‘Everywhere Babies,’ a picture book celebrating infants, just got banned; The Washington Post, April 22, 2022

Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post; ‘Everywhere Babies,’ a picture book celebrating infants, just got banned

Author Susan Meyers and illustrator Marla Frazee respond to their book being banned from school libraries in Walton County, Fla.

"Meyers and Frazee each spoke to me about their book, the experience of seeing it banned from public school libraries for the first time, and what they hope parents might take away from what’s happening in Walton County and beyond. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity...

What would you want to say to parents about what’s happening with books like yours and so many others being removed from school libraries and public libraries?

SM: Parents have to open their eyes and see what’s going on around them. If you don’t agree with this take, what these people are doing, you better show up at your local school board meeting. Authoritarian and fascist communities, this is what they always go for, they always burn the books. It actually shows the power of books. If they didn’t have any power, they wouldn’t be burning or banning them. So that’s one thing to remember and celebrate: The power of books.

MF: I watched Mallory McMorrow’s speech the other day, the state legislator in Michigan. I feel like what she said — how either we oppose the rise of this hate or we enable it — that is absolutely the truth. I think that’s exactly where we are. So for parents, I just think what’s important is to stand up for the children who don’t have any voices. Even if you’re not in a county like Walton County, Florida, even if you’re in a county where you don’t think this is going to happen, it very well could happen. I think we all have to be very aware of that possibility and start speaking out. We can’t leave it to marginalized groups to speak out. We all have to speak out."

New ALA Poll Shows Voters Oppose Book Bans; American Libraries, March 24, 2022

American Libraries; New ALA Poll Shows Voters Oppose Book Bans

"A new national poll commissioned by the American Library Association (ALA) released on March 24 shows that seven in 10 voters oppose removing books from public libraries, including majorities of voters across party lines. In addition, 74% of parents of public school children expressed confidence in school libraries and librarians to choose which books are available to children and said books that have been contested should be available on an age-appropriate basis.

The poll, conducted March 1–6, surveyed 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. It is the first to view the issue of book bans through the lens of public and school libraries. The poll’s results demonstrate that voters have a high regard for librarians and recognize the critical role libraries play in their communities. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that book bans are far from being a partisan issue; they are opposed by large majorities of voters regardless of personal political affiliation.

“The survey results confirm what we have known and observed: that banning books is widely opposed by most voters and parents,” said ALA President Patricia “Patty” M. Wong in a March 24 statement. “As a career librarian who began in public libraries working with children, I’m thrilled to see that parents have a high degree of confidence in school libraries’ decisions about their collections and very few think that school librarians ignore parents’ concerns. This truly validates the value and integrity of library professionals at a time when many are feeling burned out because of accusations made by small but loud groups.”

More than 330 cases of book bans and challenges were reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) between September 1 and November 30, 2021. The total number of challenges in 2021 was more than double the number of reports from 2020 (156 challenges) and exceeded the overall number of challenges from 2019 (377 challenges).

OIF will announce the full 2021 book challenge totals and its annual Top 10 List of Most Challenged Books on April 4, during National Library Week (April 3–9). Additionally, the annual accounting of book censorship in the US will be released as part of ALA’s State of America’s Libraries 2022 report.

More data points from the poll:

• 71% of respondents oppose efforts to have books removed from their local public libraries, including majorities of Democrats (75%), independents (58%), and Republicans (70%)
• Most voters and parents are confident library workers can make good decisions about what books to include in collections and agree that libraries in their communities do a good job of offering books with broad and diverse viewpoints
• Voters across the political spectrum have a sense of the importance of public libraries (95% of Democrats, 78% of independents, 87% of Republicans) and school libraries (96% of Democrats, 85% of independents, 91% of Republicans)

The poll was conducted by Hart Research Associates and North Star Opinion Research on behalf of ALA. It included 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. The sample is demographically and geographically representative of voters and parents in the US. Additional survey findings and methodology can be found on the ALA website.""

Artificial intelligence is getting better at writing, and universities should worry about plagiarism; The Conversation, November 4, 2021

Michael Mindzak and Sarah Elaine Eaton , The Conversation; Artificial intelligence is getting better at writing, and universities should worry about plagiarism

"The dramatic rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlit concerns about the role of technology in exam surveillance — and also in student cheating. 

Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve.

Over the past two years, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate writing has leapt forward significantly, particularly with the development of what’s known as the language generator GPT-3. With this, companies such as Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA can now produce “human-like” text.

AI-generated writing has raised the stakes of how universities and schools will gauge what constitutes academic misconduct, such as plagiarism. As scholars with an interest in academic integrity and the intersections of work, society and educators’ labour, we believe that educators and parents should be, at the very least, paying close attention to these significant developments."

Why Parents Should Pause Before Oversharing Online; The New York Times, August 4, 2020

Stacey Steinberg, The New York Times; Why Parents Should Pause Before Oversharing Online

As social media comes of age, will we regret all the information we revealed about our families during its early years?

"A Conflict of Interest

Studying children’s privacy on social media fed both my personal conflicts and my professional passions, so six years ago, I delved deep into the work of studying the intersection of a child’s right to privacy and a parent’s right to share.

What I quickly learned was that the law does not give us much guidance when it comes to how we use social media as families. Societal norms encour­age us to use restraint before publicly sharing personal informa­tion about our friends and family. But nothing stops us as parents from sharing our child’s stories with the virtual world.

While there are laws that protect American children’s privacy in certain contexts — such as HIPAA for health care, FERPA for education and COPPA for the online privacy of children under 13 — they do not have a right to privacy “from their parents,” except in the most limited of circumstances.

Most other countries guarantee a child the right to privacy through an international agreement called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United States signed the agreement, but it is the only United Nations member country not to have ratified it, which means it is not law or formal policy here. Additionally, doctrines like the Right to Be Forgotten might offer children in the European Union remedies for their parents’ oversharing once they come of age."

Internet Archive to Publishers: Drop ‘Needless’ Copyright Lawsuit and Work with Us; Publishers Weekly, July 23, 2020

Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Internet Archive to Publishers: Drop ‘Needless’ Copyright Lawsuit and Work with Us

"During a 30-minute Zoom press conference on July 22, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle urged the four major publishers suing over the organization’s book scanning efforts to consider settling the dispute in the boardroom rather than the courtroom.

“Librarians, publishers, authors, all of us should be working together during this pandemic to help teachers, parents, and especially students,” Kahle implored. “I call on the executives of Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House to come together with us to help solve the challenging problems of access to knowledge during this pandemic, and to please drop this needless lawsuit.”

Kahle’s remarks came as part of a panel, which featured a range of speakers explaining and defending the practice of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), the legal theory under which the Internet Archive has scanned and is making available for borrowing a library of some 1.4 million mostly 20th century books."

Missouri could jail librarians for lending 'age-inappropriate' books; The Guardian, January 16, 2020

Alison Flood, The Guardian; Missouri could jail librarians for lending 'age-inappropriate' books

"A Missouri bill intended to bar libraries in the US state from stocking “age-inappropriate sexual material” for children has been described by critics as “a shockingly transparent attempt to legalise book banning” that could land librarians who refuse to comply with it in jail. 

Under the parental oversight of public libraries bill, which has been proposed by Missouri Republican Ben Baker, panels of parents would be elected to evaluate whether books are appropriate for children. Public hearings would then be held by the boards to ask for suggestions of potentially inappropriate books, with public libraries that allow minors access to such titles to have their funding stripped. Librarians who refuse to comply could be fined and imprisoned for up to one year."

China calls them ‘kindness students.’ They’re actually victims of cultural genocide.; The Washington Post, January 10, 2020

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; China calls them ‘kindness students.’ They’re actually victims of cultural genocide.

"In the village with the barbed wire, government officials call the children “kindness students,” referring to the party’s supposed generosity in making special arrangements. But the glove bearing this generosity has a fist inside. As Adrian Zenz at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has documented, in some Uighur-majority regions in southern Xinjiang, preschool enrollment more than quadrupled in recent years, exceeding the average national enrollment growth rate by more than 12 times. Why? Because parents, and in some cases both parents, have disappeared into the camps. China is carrying out cultural genocide and social reengineering on young minds when they are most impressionable.

China has claimed the campaign is a response to extremism and violence in Xinjiang a decade ago, but these methods far exceed what would be needed for counterterrorism. The punishment of the Uighur Muslims appears to fit the definition of crimes against humanity. The annual report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, released Wednesday, says: “Security personnel at the camps subjected detainees to torture, including beatings; electric shocks; waterboarding; medical neglect; forced ingestion of medication; sleep deprivation; extended solitary confinement; and handcuffing or shackling for prolonged periods, as well as restricted access to toilet facilities; punishment for behavior deemed religious; forced labor; overcrowding; deprivation of food; and political indoctrination.”"

‘Don’t leave campus’: Parents are now using tracking apps to watch their kids at college; The Washington Post, October 22, 2019

Abby Ohlheiser, The Washington Post; ‘Don’t leave campus’: Parents are now using tracking apps to watch their kids at college

"Many parents install tracking apps with good intentions, said Stacey Steinberg, a law professor at the University of Florida who has studied how technology impacts raising families and privacy. “We don’t want our kids to screw up,” she said. “We don’t want them to get hurt. Technology offers us new ways to feel like we are protecting them — both from others and from themselves.

“But kids need autonomy from their parents, especially when they reach adulthood,” Steinberg added. “If we want our kids to trust us, if we want our kids to believe they are capable of making wise decisions, then our actions need to show it. Valuing their privacy is one way to do so.”"

Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids; The Guardian, October 22, 2019

Lois Beckett, The Guardian; Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids

"The new school surveillance technology doesn’t turn off when the school day is over: anything students type in official school email accounts, chats or documents is monitored 24 hours a day, whether students are in their classrooms or their bedrooms.

Tech companies are also working with schools to monitor students’ web searches and internet usage, and, in some cases, to track what they are writing on public social media accounts.

Parents and students are still largely unaware of the scope and intensity of school surveillance, privacy experts say, even as the market for these technologies has grown rapidly, fueled by fears of school shootings, particularly in the wake of the Parkland shooting in February 2018, which left 17 people dead."

Educators Urge Parents And High Schools To Make Ethics The Heart Of College Applications; WBUR, On Point, March 18, 2019

WBUR, On Point;

Educators Urge Parents And High Schools To Make Ethics The Heart Of College Applications

 

"A new report is calling on parents and high schools to put ethical character at the center of college admissions.

The report, though long planned, comes out as the country is still reeling from revelations that wealthy parents bribed standardized test administrators, college coaches and at least one former college trustee to admit students who might not otherwise have been qualified...

The authors make several recommendations to parents:

1. Keep the focus on your teen. "It's critical for parents to disentangle their own wishes from their teen's wishes," the authors write.
2. Follow your ethical GPS. The authors advise parents not to let their own voice intrude in college essays, and to not look the other way when hired tutors are over-involved in applications.
3. Use the admissions process as an opportunity for ethical education.
4. Be authentic. The authors recommend not sending conflicting messages to their children about what kind of college they should try to get into.
5. Help your teen contribute to others in meaningful ways. "Service trips to distant countries or launching a new service project are ... not what matters to admissions deans," the authors say. They recommend parents focus on their children's authentic interests instead.
6. Advocate for elevating ethical character and reducing achievement-related distress.
7. Model and encourage gratitude."

Defying Parents, A Teen Decides To Get Vaccinated; NPR, February 9, 2019

Amanda Morris and Scott Simon, NPR; Defying Parents, A Teen Decides To Get Vaccinated

"Ethan Lindenberger is getting vaccinated for well, just about everything.

He's 18 years old, but had never received vaccines for diseases like hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, or the chickenpox.

Lindenberger's mother, Jill Wheeler, is anti-vaccine. He said she has been influenced by online misinformation, such as a debunked study that claimed certain vaccines were linked with autism, or a theory that vaccines cause brain damage. Incorrect ideas like these have spread like wildfire, so much so that the CDC has explicitly tried to combat them, posting pages like "Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.""

Wanted: The ‘perfect babysitter.’ Must pass AI scan for respect and attitude.; The Washington Post, November 23, 2018

Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; Wanted: The ‘perfect babysitter.’ Must pass AI scan for respect and attitude.

"Predictim’s chief and co-founder Sal Parsa said the company, launched last month as part of the University of California at Berkeley’s SkyDeck tech incubator, takes ethical questions about its use of the technology seriously. Parents, he said, should see the ratings as a companion that “may or may not reflect the sitter’s actual attributes.”...

...[T]ech experts say the system raises red flags of its own, including worries that it is preying on parents’ fears to sell personality scans of untested accuracy.

They also question how the systems are being trained and how vulnerable they might be to misunderstanding the blurred meanings of sitters’ social media use. For all but the highest-risk scans, the parents are given only a suggestion of questionable behavior and no specific phrases, links or details to assess on their own."

Snapchat's new Snap Map feature raises privacy concerns; ABC News, June 26, 2017

ABC News; Snapchat's new Snap Map feature raises privacy concerns

"A new update to the popular social networking app Snapchat that allows certain users of the app to track down your exact location is raising privacy concerns for parents and child safety advocates.

The new Snapchat feature, called "Snap Map," lets you decide whether or not to share your location with your friends in the app, or stay in "ghost mode," the app's default setting. If you decide to share your location, then an emoji representing you will appear to pinpoint your exact location on a map to your friends within the Snapchat app. The emoji marking where someone is on the map will "only update when you open Snapchat," the tech company explained in a blog post."

Why you should protect your child's online privacy; CNN.com, June 7, 2017

Caroline Knorr, CNN.com; Why you should protect your child's online privacy

"If you don't want to have the bejesus scared out of you, don't talk to an expert on kids' online privacy. If you knew what was really out there -- online predators, identity thieves, data miners -- you'd lock up the internet and throw away the key.

The truth is, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The internet is so woven into our lives, we need to be aware of the worst-case scenarios that can strike when we're unprepared. Below are a few of those scary things that can and do happen. But with some eyes and ears to the ground, they are totally preventable...

Protect yourself. Talk to your kids about keeping private things private, considering how far information can travel and how long it can last, and how they can talk to their friends about respecting one another's personal privacy."

Bark app helps protect kids from cyberbullying and suicide, while safeguarding their privacy; CNBC, May 13, 2017

Deborah Findling, CNBC; 

Bark app helps protect kids from cyberbullying and suicide, while safeguarding their privacy

"Bark, a mobile safety app created by a startup founded by a Twitter alumnus, is hoping to do just that. The software employs machine learning to detect signs of negative behavior on a teen's phone, including cyberbullying, sexting, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Parents initially sign up through Bark's website, then get their children to connect their social media accounts. The software will read the accounts, but will not store or share any of the data.

Founder and CEO Brian Bason got the idea for Bark while still working for Twitter, which had acquired his previous start-up called Niche. With two kids just old enough to have phones, he felt that even though he worked in technology, he didn't know how to keep track of them online.

"Our view is that there are a lot of tools out there that just expose all of the kids' activity," Bason told CNBC. "This preserves the child's privacy and builds trust."

If You Have One Of These Toys In Your House, You May Want To Stop Using It; Huffington Post, February 27, 2017

Ryan Grenoble, Huffington Post; 

If You Have One Of These Toys In Your House, You May Want To Stop Using It

"With a little sleuthing, and some help from CloudPets users willing to serve as guinea pigs, Hunt tracked down some surprisingly personal information on the CloudPets servers. Kids’ names, birthdays (minus the year) and their relationship with authorized users (i.e., parents, grandparents, friends, etc.) were all accessible."

Texting, 'friending' a morass for educators; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/16/11

Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Texting, 'friending' a morass for educators:

"When Sidney Alvarez became Avonworth public relations director, he thought a Facebook page might be a simple way to spread the word about goings-on in the school district.

But as Mr. Alvarez and school employees nationwide have discovered, when it comes to students and social media, nothing is simple.

The school now has a robust Facebook presence, with updates every few hours that reach more than 700 students, parents and community members. But Mr. Alvarez and the Avonworth administration have had to make countless ethical and policy decisions balancing the ease of communication versus student safety and decorum. Should comments be allowed? What about student photos? Should the district allow its logo to be used on parent-created fan pages for sports teams?"