Before a packed auditorium at the Taipei American School yesterday, John Palfrey, Harvard Law professor and chair of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force discussed the dangers of the digital age, the myths surrounding cyberspace and the opportunities offered by the medium.
Calling it “the greatest change in terms of access to knowledge we’ve ever seen,” Palfrey said about 1 billion people could really be called “digital natives” — people who have access to, and are proficient with, digital media.
Palfrey, whose most recent book Born Digital was described as a “must read for adults trying to make sense of the next generation,” singled out five characteristics of the impact of the digital age on children: identity development (avatars and “second lives”), multitasking, malleability of content, productivity and socializing.
All these possibilities, Palfrey said, have given rise to fears and myths, especially among parents. Research has singled out four main fears: “stranger danger,” bullying, hacking and access to inappropriate content.
While meeting strangers in “real space” after making first contact online presents dangers — especially sexual predation — Palfrey said data showed a drop in incidence, adding that robbers target banks because that is where the money is.
Online bullying, for its part, had seen a “sharp incline,” he said, cautioning that the ease by which digital content can be produced and shared with parents could have led to more frequent reporting of incidents rather than an actual upsurge in cases.
He then turned to what he called the “digital dossier” — the digital record that is written from our birth and through our various activities — and its impact on privacy. Through the information people put on sites like Facebook and YouTube, the digital generation could end up with “digital tattoos” that may prove difficult to get rid of in future, he said.
He said the aggregate effect of this phenomenon had yet to be fully understood.
Palfrey also touched on intellectual property and information overdose before concluding by presenting a flip side to every danger, from empowerment to creativity to information sharing.
In the end, he said, it is down to parents and schools to determine which life skills — human interaction, argument-making, analysis — children should develop. Digital content can be a powerful tool to support those goals, he said.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant