Activities of those aged 0 to three often involve sensory exploration and embodied cognition, researchers find Although it has been argued that under-threes should not have any screen time at all, research has found that digital tech can offer “rich opportunities” for young children’s development. A two-year study, Toddlers, Tech and Talk, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and led by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), working with Lancaster, Queen’s Belfast, Strathclyde and Swansea universities, looked at children’s interactions with everything from Amazon Alexa to Ring doorbells, in diverse communities across the UK, to find out how tech was influencing 0- to three-year-olds’ early talk and literacy. Continue reading...

Everything is easier with modern technology – except fulfilling your true potential The convenience of modern life is nothing short of astounding. As I write this, my phone is wirelessly sending some of the greatest hits from the 1700s (Bach, if you must know) to my portable speaker. I could use that same device to, within moments, get a car to pick me up, have food delivered to my house, or start chatting with someone on a dating app. To human beings from even the recent past this technology would be, to quote Arthur C Clarke’s third law, indistinguishable from magic. The fact that, as a culture, we seek out and celebrate such short cuts is understandable. They take much of the tedium out of life, make it easier to have fun, and save us time and energy. That said, most people are able to intuit that convenience has a darker side. Continue reading...

Online services that promise to find people romantic matches have been likened to gambling products designed to keep customers hooked “Designed to be deleted” is the tagline of one of the UK’s most popular dating apps. Hinge promises that it is “the dating app for people who want to get off dating apps” – the place to find lasting love. But critics say modern dating is in crisis. They claim that dating apps, which have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times worldwide, are “exploitative” and are designed not to be deleted but to be addictive, to retain users in order to create revenue. Continue reading...

Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, jailed after transforming normal pictures of children into sexual abuse imagery A man who used AI to create child abuse images using photographs of real children has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. In the first prosecution of its kind in the UK, Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, was convicted of 16 child sexual abuse offences in August, after an investigation by Greater Manchester police (GMP). Continue reading...

New research reveals how app usage affects grades, adding to parents’ worries about mental health First, the good news. We middle-aged Brits are no longer condemned to the conversation- and soul-destroying monomania of debating house prices. Less good is what has displaced it – an epidemic of angst about when to allow teenagers a mobile, and what kind. I’m in the “very late and a brick” camp, but parents end up discussing the options for a smartphone-free childhood, inevitably, on WhatsApp. Continue reading...

You’ve decided you don’t want to post pictures of your baby online. What about all the requests for cute photos from grandparents? Welcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to protect your baby’s photos on the internet. You’re a parent, and you’ve decided publicly posting your baby’s face on the internet is just not for you. You’ve got a handle on how to actually protect your baby’s photos on the internet (perhaps because you’ve read our guide!). Now it’s just a matter of doing it. Continue reading...

Mats Steen had muscular dystrophy and died very young. But a touching new documentary has used animation and his own posts to reveal the fulfilling gaming life he led in World of Warcraft – right down to his first kiss The night after their son Mats died aged just 25, Trude and Robert Steen sat on the sofa in their living room in Oslo with their daughter Mia. They couldn’t sleep. “Everything was a blur,” remembers Trude of that day 10 years ago. “Then Robert said, ‘Maybe we should reach out to Mats’ friends in World of Warcraft.’” Mats was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive condition that causes the muscles to weaken gradually. He was diagnosed aged four and started using a wheelchair at 10. By the end of his life, Mats could only move his fingers, and required a tube to clear his throat every 15 minutes. As he became increasingly disabled, he spent more time gaming: 20,000 hours in his last decade (about the same as if it were a full-time job). Continue reading...

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From gamifying your to-do list to going for a regular morning walk, top tips for improving concentration from psychotherapists, health coaches and other experts Forty-seven seconds. That was the average length of time an adult could focus on a screen for in 2021, according to research by Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California. Twenty years ago, in 2004, that number stood at two-and-a-half minutes. Our attention spans – how long we’re able to concentrate without being distracted – are shrinking. Our focus – how intensely we can think about things – is suffering too. The causes: technology that’s designed to demand our attention; endless tools for procrastination at our fingertips; rising stress and anxiety disorders; and poor sleep quality. But there are solutions. From quick-fix hacks to major lifestyle changes, we asked experts for their tips on how to think harder for longer. Continue reading...

Using World of Warcraft-style animation, this documentary tells the story of Mats Steen, a boy with muscular dystrophy whose online popularity was only revealed after his death It’s probably just an accident of scheduling, but this deeply affecting documentary is arriving just when there’s a debate raging at the school gates about children’s use of smartphones and social media. So while it’s undoubtedly troubling how tech platforms set out to addict and exploit young minds, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin provides a fascinating counterargument about how online gaming at least can be a lifeline for some individuals who find themselves isolated in the real world, or IRL as the kids like to say. Born in 1989, Mats Steen started out like many other Norwegian children of his generation: energetic, sweet-natured, unusually pale. However, his parents Robert and Trude soon discovered that he had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition that eroded his ability to move and breathe and which would eventually kill him at the age of 25. By that point in 2014, Robert, Trude and Mats’ sister Mia knew that Mats spent hours of his life online playing World of Warcraft using special equipment to accommodate his disability and had been publishing a blog about his life. Continue reading...