Page 24 - aruba-today-20190302

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 2 March 2019
Don't panic: How parents can deal with internet hoaxes

By MAE ANDERSON ety about "screen time " in tablish an open dialogue
AP Technology Writer general, there is certainly with their children about
NEW YORK (AP) — The lat- plenty of problematic vid- what they're seeing online
est parental panic on so- eos that children shouldn't and hearing from other
cial media — over a pur- watch. It's hard for parents children, said Jill Murphy,
ported challenge for kids to police everything chil- editor-in-chief at Com-
to complete harmful tasks dren do online. Fears were mon Sense Media, a San
— elevates the importance compounded when some Francisco-based nonprofit
of establishing an open school systems, local me- group focused on kids' use
dialogue with children and dia and even police sent of media and technology.
taking advantage of online out their own warnings, ac- "Parents are increasingly
parental controls. companied by fuzzy facts. frustrated with feeling sur-
Warnings about the "Momo "All moral panics feed on prised or caught off guard
challenge" swept Face- some degree of reality, but by what is being put in
book and other social me- then they get blown out front of their kids," she said.
dia in recent days, as par- of proportion," said Steve Whether the "challenges"
ents worried about purport- This Feb. 19, 2014, file photo shows the Facebook app icon on Jones, a professor of com- are real or not, she said,
ed videos that encourage an iPhone in New York. munications at the Univer- "they elevate the idea that
children to hurt themselves Associated Press sity of Illinois at Chicago. they may or may not know
or do other harmful tasks children or elsewhere. actual evidence. YouTube These hoaxes echo panics exactly what their kids are
such as turning on stoves Some of the videos might said it hasn't received "any from decades past, like the absorbing through these
without telling their par- have been made in re- recent evidence of videos false belief in the 1980s that platforms."
ents. The parental warnings sponse to media attention showing or promoting the teenagers were hearing That's why talking to chil-
were accompanied by a surrounding the challenge. Momo challenge" on its ser- Satanic messages in rock dren is important, she said.
disturbing image of a grin- Meanwhile, the image of vice. song lyrics, he said. "Take the right time to have
ning creature with matted the grinning creature is re- So why the panic? Experts "Once the internet is in- an age-appropriate con-
hair and bulging eyes. portedly from a Japanese say internet hoaxes fo- volved in the mix, things get versation, and help your
But the challenge is be- sculpture. cused on children tap into speeded up and they get kids understand not every-
lieved to be a hoax. It's Fact-checking site Snopes fears that parents have more widespread," Jones thing on the internet is real."
unclear how many videos said the challenge first ap- about protecting their said. She said parents should
exist or to what extent they peared in mid-2018 linked children online and else- The most important thing also take advantage of
have circulated, among to suicide reports without where. In addition to anxi- parents can do is to es- parental settings built into
many products and ser-
vices. Most web browsers
YouTube suspends comments on videos of kids can block certain websites,
limit what children can
see and provide a report
RACHEL LERMAN ers and video creators, he about what sites a child
AP Technology Writer said. visited. Smartphones and
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — YouTube CEO Susan tablets can limit screen
YouTube said Thursday it Wojcicki acknowledged time and access to apps.
will turn off comments on the concerns Thursday, YouTube Kids lets parents
nearly all videos featur- tweeting, "Nothing is more disable search and turn
ing kids — potentially af- important to us than en- off "autoplay." Murphy said
fecting millions of posts suring the safety of young these free tools are good
on the site — after reports people on the platform." enough; no need to pay for
last week that pedophiles The company said it has third-party parental apps.
were leaving inappropri- also released an updated Another option is to down-
ate comments on innocu- version of its automated load apps from shows or
ous videos of children. moderating system that it channels directly rather
The change comes as You- expects will identify and than going through stream-
Tube grapples with mod- delete two times as many ing services such as You-
erating content across inappropriate comments. Tube. PBS, Peppa Pig, Nick
its platform as concerns This March 20, 2018 file photo shows the YouTube app on an YouTube, like Facebook, Jr. and other popular ser-
about hate speech, vio- iPad in Baltimore. Twitter and other sites that vices for kids have their own
lence and conspiracy the- Associated Press allow user publishing, have apps, with pre-screened
ories continue to plague it. faced increasing calls to videos deemed appropri-
It will take YouTube several ular YouTuber and media YouTube provides. monitor what appears on ate for kids.
months to disable com- reports. At least one com- Turning off comments on their sites and get rid of un- And though it may seem
ments on all videos featur- pany, Nestle, was satisfied such a large number of suitable content. The com- contradictory, going on-
ing minors, the company with YouTube's response videos seems an "extreme panies all say they have line to research the hoaxes
said. It already started the and reinstated ads late reaction," said eMarketer taken action to protect could also help. The Momo
process last week when it last week. analyst Paul Verna. But the users. But issues keep pop- hoax was debunked fairly
turned off comments from A small number of chan- issue involves the safety of ping up. quickly after people ques-
tens of millions of videos. nels which have videos children, so it makes sense Concerns about YouTube tioned it, Jones said. Give
Advertisers including Nes- featuring kids will be al- YouTube would want to comments weren't even weight to trusted news
tle, AT&T and Fortnite-mak- lowed to keep comments act quickly, he said. a top priority for advertis- sources and fact-checking
er Epic Games pulled ads turned on. But they must Comments aren't the main ers and viewers a couple sites like Snopes.com.
from YouTube last week be known to YouTube and focus of the video-publish- weeks ago, Verna said. "Take a deep breath and
after the inappropriate must actively monitor the ing site, but turning them "It just makes you wonder, go online as strange as that
comments about children comments beyond the off will likely diminish the what's the next thing that may seem in some sense,"
were unearthed by a pop- standard monitoring tools experience for many us- going to happen?"q he said.q