shameless media + greater online safety

😀 Culture

Eat, pray, love: the twenty-something women who became nuns – cosmopolitan
Between dating app fatigue, tradwife culture, and the growing 4B movement, women everywhere are washing their hands of the quest for love. Many are embracing singledom, instead connecting with nature, like-minded people, and adopting a slower pace of life to find inner happiness. For some young women, the has even meant becoming a nun. For those who have entered this unique lifestyle, they say they’ve found community, purpose, and a clear path forward for the first time – but like most major choices, it doesn’t come without its own slew of anxieties.

Mental health crisis means youth is no longer the happiest part of life – guardian
A UN-commissioned study in the UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand has found that the global mental health crisis means ‘youth is no longer the happiest time of life’ for most people. Youth happiness levels have dropped sharply over the past decade, particularly among growing girls. Smartphones, social media, cyberbullying and body shaming have been cited as primary causes for this dip. While this information may seem depressing at face value, the report found that life satisfaction is rising with age – a stark contradiction from the embarrassing midlife crises we’re used to hearing about. Look on the bright side: good times are ahead!

📲 Tech

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has announced plans to investigate how TikTok generates content recommendation for users aged 13 to 17 based on their private data. The aim of this inquiry is to build upon previous studies which have found that the app suggested harmful eating disorder and self-harm content to some new teen accounts within a matter of minutes. The investigation will extend to apps including Reddit and the image-sharing site Imgur, with the hopes of gaining an understanding of these platforms’ age assurance measures, including how they estimate and verify children’s ages, and how they use their personal information. Yes to more online safety for children!

Study reveals explicit deepfakes are rife among US teens – thred
In a similar vein, a new survey conducted by the nonprofit Thorn has found that 1 in 8 American teens personally know someone who has had an AI-generated pornographic deepfake made of them. A shocking one in 17 have had it happen to them. The survey spoke to 1,200 young people aged between 13 and 20, illustrating just how prevalent this issue is. Policymakers are generally in agreement that legal safety measures surrounding the use of AI and deepfake technology must be put in place, but have lagged on progress. Jamie Watts explores what is being done about this high-stakes privacy crisis, especially in complex cases where both involved are minors, and where novel AI capabilities aren’t yet included in written legislation.

🌳 Nature

If you think the National Park Authority should be clearing away fallen trees in your local green space, think again! Deadwood, despite being, well, dead, is vital to the surrounding natural ecosystem, feeding a plethora of new life from fungi to bacteria and other tiny critters as it decomposes. In this incredibly interesting article, Katarina Zimmer details the complex life cycle of tree-eating fungi and insects, which have evolved to do the difficult job of breaking down the extra-strong, complex structural molecules contained in tree bark. These organisms, at the bottom of the food chain, are essential to the nourishment of predators all the way up the chain, which is why forest management strategies have included deadwood preservation in places like Europe and the US.

Florida’s iconic corals aren’t having babies anymore – atlas obscura
Forests may be thriving, but coral reefs around the world are struggling in the face of marine heatwaves, hurricanes, disease, and pollution. Most hard corals in Florida waters have stopped reproducing altogether. Although corals can reproduce alone (by cloning) if they must, the typical sperm-to-egg coral reproduction method is far more superior for genetic diversity. In recent years, keeping Florida’s reefs alive has required scientists to breed corals almost entirely in land-based labs in unpolluted, temperature controlled water, whereas they used to be able to plant them directly on the seabed. Experts worry that health and longevity of these marine ecosystems will depend on land-based reef conservation projects, stating that – more crucially – the slowing of climate change and environmental destruction is vital.

🇵🇸 Media

A documentary featuring children’s perspective on Israel’s war in Gaza was pulled from BBC iPlayer in light of swirling accusations that the film’s narrator is the son of Hamas’ minister of agriculture. It features three children as its main characters, as well as medical workers and a woman who had recently given birth while living in a refugee camp. Over 500 media figures, including the BBC’s highest-paid star Gary Lineker, signed a letter calling criticism of the documentary rooted in ‘racist assumptions and weaponisation of identity’ and have called for it to be reinstated. The BBC has released an apology, saying it has no plan to make the film available to the public again.

Millie Bobbie Brown calls out media for criticising her appearance – rolling stone
In the last week or so, Millie Bobbie Brown has debuted a new, more grown up look on several red carpets. Those inside the media machine are clearly (and weirdly) upset that the child star who played Eleven in Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things isn’t such a child anymore. Their surprise at Brown’s womanly appearance manifested in a series of articles that criticised her looks, saying she was ‘ageing badly’ and questioning ‘what happened to her face’. Taking to Instagram, the actress named and shamed journalists for their distasteful articles, calling it what it really is: bullying. You should really just go straight to her post, because it is very powerful.

🚶🏽‍♀️Recommendation

And if you need a bit more convincing, I’d welcome you to this article on how walking can change your life one step at a time.

Enjoy your week loveliesssss xoxoxo

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