Twitter campaigns

*Finding a voice: The “never seconds” blog

*Finding an audience: You Tube

*Technology simply mirrors and magnifies many aspects of everyday life, good and

bad”

* References

* Bowen L (2014) “Video game play may promote learning, health, social benefits, review finds” Monitor on Psychology www.apamonitor-digital.org/apamonitor/201402?folio=57#pg9,

* Boyd, D. (2014) “It’s complicated. The Social lives of networked teens”. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.

* www.dosomething.org

* Daily Mirror (2014) “Kids Age 6 are copying GTA Rapes” Daily Mirror, 13th February

* Englander, E “Digital self-harm: Frequency, Type, Motivations and Outcomes” Report of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Centre, June 2012

* Extract from criminal code (Cap 9) of the Laws of Malta

* Goffman, E (1959) “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. Garden City, NY. : Doubleday

* www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/24/female-genital-mutilation-fahma-meets-michael-gove

* Jackson et al.(2011) “Internet use, videogame playing and cell phone use as predictors of children’s BMI, body weight, academic performance and social and overall self-esteem”. Computers in Human Behaviour. Vol 27. . Issue 1 599-604

* Madden, M. et al. “Teens, Social Media and Privacy” Pew Internet and American Life Project. May 2013

www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy.aspx

* Naughton, J. (1999) “A Brief History of the Future: the origins of the internet”. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson

* www.neverseconds.blogspot.co.u

* www.pewinternet.org/2011/11/09/teens-kindness-and-cruelty-on-social-network-sites

* Prensky, M. (2001) “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”. NCB University Press. Vol 9, no.5

* Ringrose J, Gill R, Livingstone S, Harvey L, (2012) A qualitative study of children, young people and “sexting”: a report prepared for the NSPCC. London: NSPCC

* Suler,J (2004) “The on-line disinhibition effect”. Cyberpsychology and behaviour, 7, 321-326

* Sunday Times (2013) “Generation Porn” Sunday Times News Review, 16th June

* Wilson, Gary “The great porn experiment” at TEDx Glasgow, May 2012

* www.youngminds.org.uk/news/blog/1854_safer_internet_day_porn_affecting_11-year-olds