Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 94
Posts 81 - 90

Controversial rights group teaches young Muslims how spies monitor social media

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 29.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A dubious organization is teaching young muslims in the UK how authorities can spy on their digital communications. Government authorities are eager to intercept instant messaging communication to be able to avoid terrorist attacks but companies such as WhatsApp and Telegram are making their services encrypted and refuse to aid the government in their surveillance endeavors.
Image Description | Image of a screen close-up showing the WhatsApp and Facebook icon, portraits of dead terrorist attackers (once with a balaclava), and a Getty image of the GCHQ director (UK intelligence organization?).
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), WhatsApp

Facebook lurking makes you miserable, says study

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Newspaper | BBC News
Date | 22.12.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, Facebook, research/study, threat
Summary | Studies have shown that looking at other people's posts on Facebook can increase feelings of envy and be otherwise bad for one's mental health. Especially 'lurking' on Facebook, so not actually interacting with anyone on the platform but just looking at the content can be detrimental to one's emotional state and cause unrealistic standards which result in disappointment with one's own life.
Image Description | iStock image of a woman in a bar looking at her smartphone sadly/boredly.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Porn is now part of everyday life, say teenagers: Sexting is part of everyday life, say half of 18-year-olds

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Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 20.8.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | pornography, sexting, threat, youth
Summary | 'Sexting' is only used in headline. Pornography is ubiqutous online. This is a huge problem because teenagers could receive the most part of their sexual education from pornography. This would likely lead boys to objectifying girls and girls to thinking that their value lies in their conforming to the body standards set by pornography. Teenagers need to be protected from unsolicited explicit material online and sex education should be improved.
Image Description | N/A

How girls at Tinder age are being exploited

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Newspaper | Belfast Telegraph
Date | 15.3.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | online dating, threat, youth
Summary | Teenagers as young as 13 years old can participate on Tinder. The app creators claim that there is nothing wrong with teenagers connecting with their peers but Tinder is really not as innocent as that. The app, which is colloquially labeled a hook-up app, focuses on looks and the general tenor in chats between 'matches' is strongly oriented towards obtaining sex partners. Parents should pay attention to their children's Tinder use and Tinder should have an older minimal age for having a Tinder profile.
Image Description | N/A

Warning teenagers over ‘sexting’

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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

Geek Mythology: Apps such as Snapchat show it's the medium that's the message

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Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 7.5.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | sexting, Snapchat, threat, youth
Summary | Snapchat seems to be designed specifically for sexting because all sent photographic material auto-destructs itself after a few seconds. These would ensure that one's nude images do not get distributed further. Snapchat however has a 'best friend' function which displays to everyone with whom users exchange the most snaps - this would be a hinderance in maintaining a clandestine sexting relationship. Also, teenagers use Snapchat most and surely not all of them sext. After all, only because the medium faciliates a specific activity does not mean that it will be used in that way.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone, held by a hand, video calling a group of people in a restaurant background.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Child-friendly web backed by Scottish Government

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Newspaper | The Scotsman
Date | 11.2.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, pornography, sexting, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Scotland's government along with several prominent companies and personalities are trying to raise awareness about educating children about internet safety. Only few parents discuss problems of online safety such as pornography or sexting with their children. Most importantly, youths should be taught about what they can do when they encounter content online that upsets them, that they can approach an adult, various help organizations available, or report inappropriate content.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman surrounded by schoolgirls learning about online safety.
Image Tags | female(s)

How good is your grammar? Take the quiz

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Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 16.2.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, grammar, language threat, research/study, school, texting, threat, youth
Summary | According to a study, texting can have a bad impact on young people's use of grammar. The results show that the more people text, the lower their score on the test was. There is also a correlation between the use of adaptations (e.g. gr8 for great) and a lower score. If parents text their kids with a lot of adaptations, the kids will probably imitate their parents.
Image Description | Photograph of a page of a dictionary where the word "grammar" is in sharp focus.
Image Tags | dictionary

GIF Rapt

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Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 6.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | GIFs, language threat, smartphone, threat
Summary | According to the author of the article, GIFs are becoming a new language. We don't need words to communicate; in today's society, people prefer sending short clips. Why are GIFs so popular? Smartphones may be the reason. We don't use smartphones to think and spend too much time reading/writing long texts. We use them to get to the point, and GIFs are convenient if we want to communicate quickly. People don't need words anymore; they can type a word and choose the relevant GIFs they want to attach to their messages. Every generation considers each new medium as a threat to humanity (e.g. writing, TV, Twitter, etc.). Still, the author claims that we seem to be heading towards a word-less culture.
Image Description | N/A

It may be shallow and salacious, but don’t blame Tinder for online misogyny

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 8.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | gender, online dating, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | A new study revealed that the dating app Tinder spreads sexism and ideals of beauty; however, according to the author of the article, such behavior is not new. The media tends to portray new technologies and new apps as responsible for numerous societal ills, thus being dangerous. This new research follows a similar discourse while blaming the dating app Tinder of misogyny. However, sexism and beauty standards also existed before the age of social media. Thus, sexist comments are not the result of new technologies/apps; they go well beyond our digital devices.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone with the Tinder app open; we can see parts of a woman's face and a big LIKE in green.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone, Tinder

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