[Video] CBS News; Library's teen advisory board creates "Community Closet" to help those in need
"The South Park Township Library has a new program that helps provide necessary items for the community at large to use free of charge. But it's the group behind it that makes it such a special project. Josh Taylor reports on this week's On A Positive Note."
Josh Taylor , CBS News; Pittsburgh-area library's teen advisory board creates "Community Closet" to help those in need
"The South Park Township Library has a new program that helps provide necessary items for the community to use free of charge. But it's the group behind it that makes it such a special project.
The library's Teen Advisory Board created the "Community Closet," a cabinet within the library that provides hygiene items, feminine products and even toilet paper or lens cleaners for anyone in need.
"The teens saw a need in the community and wanted to support people in a way that felt meaningful," said Madeline Canales, a teen librarian. "It's been incredible to watch them take ownership and lead with compassion."...
The project caught the attention of the Allegheny County Library Association, which then led to an 80-second video that was posted on social media.
"It makes me feel like I'm making a difference and doing something helpful, which is very reaffirming that I'm actually doing something that's good for my community," said Owen Stockey, an eighth grader who is also a member of the board.
"They really drive this project," said Canales. "They're the ones identifying the needs, helping to make sure that it stays stocked, and they wanted the cabinet to be welcoming and stigma-free.""
Jasmine Fernández , Independent ; Massachusetts lawmakers looking to usher in ‘most restrictive’ social media ban in the country
"The Massachusetts House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill that would implement some of the United States’ strictest regulations on social media access for minors and prohibit the use of mobile phones in schools."
, The New York Times ; What Teens Are Doing With Those Role-Playing Chatbots
"There are a growing number of companies offering social chatbots that can act like friends, enemies, lovers, adventurous companions, or the manifestation of a fictional or real person you’ve always wanted to meet. You can pick A.I. Elon Musk’s brain or spar with A.I. Draco Malfoy. The myriad characters, often created by fellow users, offer drama, romance, therapy and LOLs.
Apps that feature role-playing chatbots are used by tens of millions of people, with engagement times that rival or surpass those of social media behemoths such as TikTok, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The majority of teens surveyed by Pew use A.I. chatbots, with one out of 11 saying they had used Character.AI.
“If you think your child is not talking to chatbot companions, you’re probably wrong,” said Mitch Prinstein, co-director of the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development at U.N.C. Chapel Hill.
Chatbots are surging in popularity as society is still grappling with how social media has affected young people; a wave of lawsuits is moving through the courts seeking damages from companies that plaintiffs say have deliberately created addictive products. (A jury in California recently found that Meta and YouTube were liable for $6 million in damages to one young woman.) And now parents and caregivers have a new attention-absorbing technology to reckon with.
At the beginning of last year, a high school teacher in Chicago told me that some of her students were dating chatbots, and she worried that they were having their first erotic experiences with them. I wanted to find out what teens had to say about that, so I joined communities devoted to social chatbot apps on the online messaging forum Discord. I introduced myself as a reporter and “an old,” and explained that I was interested in talking to young people who used the services regularly."
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Niko Gallogly,Brian O’Keefe and , The New York Times; Is Big Tech Facing a Big Tobacco Moment?
Back-to-back courtroom losses have put technology giants, including Meta and Google, in uncertain territory as they face lawsuits and bans on teen users.
"Andrew here. Back in 2018, I moderated a panel at the World Economic Forum that included Marc Benioff of Salesforce. It was then that he essentially declared that Facebook was the modern-day equivalent of cigarettes, and that it and other social media companies should be regulated as such.
Well, Meta’s loss in court on Wednesday, in a case about whether its platforms were designed to be addictive to adolescents, may be a watershed. Investors don’t seem to be fazed — the company’s shares hardly moved after the verdict came out — but the decision could change the conversation around the company yet again. More below...
Some legal experts wonder if Big Tech is staring at a Big Tobacco moment, a reference to how cigarette makers had to overhaul their businesses — at a huge expense — after courts ruled that some of their products were addictive and harmful.
“We’re in a new era, a digital era, where we have to rethink definitions for products based on which entities might have superior information to prevent these injuries and accidents,” Catherine Sharkey, a professor of law at N.Y.U., told The Times. She added that the “implications” of those verdicts were “very, very big.”
“This has potentially large impacts on other areas in tech, A.I. and beyond that,” Jessica Nall, a San Francisco lawyer who represents tech companies and executives, told The Wall Street Journal. “The floodgates are already open.”
Meta and Google plan to appeal. The companies have signaled that they will fight efforts to make them drastically redesign their products and algorithms."
Cecilia Kang, Ryan Mac and Eli Tan, The New York Times ; Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case
A jury found the companies negligent in their app designs, harming a young user with design features that were addictive and led to her mental health distress.
"The social media company Meta and the video streaming service YouTube harmed a young user with design features that were addictive and led to her mental health distress, a jury found on Wednesday, a landmark decision that could open social media companies to more lawsuits over users’ well-being.
Meta and YouTube must pay $3 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering and other financial burdens. Meta is responsible for 70 percent of that cost and YouTube for the remainder.
The bellwether case, which was brought by a now 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M., had accused social media companies of creating products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. K.G.M. sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Google’s YouTube over features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations that she claimed led to anxiety and depression.
The jury of seven women and five men will deliberate further to decide what punitive damages the companies should pay for malice or fraud."
, Iowa Public Radio; Fostering ethical use of AI in K-12 education
"The use of artificial intelligence in school has become more common since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Today, a majority of U.S. teens say they use AI chatbots for school work, according to the Pew Research Center.
On this episode of River to River, two Iowa-based educators who are working together in advancing ethical and human-centered approaches to artificial intelligence across K-12 education share their experiences. Iowa State University professor Evrim Baran is the project director of the Critical AI in Education Pathways Initiative, which launched a micro-credential course this month for educators. Chad Sussex founded the Winterset Community School District's AI task force, and has recently expanded into consulting for other school districts around the state.
Then we talk with Rebecca Winthrop, who coauthored a recent report that shares of the potential negative risks that generative AI poses to students, and what can be done to prevent them while maximizing the potential benefits of AI.
Guests:
Matt Bloom, Colorado Public Radio (CPR); Former Weld County librarian wins settlement after district fired her for promoting LGBTQ, anti-racism programs
"A former librarian will receive $250,000 from the High Plains Library District as part of a settlement in a lengthy civil rights dispute over her firing.
Brooky Parks lost her job at Erie Community Library in 2021 after promoting anti-racism and LGBTQ history workshops for teens. The programming drew backlash from the district’s board of trustees, which oversees more than a dozen public libraries across Northern Colorado.
Members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission signed off on the financial agreement on Friday, making it official. It also drops discrimination charges against the district and includes requirements that district leaders update their programming policies to be more inclusive.
“I feel validated and really vindicated,” Parks said. “I think this sends a message to all libraries that there’s consequences for retaliation against people and that libraries are meant to serve all members of the community.”"
Matt Enis , Library Journal ; Three Libraries Work with Teens to Pilot VR Program for Mental Health
"The Seattle Public Library (SPL); District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL); and Fayette Public Library, Museum & Archives (FPLMA), La Grange, TX, in partnership with the University of Washington (UW), have launched VRtality.org, a website that provides libraries and other institutions with a roadmap for co-designing virtual reality (VR) apps to support the mental health of teens. The roadmap and website were informed by three separate VR pilot programs developed by the three libraries. Librarians worked directly with teen patrons to create the VR programs, treating them as equal partners in the projects...
Harris noted that “co-design really allowed them to feel comfortable sharing their ideas with us, as opposed to ‘we’re instructing, and there’s a right answer.’ The fact that we’re all learning together and building this together, I think that A: It helps us establish relationships with them. And B: It allows them…to suggest some crazy stuff and see where it goes.”"
