Gaps | Jotup

41 US states are suing Meta for getting teens hooked on social media. Here’s what to expect next

Retrieved on:

Thursday, November 9, 2023

In the United States, 41 states have filed lawsuits against Meta for allegedly driving social media addiction in its young users (under the age of 18), amid growing concerns about the negative effects of platforms.

Key Points:

In the United States, 41 states have filed lawsuits against Meta for allegedly driving social media addiction in its young users (under the age of 18), amid growing concerns about the negative effects of platforms.
The lawsuits allege Meta has been harvesting young users’ data, deploying features to promote compulsive use of both Facebook and Instagram, and misleading the public about the negative effects of these features.

Leveraging whistleblower revelations

These cases rely in part on revelations made by former Meta employee Frances Haugen in 2021 about the role Facebook’s algorithms play in facilitating harms on the platform.
Haugen’s testimony suggests algorithms deployed across Facebook and Instagram were designed to increase content sharing, and therefore profits, using data harvested from users over many years.
These changes, she said, impacted how content was viewed on the news feed, leading to increased sharing of negative content such as hate speech.

Concerns over algorithms and content

Instead it provides a continuous stream of content without a natural endpoint.
They say the recommendation algorithms used by Meta periodically present users with harmful materials.
These include “content related to eating disorders, violent content, content encouraging negative self-perception and body image issues, [and] bullying content”.

Consequences for Australia

This includes material relating to cyberbullying of children, cyberabuse of adults, image-based abuse and abhorrent violent material.
The Federal Court can impose significant penalties for violations of the Online Safety Act.
But this doesn’t cover all the harmful content on social media, such as some linked to eating disorders and negative self-image.
Australia also has no legislative equivalent to COPPA.

We need collaboration and innovation

But domestic law can only go so far in protecting people using a medium that operates (mostly) seamlessly across borders.
As such, international law scholars have suggested more creative approaches in the context of online hate speech.
In doing so, the court strengthened The Gambia’s claims in a pending action before the International Court of Justice.

Kayleen Manwaring receives funding from the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre.
She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Consumer Policy Research Centre (Vic) and is Deputy Chair and NSW Coordinator for an Australian chapter of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology.

Government's pandemic catch-up tutoring programme is still failing to meet the mark

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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A recent independent evaluation of the National Tutoring Programme has assessed the impact of the catch-up strategy in 2021-22, its second year.

Key Points:

A recent independent evaluation of the National Tutoring Programme has assessed the impact of the catch-up strategy in 2021-22, its second year.
This follows a critical report delivered by the House of Commons education committee after the first year of the programme, which stated that it “appears to be failing the most disadvantaged”.
Funding for the National Tutoring Programme is focused on schools with pupils qualifying for the pupil premium payment.
The third approach, introduced by the government for the second year of the programme, is school-led tutoring.

However, there was a different picture for pupils and schools taking part in the academic mentoring and tuition partners scheme.
The evaluation found no evidence that these schemes led to any improvement in English or maths.

The right idea

Positives note can be found in a recent survey of schools taking part in the National Tutoring Programme in its third year, 2022-23.
This survey indicates that most schools are using the school-led tutoring route, which this analysis showed led to at least some improvement for pupils.
The survey also showed that over a third of schools were offering tutoring courses of longer than 15 hours.
I have previously argued that a strategy which considers all of these elements would be of most benefit to pupils.

Helena Gillespie receives funding from TASO and has previously received research funding from the European Union, HEFCE and Advance HE.

When do kids learn to read? How do you know if your child is falling behind?

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Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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But there is ongoing and arguably increasing concern too many Australian children are falling behind in reading.

Key Points:

But there is ongoing and arguably increasing concern too many Australian children are falling behind in reading.
What are the expectations around when children learn to read and how should their progress be monitored?
So most children start to learn to read at age five or six.
In some countries children won’t begin to learn to read until seven because they start school later, while in other countries they might start at age four.

Beyond the paycheck: The key to building a thriving workplace goes beyond salaries

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Could certain pay structures — like wide wage disparities, pay-for-performance systems, the belief that time equals money and pay secrecy — actually hinder organizations from reaching their primary goals?

Key Points:

Could certain pay structures — like wide wage disparities, pay-for-performance systems, the belief that time equals money and pay secrecy — actually hinder organizations from reaching their primary goals?
Current research suggests it’s time to re-evaluate these potential barriers to creating thriving workplaces.

The impact of pay gaps

Many organizations have significant pay gaps — also known as pay dispersion — between their highest and lowest earners.
Another study on employees from German firms found that pay gaps led to job dissatisfaction because employees perceived the wage distribution to be unfair.

The perils of pay-for-performance

This type of compensation model pays employees, or teams of employees, based on how well they perform their duties.
Notably, the researchers found that increased training hours over the prior year led to fewer injuries and higher productivity.
These pay structures often led to the departure of employees who were prone to, or currently facing, mental health issues.

The costs of ‘time is money’

Examples include hourly wages in retail and manufacturing sectors and billable hours in law firms.
Not surprisingly, “time is money” pay structures tend to result in longer working hours and other consequences.
A relational mindset, grounded in a general orientation to relational information, emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships and interactions.

The hidden dynamics of pay secrecy

In many western societies, pay secrecy is more common than pay transparency.
Pay secrecy keeps employees in the dark about how much they earn compared to their colleagues and how pay is determined.
Across three studies, researchers from the U.S. showed that employees perceive pay secrecy as a deliberate, negative strategy used by their employers, resulting in diminished trust in management.

A not-so-new perspective on compensation

Trying to perfect compensation strategies can be a fool’s errand.
However, Lawler found this approach rarely yields substantial positive outcomes.
Julian Barling receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

How smaller businesses can become net-zero influencers and enablers

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Cafes and restaurants are also addressing food-related emissions with carbon labelling schemes and more sustainable menu choices.

Key Points:

Cafes and restaurants are also addressing food-related emissions with carbon labelling schemes and more sustainable menu choices.
Recruiting smaller businesses to support the drive for net zero makes a lot of sense.
But the decarbonisation of smaller firms has only recently attracted serious attention from policymakers, through initiatives such as the UK Business Climate Hub.
However, as highlighted in a recent study I worked on with colleagues at Oxford and Sheffield Hallam universities, smaller businesses can also help cut emissions as behavioural “influencers” and “enablers” of change.

Persistent challenges and hopeful signs

But all businesses could benefit from a more joined-up support framework to help them achieve their goals.
By contrast, smaller businesses in England have not had access to a national funding programme for building energy efficiency.
This generates cost and confusion for many smaller businesses as they struggle to find the right support.

Taking SMEs more seriously

But while Skidmore mentions SMEs, there are three key areas where more radical change is needed to help them make a real impact on the UK’s decarbonisation goals: 1.
Information and signposting The review proposed a “Help to Grow Green” campaign, offering information, resources and vouchers for SMEs to plan and invest in the net-zero transition.
The UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is piloting a new digital energy advice service to help SMEs navigate the maze of competing information sources.
Energy efficiency Skidmore also called for SMEs to be included in tax reforms to accelerate uptake of energy-efficient technologies.

Labour's plan to focus on early maths is solid – gaps in achievement start even before primary school

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Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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Children who start primary school with mathematical abilities behind the level of their peers will typically remain behind their peers throughout school.

Key Points:

Children who start primary school with mathematical abilities behind the level of their peers will typically remain behind their peers throughout school.
But positive change won’t be achieved simply by adding more content to the primary or early years mathematics curriculums.
These approaches might lead to children learning maths in a superficial and rote manner, rather than understanding the underlying ideas.

Primary focus

Phonics is a method of learning to read that teaches children the sounds that letters and combinations of letters make.
It is required in primary schools, and pupils take a phonics screening check in year one to assess their progress.
Although not universally supported, phonics has been linked to improvements in reading levels among children in England.
Even in early primary school, mathematics is complex.

Taking care

But care is needed to ensure that bringing maths to life truly reflects children’s experiences and doesn’t become a gimmick.
There are already good examples out there of how to teach in this way – such as the Mastering Number programme.

Understanding the dynamics of snow cover in forests can help us predict flood risks

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Wednesday, October 4, 2023

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For more than six months a year, Quebec’s boreal forest is covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Key Points:

For more than six months a year, Quebec’s boreal forest is covered in a thick blanket of snow.
The major floods of spring 2023 in the Charlevoix region show why the snow cover poses a risk.
Last winter, the Rivière du Gouffre watershed, of which nearly 75 per cent is covered by forests, accumulated a large amount of snow.

Rain as an energy carrier

As we saw in the spring of 2023, rain events combined with snow cover can lead to a sudden rise in river water levels.
A heat exchange occurs between rain and snow when their temperatures differ.
Once the snow has reached a temperature of 0°C, any additional heat from the rain causes melting.

The snow cover, a complexly structured environment

Rather, it is a stack of snow layers that represent the history of the winter’s meteorological events.
Rainwater must percolate through all the snow layers to reach the ground, and eventually, the watercourse.

The role of the forest

By intercepting part of the precipitation in its solid form (snow), trees limit the accumulation of snow on the ground.
In addition, the discharge of snow intercepted by trees in solid or liquid form increases the heterogeneity of the snow cover.

The same everywhere?

It’s more akin to sparse vegetation with treeless zones known as gaps.
In these gaps, the structure of the snow cover is very different from that under the trees.
The greater accumulation of snow in the gaps favours the compaction of snow layers and the formation of fine grains.

Snow melts faster in gaps

Although more snow would accumulate in the gaps, it takes less time to melt and reaches the watercourse more quickly than the snow under the trees.
The combination of thicker snow cover in the gaps and more permeable snow layers under the trees contributed to the Rivière du Gouffre flooding Baie-Saint-Paul during the extreme rainfall of spring 2023.
However, increased knowledge of the interactions between snow cover and forest will help improve hydrological models and ensure better public protection against flooding.

'La France moche': French artists rally to celebrate the country's much-snubbed commercial zones

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

France counts no less than 1,500 of them, equivalent to an area of 500 km2, or 5 times the size of Paris.

Key Points:

France counts no less than 1,500 of them, equivalent to an area of 500 km2, or 5 times the size of Paris.
72% of spending by French households takes place within them, according to the country’s economy ministry.
If that is to happen, we French people will have to learn to look at what are now often commercial ghettos under a new light.

“Ugly France”: a subjective perspective

First used in the pages of the cultural magazine Télérama in 2010, the expression encapsulates the forms that urban spread takes: road infrastructure, commercial zones and housing developments.
Never mind that a third of the population resides in these districts, in a mosaic of different socio-economic classes and diverse and changing living arrangements.
The sheer number of ads in all forms in the central areas of the capital constitute the perfect example.
Artists, and photographers in particular, have produced much work that can enable us to appreciate this aspect of commercial zones.

When artistic production meets town planning

The fascination of photographers for suburban spaces first manifested itself during the Photographic Project of DATAR (Interministerial Delegation for Urban Planning and Regional Attractivity).
DATAR was created in 1963 with the aim of documenting the national politics of urban planning.
In 1984, Bernard Latarjet and François Hers founded the project in order to “represent the French landscape of the 1980s” and to “recreate a culture of landscapes”.

New stories

Initiated by the Forum Vies Mobiles (a mobility research unit), “The lives we lead” seeks to capture the diversity of contemporary ways of life in France.
The photography series capture stories, following individuals from all backgrounds, in different regions.
Far from simply documenting, the project focuses on narration, featuring the inhabitants of suburban zones with vivid evocative power.

The aesthetic of contrast

They are animated by nostalgia, off-beat humour, or are inspired by cinematic influences.
Commercial zones become stories, and their visual qualities, full of contrasts, are sublimated by the art.
“Hexagone : le paysage fabriqué” de Jurgen Nefzger montre des paysages périurbains dotés points de repères et de monumentalité.
Her series ‘Hyperlife’ reveal the social relationships that play out on the carpark of the Intermarché supermarket of Saint-Erme (Hauts-de-France).

Female animals teach each other to choose unusual males – new research

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

A new study suggests that female animals learn from other females to prefer distinctive males as mates.

Key Points:

A new study suggests that female animals learn from other females to prefer distinctive males as mates.
These traits have evolved to enhance an animal’s chance of attracting a mate, rather than to enhance survival ability.
Historically, scientists focused on the interactions between males and often ignored the way females shaped evolution.
In terms of looks, the males with the largest
cheek pads or flanges are most appealing to female orangutans, whereas males with the longest “swords” drive female swordtail fish wild.

Not just about looks

And, it’s not always the males that compete to be chosen by the females.
Male stalk-eyed flies choose females based on the distance between their eyes, and find wider eyespans more attractive.
Current theories of sexual selection involve animals choosing mates due to signs they have good genes– like a long, elaborate tail.

Rare sex appeal

Learning has also been shown in mate choice as females observing others with
a male are more likely to choose that male themselves, or one with similar
traits.
For example, if a female sees an experienced female with a bright coloured male, she might seek a brightly coloured mate too.
When females chose a more distinctive male, this caused the rare trait to become more common and, subsequently, less attractive.
But I now wonder what other people might see in him – is it those eyes, or that smile, or something completely different?

'Emotionally, he's destroyed me': why intimate partner sexual violence needs to be taken as seriously as stranger rape

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

The case, along with countless others, points to the challenges in understanding and responding to cases of intimate partner sexual violence.

Key Points:

The case, along with countless others, points to the challenges in understanding and responding to cases of intimate partner sexual violence.
Intimate partner sexual violence refers to sexual harm and/or abuse perpetrated by a current or former partner.

Australian statistics estimate that more than a third of sexual assaults occur within the context of family and domestic violence.
Yet, these rates are likely to be an underestimation, as intimate partner sexual violence can be difficult to recognise and disclose.
Our study, along with previous research, has found a range of harms caused by intimate partner sexual violence.

As one victim survivor in our study explained,
I am four years out now and I’m still not healed from it. I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD […] emotionally, he’s destroyed me.
I am four years out now and I’m still not healed from it. I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD […] emotionally, he’s destroyed me.

Responding to intimate partner sexual violence

Research indicates limitations in current service responses to intimate partner sexual violence.
For example, sexual assaults involving strangers are much more likely to proceed through the criminal justice system compared to sexual assaults perpetrated by acquaintances and intimate partners.
Second, many people who work in the sector described current gaps in their knowledge and confidence in responding to intimate partner sexual violence, highlighting a need for further training.
Specialist sexual assault counsellors were frequently perceived as the gold standard for responding to sexual harm, yet it was repeatedly made clear they were often stretched to capacity.
Finally, our report indicates that resources are urgently needed to reduce waitlists and increase the capacity for specialist sexual violence counselling services for victim survivors of intimate partner sexual violence.