Latest Techno Moral Panic: Texting Is 'Rewiring Young Brains'

from the mmm-hmm dept

There have been a whole series of alarmist studies that get lots of press lately, with titles about how social networks or other technologies are somehow negatively impacting people's brains. Nearly all of these didn't hold up under much scrutiny, as they almost all took things out of context or greatly extrapolated a finding and misinterpreted the results. The latest to add to the pile? A report claiming that texting may be "rewiring young brains." The evidence? Kids who used mobile phones a lot finished a variety of tests much faster, but tended to be "less accurate." That's about it. From there, the guy who did the study concludes that it must be the fact that many mobile phones use "predictive texting" that's training kids to be fast, but inaccurate, assuming something else will come in and fix the mess. Now, perhaps that's true, but it seems like the study doesn't actually show that at all. Also, it's not clear from the report what sort of mistakes are being made. The article talks about spelling mistakes, which are common in texting, but the real question is whether or not that really matters? It may very well depend on context. In a text message, a spelling mistake isn't a big deal. In a resume, it's a different story. But where on that spectrum did these tests land? But more importantly, even if we grant the premise that kids who text a lot are a lot sloppier on certain tests... how do you go from that to immediately concluding that their brains are being wired differently? It sounds a lot more like what they've been trained to do, rather than any serious neurological shift.

28 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Press Not Buying Google Street View As A Threat To Children

from the good-for-them dept

A few months back, we pointed out how ridiculous it was that a child advocacy group had put out a scary press release claiming that child predators could use Google Street View to prey on children. They could also, you know, walk up and down the street. It's nice to see that the mainstream press is at least calling the group, Stop Internet Predators, out on how ridiculous this is. Nationally syndicated columnist Larry Magid sarcastically slams the group for such pointless fearmongering, not only pointing out that it's easier for predators to just walk up and down the street, but also making the following point:

Instead of banning Google Street View, maybe we should put up walls between streets and sidewalks so that predators can't see children walking home from school. And while we're at it, let's ban public outdoor parks and recreation areas or at least find ways to hide the children playing there. Or just keep children away from churches, schools and other places where pedophiles have been known to operate.

Considering how often we end up seeing the mainstream press simply parrot these sorts of press releases, it's good to see them hitting back against these more questionable attempts at creating moral panics.

32 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Time For Another Technology Moral Panic? Digital Drugs! Be Afraid!

from the thank-you-USA-Today dept

USA Today got us talking about the concept of technology moral panics with their fear mongering article about predators using game consoles -- and now it's back with a big warning about "digital drugs" in a column by Kim Komando. It's actually just an article about binaural beats, which are hardly new. And, yes, there are those who believe that there are certain binaural beats that can have an effect like drugs, though there are many who believe the impact is mostly self-created.

However, while the article briefly points out that some are skeptical, it immediately moves on to suggest that even so, binaural beats are somehow dangerous as a sort of gateway drug, claiming that they "encourage drug use." Of course, the article doesn't present any evidence of that -- and you could just as easily argue the opposite: that they offer a non-chemical way for people to experience other states of consciousness (if it works, that is). If Komando believes that this somehow encourages drug use, then does she also believe that meditation is encouraging drug use? After all, doesn't that also push people to experience other states of consciousness?

But, of course, when it comes to creating a technology moral panic, all you need is a bunch of scary sounding claims in a major newspaper... and then you just wait for politicians to take over. How long until someone somewhere proposes banning these dangerous sounds?

37 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Police And Newspaper Say The Internet Turned 10,000 Australian Kids On To Crime

from the sensationalism-at-every-corner dept

madlep writes in to point us to a story out of Australia, where police in Victoria are blaming the internet for a recent rise in youth crimes. Of course, this seems to go against almost all other evidence, but why let that stop a little fear mongering:

The head of the police youth affairs office, Inspector Steve Soden, said too many children were viewing inappropriate content on the internet and this, coupled with boredom due to a lack of community services on Melbourne's fringes, was behind the alarming rise in youth crime.

Does he have any evidence of this? Nope. But it doesn't stop the newspaper from going with the headline: "Net blamed as 10,000 kids turn to crime." In fact, buried way down towards the end of the article, is the news of an actual research paper that looked into what was causing the growth in youth crime:

The paper says social factors, including unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse and homelessness, contribute to youth crime. But the two key factors influencing young offenders are poor parenting and schooling.

Notice that the internet is totally absent. Yet, why is this fact buried in the 13th paragraph, when the headline and the first few paragraphs blame the internet?

20 Comments | Leave a Comment..

ER Doctors Warn About Walking While Texting; When Will We Start Seeing Laws?

from the they're-coming dept

Anyone want to take a guess on when we'll see the first laws proposed to ban the practice of walking-while-texting? We've already seen a few proposals that would ban walking and talking in a crosswalk. And, to add some fuel to the fire, some ER doctors are warning people who walk and text at the same time that it's risky behavior. The doctors say they're seeing a rise in reports of people walking and texting at the same time, leading to some sort of injury, including two people who were hit by a car after paying more attention to their phone than oncoming traffic. Since technopanics always seem to start with a news article, just wait for someone to propose a law against this -- rather than insisting that perhaps it's time to institute a little common sense. Update: Apparently, I'm too late. At least one state has already proposed just such a law.

33 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Advocacy Group Claims Google Maps Is A Tool Of Child Predators

from the but-think-of-the-children! dept

We've been talking about the popularity of "technopanics," where the press (often spurred on by "advocacy" groups) push out a "but think of the children" campaign to worry about how child predators are using this or that kind of technology -- when the reality is that there is often little to no evidence that this is actually happening or a serious threat. Studies eventually show that the press blew the "threat" way out of proportion, but by then it's too late. The public already believes that there's a huge threat. This isn't to say that there aren't some folks who have used these sites to prey on children -- or that people shouldn't be aware that it's a risk. But most kids seem to have no problem ignoring or brushing off the extremely rare solicitations they might get -- usually because their parents or educators taught them to be cautious around random strangers.

So, with studies finally showing the lack of a threat on social networks, it seems that technopanic advocates have had to move on to things like gaming consoles. The latest is even more ridiculous. Apparently an advocacy group is trying to warn people about the supposed dangers of Google's Street View technology. Apparently, they're worried that child predators will use the tech to scope out where children live, because Google Street View might possibly maybe have caught kids playing outside. Is there any evidence that this has actually happened? Nope. Is there any reason to think that this makes sense for a child predator as compared to actually getting in a car and driving around and seeing what's happening out in broad daylight? Nope. It's just fear, fear, fear!

Amusingly, I found this story from Stephen Shankland at News.com, who points out that the same day that advocacy group put out its fearmongering press release, another group was announcing how you can use its new service, built on Google Maps, to see if any registered sex offenders live near you. So, while we have one group warning about how Google Maps can be used for evil, another group is pointing out how it can be used to see if there are any threats in the neighborhood.

35 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Technopanic In The UK! Think Of The Children! They're Talking About SEX Online!

from the fear!-run!-do-something! dept

Just a week after we were talking about a new research report on media-induced "technopanics" we've got another one. This time, it's coming from the UK. The headline announces: One in ten children have sexually explicit conversations on the internet, study finds. Oh no! And then, each paragraph adds another scare factor: these kids also lie to their parents! Oh no! Sometimes they chat with strangers! Oh no! Some of them go to websites with adult content! Oh no! Some even pretend to do homework while actually (gasp!) chatting with others! It's just awful!

Of course, if you actually look at the details, they don't sound bad at all. In fact, I'm pretty surprised the numbers are as low as they are. The study itself involved a survey of kids from ages 11 to 18 in the UK. That's a huge range. Kids in the 16, 17 and 18 year old range are quite different from your everyday 11 and 12 year old. And the idea that a 17 or 18 year-old might have had a sexually explicit conversation online doesn't seem too surprising. Note that it never says anything about with whom the sexually explicit conversation occurred. Assuming that many of these 17 and 18 year olds have boyfriends or girlfriends, and they probably all use instant messaging, social networking or text messaging -- you have to imagine that many of them will have had somewhat sexually explicit conversations with that boyfriend or girlfriend. That's really not that out of the ordinary. The fact that it's only 11% of kids surveyed sounds incredibly low.

As for lying to parents about what they're doing online, is that a surprise? The fact that a kid would tell his mom he's doing homework while he's really chatting with his girlfriend or his friends? That's to be expected. Note that the study doesn't appear to have said just that people lied about having sexually explicit chats, either. Just that they lied about what they were doing online. As for chatting with strangers... while the article mentions that in passing, it doesn't indicate that the survey actually asked any questions about that at all. And, finally, visiting websites with adult content, I will again point out that we're talking about boys who are going through puberty. The fact that some of them eventually visit an adult website should hardly be news.

But when the press packages it all together in this nice format, it makes it seem like we've got a bunch of deviant kids running around the internet with no supervision from their luddite parents, who need to start standing over the shoulders of their kids as they surf. Either that, or perhaps we can calm down, realize that the stats don't say anything all that surprising, and move on to something that might actually matter.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..