Pew Research Shows Fascinating Parent and Child Insights

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which involved 1,453 adolescents aged 13 to 17 and their parents, revealed some interesting insights. According to the findings, 72% of American teenagers indicate that they frequently or occasionally experience feelings of tranquility when they are without their smartphones, while 44% admit to feeling anxious without them.

It’s important to note that respondents were allowed to select multiple answers. Furthermore, the survey found that 69% of teens believe that smartphones facilitate the pursuit of hobbies and interests, whereas a smaller proportion (30%) think that they help young people develop good social skills. Interestingly, half of the parents admit to checking their teenager’s phone, and approximately 40% of both parents and teens report regular arguments about phone usage. Additionally, nearly half of the teens (46%) feel that their parents are sometimes distracted by their phones during conversations.

Overall, the survey underscores differing perspectives between parents and teens regarding technology, suggesting that both parties could benefit from listening more attentively to each other.

TikTok Ban Approved by US House of Reps

The House passed a bill that presents an ultimatum: either ByteDance must divest TikTok or face a nationwide prohibition. In addition to these developments, there are numerous other challenges to consider. These include China’s staunch opposition to any TikTok sale, diminishing public support for a ban in the United States, the absence of corresponding legislation in the Senate, and potential conflicts with First Amendment rights.

#delayistheway = Win and Oscar!

“Thank you for giving me guitars and drum machines instead of video games!” Ludwig Göransson wins Best Original Score for ‘Oppenheimer’ at the 96th Oscars (2024) and thanks his parents for a low-tech childhood. Yes!

Pinterest Adds Body Type Feature

On Monday, Pinterest added a “body type” tab that shows 4 different body types to choose from when viewing size-specific brands. Users who select the same body type twice can save that as their own body type.

This feature appears to be for women only now, Pinterest stated that this feature will come out for men soon. This is a first-of-its-kind feature among platforms that show goods and one that recognizes we don’t all fit some norm. Pinterest does have some parental controls, too!

Deepfake Complaints are Overwhelming Google

According to a March 11 WIRED article: “The number of nonconsensual deepfake porn videos online has exploded since 2017. As the harmful videos have spread, thousands of women—including Twitch streamers, gamers, and other content creators—have complained to Google about websites hosting the videos and tried to get the tech giant to remove them from its search results.

A WIRED analysis of copyright claims regarding websites that host deepfake porn videos reveals that thousands of takedown requests have been made, with the frequency of complaints increasing. More than 13,000 copyright complaints—encompassing almost 30,000 URLs—have been made to Google concerning content on a dozen of the most popular deepfake websites.” We can’t prevent this issue until tech companies fix this problem that they’ve created.

We’ve written a comprehensive deepfake post that gives parents 15 tactics they can use in their own family to mitigate the risk.

Junior High Boys Might Be First Deepfake Criminals

Even more about the toxic impact deepfakes are having on young people, two Florida middle schoolers were arrested in December and charged with third-degree felonies for allegedly creating deepfake nudes of their classmates.

A report by Verge cites police reports saying two boys, aged 13 and 14, are accused of using an unnamed “artificial intelligence application” to generate the explicit images of other students “between the ages of 12 and 13.” The incident may be the first US instance of criminal charges related to AI-generated nude images. They were charged with third-degree felonies under a 2022 Florida law that criminalizes the dissemination of deepfake sexually explicit images without the victim’s consent.

Both the arrests and the charges appear to be the first of their kind in the nation related to the sharing of AI-generated nudes.

Child Device Protection Bill Moves in Alabama!

Last week, the Child Device Protection Bill, co-authored by PYE and The National Center on Sexual Exploitation passed the Alabama House Commerce and Small Business Committee and now heads to the full House. We’re honored to work with lead sponsor Representative Chris Sells on this important legislation!

Kentucky Lawmakers Trying to Limit In-Class Screen Time

In Kentucky, legislators are contemplating a bill aimed at restricting certain educational technology tools over privacy concerns and imposing caps on classroom screen time in public schools, regardless of its educational merit.

The proposed legislation, known as SB212, was introduced by state Senator Adrienne Southworth, a representative from Lawrenceburg, in late February.

Regarding student privacy, the bill would bar schools from entering agreements with third-party providers of digital instructional materials or programs that permit the collection, sharing, or utilization of student data unrelated to the service’s instructional purpose.

In terms of limiting classroom screen time, defined as the duration students spend looking at a laptop or tablet, the bill proposes specific time constraints. Kindergarten and first-grade students would have a maximum of 30 minutes, grades two through four would have one hour, grades five through eight would have 90 minutes, and high school students in grades nine through 12 would have a maximum of two hours.

For more tips addressing digital guidelines in your school, visit our #phonefreeschools post.