Anthropic banning “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude in its new usage policies is proof to me that tech companies are going to moderate violence against AI before they ever moderate violence against women and minorities

Comprehensive sex education does reduce sexual violence perpetration. But the most effective programs are in a K-12 environment. This is a fight we should be having with public school districts and state legislatures.

Restorative justice also has huge limitations in the context of sexual violence. The perpetrator must confess. There cannot be a structural power disparity between victim and perpetrator. It is not safe for intimate partner violence. It is too time-intensive for victims with multiple perpetrators.

jj skolnik@supremenothing.myatproto.social · 2w ago

also: a reminder that restorative justice is definitionally within the control of the person who has been harmed and not ANYONE ELSE. it cannot be a route chosen for them, and they have full control over the process. otherwise it’s just sparkling mediation

Just a reminder that people don’t always realize they were raped in the immediate aftermath. It can take hours, days, months, and even years to realize you were raped, and it doesn’t make it any less true. There are many kinds of responses, including fawning and trying to appease your rapist

@alixdunn.com will be in discussion with some incredible child safety advocates and tech policy experts: - @katejsim.bsky.social, Director of COSPR - Fir Redzuan, Founder of Monsters Against Us - Octania Wynn, Researcher at ELSAM

We’re hosting a live show at SVRI in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, October 9th, to explore the tension between free expression and youth safety online, in Asia and beyond.

These laws carry harms of their own: they restrict young people’s ability to connect, learn, and express themselves, while contorting the shape of the internet in ways that can make it worse for everyone. So what do we do?

Across Asia, countries are rapidly introducing social media bans for young people. Harms to children online - from adverse mental and physical health impacts to sexual exploitation and violence - have prompted regulators to act. But at what cost?

Timely paper from @tomasgna.bsky.social on how T&S workers are reconfiguring online harm "into corporate risks" as the theater of AI safety/xrisk prevails and the project of T&S erodes...

Tomás G.@tomasgna.bsky.social · 3w ago

i have a new paper out in Social Media+Society about Trust & Safety specialists! 📝 i argue that they construct online harms by presenting themselves as advocates for users, creating risks, and publicizing this work. my goal was to make sense of the inherent instability of T&S work...

🚀 New Database Launch: Know Your EdTech What's really behind the educational apps children use every day?

Digital violence does not come out of nowhere: it’s a consequence of numerous harmful structures, like patriarchy, misogyny, racism, transphobia and more. Until we address those structures (and the conditions that make them possible) we won’t meaningfully address digital violence, either.

One of the policy areas we highlight on our recently re-launched Feminist Tech Policy site is ‘Digital Violence’. One of our main points is: What if we connected the dots between online and offline violence? feministtechpolicy.org/en/spotlight/digital-violence

Fantastic review by a fantastic scholar of a fantastic book by a fantastic journalist and writer 🚀 (with a little shout-out to yours truly)

LPE Blog@lpeblog.bsky.social · last mo.

Today, @lookheron.bsky.social reviews Bridget Read's "Little Bosses Everywhere," a history of multilevel marketing. As the GOP coalition has increasingly become a vehicle for grifting, he argues, any post-MAGA reconstruction has to go after commercial fraud and deception.

Age verification makes everyone less safe. Age verification makes everyone less safe. Age verification makes everyone less safe. Age verification makes everyone less safe. Age verification makes everyone less safe. Age verification makes everyone less safe.

Hackers Had A Live Feed Of Every ID This Verification Company Scanned. For Over A Year.

From the very beginning of this recent obsession with identifying everyone online (yes, they like to call it "age" verification, but it always ends up as identity verification), we've been pointing out that it was a huge privacy nightmare waiting to happen. Or maybe it wasn't waiting. Maybe it was already happening. This week a...

techdirt.com

Oops - forgot to post the graphic for this piece, earlier. Where money from US opioid settlements is being spent on Flock & similar camera systems.

J. Offir, PhD@joffirphd.bsky.social · last mo.

🧵 File under: Ffs. Public health advocates hoped opioid settlements "would provide lifesaving resources for historically underserved communities ravaged by opioid addiction." But instead, "crucial dollars [are going] toward policing instead of prioritizing... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Been asked a few times so putting together the various trackers on age assurance and child online safety bills that I've been using. Do share what you've found useful! Global tracker by Maia Levy Daniel: childsafety-tracker.netlify.app

Global Child Safety & Social Media Policy Tracker

Laws, bills, court decisions, milestones and research across 40+ jurisdictions. Updated automatically every Monday.

childsafety-tracker.netlify.app

Kind of hard for Bluesky people to argue this was all about academic standards when these guys are openly crowing that it was about race

Gregory Kohn@kohngregory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In the wake of Arday's death, Nathan Cofnas (who led the X mob against him) states his motivation. Beyond whistleblowing, he states that after a 'revolution' removes professors like Arday, it will open opportunities for him to become 'head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard'.

Waymo car delivers misbehaving teen passengers to San Mateo police

Waymo car delivers misbehaving teen passengers to San Mateo police

chicagotribune.com

the amazing @katejsim.bsky.social is featured here on how young people need support and resources, not broad social media bans youtu.be/EFYO-JmbN_k?...

How xenophobia went viral in South Africa | The Listening Post

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English

youtu.be

It was a pleasure part of @aljazeera.com's @ajlisteningpost.bsky.social episode this week discussing the Australia's teen social media ban and the global pushes to replicate it, alongside child rights research superstar @katejsim.bsky.social. The ban story starts at 13.45: ▶️ youtu.be/EFYO-JmbN_k

How xenophobia went viral in South Africa | The Listening Post

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English

youtu.be

The Listening Post@ajlisteningpost.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This week: • South Africa’s anti-migrant movement - built online, amplified by mainstream media • Post-earthquake in Venezuela, officials are tightening their grip on information • Govts say social media bans will protect children - critics say they solve the wrong problem ▶️ youtu.be/EFYO-JmbN_k

Child labor platform gets age verification.

How old are you really? Inside Roblox’s new campaign to verify user ages

“Not everyone is going to be happy all the time,” the platform’s head of safety product policy told NBC News, saying Roblox believes its safety updates are worth the turbulence.

nbcnews.com

There’s a long list of reasons to boo this man.

Arizona students boo former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talks about AI during graduation speech

Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, faced jeers and boos during a commencement address at the University of Arizona's graduation ceremony on Friday.

businessinsider.com

BREAKING: The Senate just unanimously banned Senators from trading on prediction markets, effective immediately.

Nearly half of American families with young kids live in a "child care desert," according to a new report. The Center for American Progress says there's a dramatic shortage of licensed day care providers. On top of that, the cost of childcare has soared in recent years.

Nearly half of families live in a "child care desert"

46% of children ages 6 and younger live where there are more than three kids per licensed child care slot.

axios.com

🚨ACTION ALERT🚨 The CA Assembly is fast-tracking A.B. 1709, a bill that would ban everyone under 16 from social media. This censorship scheme threatens your data privacy and ignores the First Amendment. Tell your representatives to vote NO on A.B. 1709. eff.salsalabs.org/stopcasocia...

eff.salsalabs.org

Retirement accounts could soon be gambling on prediction markets. Three firms have filed applications with the SEC to offer "event contracts" for retirement accounts, similar to prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi. Retirement savings could then be bet on future events.

Prediction markets could soon be available in your retirement account

Bitwise, Roundhill and GraniteShares have filed applications with the SEC to offer event contracts as exchange-traded funds.

cnbc.com

with zero sarcasm this is good government and we should do this immediately

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 6mo ago

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act to allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants to purchase hot rotisserie chicken with their benefits.

"Nowhere is it written that a multinational conglomerate with a market cap of roughly four trillion dollars is fated to command our public schools, or to grant fellowships to the leaders of those schools, or to monetize the inefficient children who attend them."

The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 6mo ago

One in five student interactions with generative A.I. “involved cheating, self-harm, bullying, and other problematic behaviors,” according to a report published by Education Week. Why is the technology being adopted by schools? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/vC5MJK

BREAKING: Maryland is about to become the first state in the nation to ban the use of surveillance data and dynamic pricing at grocery stores. The Maryland House has just passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act. Governor Wes Moore plans to sign the bill.