Facebook’s Teen Problem

CNBC had a story out yesterday citing data from investor analyst firm Piper Jaffray which indicated that teens are abandoning Facebook “at a staggering rate.”

But went on to say they’re still “flocking to sister app Instagram.”

Palo Alto, we have a problem.

The CNBC article indicated that just over a third of teenagers use the core Facebook platform at least once a month.

I wonder if a third of those are from Russia??

That number is “down significantly from 52 percent of teens two years ago and from close to two-thirds of teens in spring of 2016.”

On the plus side, Instagram “edged out SnapChat as the most-used social platform by teenagers for the first time” since Piper Jaffray started conducting its survey.

So, marketeers everywhere, uh, take more pictures?  

Maybe you can use that newfangled Apple iPhone XR, which is getting rave reviews across the board (and which comes in several hundred dollars less than the iPhone XS).

Speaking of Russians, The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Cyber Command is now targeting individual Russian operatives “to try to deter them from spreading disinformation in elections.”

The campaign, which includes missions undertaken in recent days, is the first known overseas cyberoperation to protect American elections, including the November midterms.

Senior defense officials said they were not directly threatening the operatives. Still, former officials said anyone singled out would know, based on the United States government’s actions against other Russian operatives, that they could be indicted or targeted with sanctions. Even the unstated threat of sanctions could help deter some Russians from participating in covert disinformation campaigns, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former intelligence official now with the Center for a New American Security.

Huh.  That only took a couple of years to get rolling.

Impressions From SXSW Interactive 2012: Q&A With Don Tapscott On Our Digital Future, Privacy, & Milennials

I’ve been following Don Tapscott’s work since I first moved to New York in 1995, reading a number of his early books, including Growing Up Digital.  Without question, he’s been a consistent and articulate voice about how digital technology is changing our world, detailing for us mere mortals its impact on business, education, children, and beyond.

Scott and I had the real privilege of stealing a few minutes of Don Tapscott’s time yesterday here at SXSW Interactive 2012 to talk about some of those themes, and Tapscott’s suggestion that there’s some very real change in the air that’s being enabled by Internet Protocol-based technologies, including the smartphone.

Happy Safer Internet Day

If you either don’t have children or you don’t spend an inordinate amount of time online, or if you just missed the headlines these past few days, you may not realize that today is “Safer Internet Day.”

In conjunction, IBM is releasing free Internet safety training tools for students and will have thousands of volunteers working to help raise awareness and educate students and businesses on Internet safety and digital responsibility.

The three free volunteer kits that can help better educate students, parents, and teachers on Internet safety include:

• Control Your Online Identity  – A volunteer education kit, it is designed to help teenagers learn to protect personal data online and reputation online. Teenagers are typically savvy about how to use the Internet, but often unaware about what happens to personal data once it’s shared. This presentation and volunteer information helps students learn how to protect personal data and control how they present themselves online.
• Internet Safety Coaching – Aimed at teachers or adults working with children, this is a general primer on Internet safety providing basic information about common Internet activities by young people including instant messaging and social networking.   This kit is designed to raise awareness of Internet safety and how to have a meaningful and open dialogue with children on this topic.
• Cyberbullying — Aimed at parents or adults who work with children, this activity helps adults learn about how young people use the Internet today and how to recognize cyberbullying symptoms, how to prevent online bullying from happening and how to intervene if it does happen.

“IBMers are committed to helping educate people on ways to safely and securely use the Internet,” said Harriet Pearson, IBM Security Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer. “The resources we are donating will help teachers and parents raise awareness that most Internet-based threats to individual and computer security can significantly be reduced by actions that informed users take themselves.”

In conjunction with today’s announcement, IBM volunteers around the world are educating communities about Internet safety. Some select activities include:

• In Finland, IBM’s lead volunteer on Cyberbullying will participate in a national summit at Helsinki City Hall in conjunction with Safer Internet Day. 60 IBM volunteers have already run Cyberbullying workshops for parents in 100 schools across Finland.
• In Germany, IBM will expand its partnership with klicksafe, the national partner of the Insafe network, focusing on the Manage Your Identity Initiative, Already more than 500 IBM, retiree and partner volunteers have delivered over 100 interactive workshops on the topic to more around 3,000 students around the country.
• In Italy, an IBM team will conduct events in local schools using both the IBM materials and afilm from Safer Internet Day to discuss Internet safety and cyberbullying.
• In Romania, IBM volunteers are partnering with NGOs APDETIC and Junior Achievement Romania to deliver an Internet Safety session to students focusing on controlling your online identity and Facebook usage.
• In the United Kingdom, IBM volunteers will use the volunteer kits to promote online safety awareness in schools.  IBMers will partner with non-profit YPNGlobal on their initiative called Cyber Champions.

Last year IBM employees donated more than three million hours of volunteer service. The company has donated 34 volunteer kits to help both IBMers as well as community members have meaningful activities and dialogues in the community about various issues.

Since its inception in 2004, Safer Internet Day interest has grown to reach all five continents and almost 80 countries, from Canada to South Korea and Russia to Kenya, including all 27 countries of the European Union.

The goal of the day is to help make the Internet a better place for our children and young people.