The 'choking game' has potentially deadly consequences, as players are challenged to temporarily strangle themselves by restricting oxygen to the brain. It sounds terrifying, but rough estimates suggest that about 10% of U.S. teenagers may have played this type of game at least once. There's more, unfortunately: The Skullbreaker Challenge, the Tide Pod Challenge and Car Surfing are but a few of the deadly games popularized through social media, particularly on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X ' formerly Twitter. Many of these games go back more than a generation, and some are resurging. The consequences of these so-called games can be deadly. Skullbreaker Challenge, for example, involves two people kicking the legs out from under a third person, causing them to fall and potentially suffer lasting injuries. Swallowing detergent pods can result in choking and serious illness. A fall from car surfing can lead to severe head trauma. Coming up with an exact number of adolescent deaths from these activities is difficult. Data is lacking, partly because public health databases do not track these activities well ' some deaths may be misclassified as suicides ' and partly because much of the existing research is dated....
A year from now, children under the age of 16 in Australia will be barred from many social-media platforms ' the highest minimum-age limit in the world. Other countries or regions have introduced similar bans and more say they're considering them, owing to parents' concerns that children are exposed to cyber-bullying, scams and adult content on these platforms. But researchers say there is minimal evidence to suggest such bans will keep children safe from online harm....
In today's high-pressure business world, demands like meeting sales targets and managing customer relationships are challenging enough. But for some workers, the real battle is surviving the toll of an abusive manager. Toxic behavior from supervisors ' including public ridicule, unfair blame and angry outbursts ' can push talented employees to the brink, increasing the likelihood of disengagement and turnover. Just consider the quiet quitting phenomenon of recent years. As business researchers interested in workplace dynamics, we set out to look into these troubling trends. Our goal was to explore strategies for mitigating the harmful impact of so-called 'jerk boss' behaviors, such as insulting employees as 'soft' for declining to work weekends. Drawing from a survey of 237 business-to-business salespeople across multiple industries, our newly published work found two low-cost, high-impact remedies. The first is to encourage productive workplace social media use. The second is to offer flexible work arrangements....
Age assurance, an umbrella term that refers to technologies for verifying, estimating, or inferring an internet user's age, is being thrust into the global spotlight thanks to a blanket ban on social media use for people under 16 in Australia. The law, which is expected to come into force in Australia in November 2025, will require social media platforms to take 'reasonable steps' to ensure they verify users' age and prevent minors from accessing their services. Australia will try out age-assurance technologies next year to help regulators (its eSafety Commissioner is the relevant body) set some of the key parameters. This trial is likely to be closely watched elsewhere, too, given widespread concerns about the impact of social media on kids' well-being. Companies offering services in this area include the likes of U.S. identity giant Entrust (which earlier this year acquired U.K. digital ID startup Onfido); German startup veteran IDnow; U.S. firm Jumio, which actually started out as an online payments company before pivoting to digital identity services; Estonia-based Veriff; and Yoti, a 10-year-old U.K. player, to name a few....
