Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 18
Posts 1 - 10

The Rise and Fall of Yik Yak, the Anonymous Messaging App

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, law, privacy, social media, threat, youth
Summary | The anonymous messaging app Yik Yak became very popular in colleges and schools because it lets people broadcast anonymously to other users near them. The activity on the app has however started to become thretening with college students and children bullying each other and people making bomb threats that have led to multiple evacuations. A feminist group from University of Mary Washington have filed complaint to the University to block Yik Yak on campus because it has been used to harrass and threaten members.
Image Description | An illustration with a face and a smartphone and an image of the creators of Yik Yak.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Teaching Bronx Students the Language of Computers

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, digitized education, diversity, game, school, youth
Summary | The Bronx is offering their local students computer programming classes - many more than average schools. The students in the Bronx are learning to code so that they can create the technology of the future rather than just consume it. A group of students presented an app they created to investors in Manhattan: it lets users post videos showing police brutality and makes an interactive map of where the incidents happened. Users can also play a game on the app in which they have to avoid ficticious police gun shots.
Image Description | Three male students of color holding a presentation.
Image Tags | male(s)

Kopfschuss: Glatte Eins!

(Shot to the head: A+!)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | game, gender, school, threat, youth
Summary | A school in Norway is offering a course in E-sport, i.e. playing online team sports in shooter video games like Counter:Strike. The course is very popular among the male students (only one female student has taken the course) and has shown that students at risk of failing the year tend to do better in school overall when they are in a video game class. They get boosts of self-confidence because they can hold presentations about something they are passionate about. The school wants to reflect their students' reality in their curriculum and video games are a passion of many students and a future job for some of them. Shooter games are less stigmatized in Norway than in Germany.
Image Description | Image of male students playing video games.
Image Tags | game, male(s), school

Hinter dem Hashtag #BlauerWal steckt eine verstörende Geschichte

(A disturbing story hides behind the hashtag #BlueWhale)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, law, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Currently, a man is on trial in Russian courts for supposedly urging 15 teenagers to commit suicide. The case is connected to the #BlueWhale challenge that is said to circulate online on social media. It is a lethal game where one person gives another increasingly self-destructive tasks. Apparently, psychologically fragile teenagers are targeted online.
Image Description | Getty image of a blue whale and images of a man being arrested and in trial with his face pixellated.
Image Tags | male(s)

Cop launches furious rant about 'yoofs' - but parents are really not happy

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 11.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politeness, social media, youth
Summary | An unidentified police officer posted a rant about youths in the Manchester area asking parents to "lock up their kids till school time on Monday" because they are out of control, causing public nuisance. Local teachers and parents reported the post as wildly inappropriate and the heads of the police department issued an apology and promised to find out who posted the offensive content as officers are supposed to uphold their standard of behavior online as well. Many people however liked the post because they felt understood. They commented engourangments to the anonymous officer that he/she should not let the political correctness army get him/her down and keep his/her sense of humor.
Image Description | Getty images of young men/boys in black tracksuits from behind and a young man/boy with his face partially hidden with a black hoodie.
Image Tags | male(s)

Nach Spielen im Internet kann man süchtig werden

(One can get addicted to games on the internet)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | General-Anzeiger
Date | 10.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, game, school, threat, youth
Summary | Internet games have a high addiction potential because one needs to spend a lot of time on it to succeed. Experts say that if one spends more than 4 hours a day on games, one has a problem and needs to seek professional help. Game addicts stop seeing their friends and let their school grades slide.
Image Description | Image of a boy sitting with his smartphone in his lap.
Image Tags | hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Why Kids Sext

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Atlantic
Date | 14.10.2014
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, Instagram, law, school, sexting, threat, youth
Summary | One Virginia county saw a huge Instagram sexting scandal break. Nude selfie of local high school and middle school girls were pooled by the local boys and uploaded to an Instagram account. Because many teenagers were involved, this case developed into a huge police investigation trying to figure out the extent to which this constitutes organized crime or child pornography. This case shows how commonplace sexting is among teenagers and how confused the police are in dealing with such cases.
Image Description | Portraits of people mentioned in the article, pictures of school and outdoor sporting facility environments with students.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), school

What’s the big deal about sexting?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | CNN
Date | 2.1.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, sexting, threat, youth
Summary | Sexting is not as threatening as everyone thinks - it is developmentally appropriate for teenagers to be exploring their sexuality with all channels available to them. In most cases, sexting is unproblematic except when nude images are shared (this has even resulted in suicides of the victims) or minors are prosecuted for distributing child pornography by sexting (though laws are being adjusted to exclude sexting). But even if it is just consensual sexting among peers, our society tends to overreact about any expression of sexual identity of minors but we condone oversexualized imagery of girls in the media (glossy magazines/animated films).
Image Description | Shutterstock of a male torso using a smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Warning teenagers over ‘sexting’

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Argus
Date | 12.8.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | law, sexting, Snapchat, threat, youth
Summary | Sexting is becoming an increasing problem among youths in Southern England. Charities that work with teenagers (mostly girls) who have been victimized by having their nude selfies shared without their permission. There is a crucial difference between face to face flirtatious encounters versus on new media: men are reported to be much more forward on digital channels and that they very quickly request nude images. There is a lot of pressure on male participants in sexting to obtain nude images which almost counts as social currency among their male peers. The police are also not handling the situation well according to prevention organizations as they tend to criminalize the victims of sexting as sex child pornography offenders.
Image Description | Portrait of person mentioned in article and photograph of a woman holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Hysteria Over Sexting Reaches Peak Absurdity

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Atlantic
Date | 10.7.2014
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, sexting, threat, youth
Summary | The law’s classification of juvenile sexting as child pornography is illegitimate. Puts emphasis of legal prosecution on distinction between consensual vs. non-consensual sexting. Non-consensual sexting may then be seen as harrassment or exhibitionism in which case a restraining order could be issued rather than putting the minor who takes explicit pictures of him- or herself in prison and on the sex offenders list. The need to update child pornography laws to exclude consensual sexting among minors became very clear in a Virginia case where the police wanted to photograph a 17 year old suspects' erect penis for court evidence.
Image Description | Close-up photograph of a male-persons groin are with the genitalia covered by the hands.
Image Tags | hand(s), male(s)

Page 1 of 2
Back | Next