President Donald Trump injected some politics into this year’s Christmas Eve phone calls with children from across the country, touching on topics like energy production and the 2020 election. Fielding calls as part of the U.S. military’s annual NORAD Tracks Santa event, Trump asked one caller what she wanted for Christmas. “Not coal,” said the…
More than one million South Africans, about 1.6% of the country’s population of 63 million, currently live overseas. Emigration is never a solitary event or a purely economic decision. When one person leaves, an entire network of relationships is reshaped. This means that parents, grandparents, siblings and friends are left behind, making it challenging to…
Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube speaks during a panel for the Summit for Democracy on March 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan is the latest in a line of tech bosses who have admitted to limiting their children’s social media use, as the harms of being…
Australia’s implementation of a ban on social media for under-16s does not absolve parents of their responsibility to educate their children about the dangers of engaging in the online space. Speaking to TechCentral on Wednesday, Sarah Hoffman, a South African social media lawyer and founder of Klikd, a platform centred on the responsible use of…
Reddit has launched a challenge in Australia’s highest court against the nation’s landmark social media ban for children. The online forum is among 10 social media platforms which must bar Australians aged under 16 from having accounts, under a new law which began on Wednesday. The ban, which is being watched closely around the world,…
Australia this week became the first country to ban children under 16 from using major social media platforms. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and others now face one of the toughest child-protection regimes ever imposed on Big Tech. And while critics are warning of overreach and creeping digital nanny-statism, it’s increasingly difficult to argue that doing…
Melbourne, Australia — Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect. The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three…
Every year humanity produces nearly 300 million tonnes of plastic. Only a fraction ever gets recycled. Most ends up in rivers, oceans and soil, slowly breaking down into tiny, invisible microplastics that get into what we eat and drink. Decades of recycling drives and policy bans have not altered the deep-rooted behaviours behind this crisis….
Don’t feel guilty if you can’t make it to your kids’ after-school sports practices, says two-time Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach. Leaving your kids with their teammates and coaches — without your supervision — can make them more resilient, conscientious and internally motivated athletes, the former U.S. Women’s National Team soccer star said in an Oct….
The longer you wait to give your child a smartphone or allow them to join social media, the happier and more successful they’re likely to be as adults, says psychologist Jean Twenge. To help parents facilitate that technological delay, Twenge recommends starting to teach kids how to use those technologies in safe and healthy ways…
