Internet

A University of Oxford study claims any negative effects of social media on teens are likely trivial. It said other life events had a far greater effect. The study used data from extensive household surveys that ran between 2009 and 2016 which ... covered a wide range of issues. The researchers mined the survey results for responses from children who were aged 10 to 15 at the time of questioning, with more than 12,000 children covered. (Source: pnas.org ) The researchers looked at questions about how many hours the children spent communicating on social networks on school days. They compared this ... (view more)

Google is set to make it easier for users to block tracking cookies. Perhaps unsurprisingly the reported changes would also be very helpful for Google. Cookies are small files that a website saves onto a computer's hard drive via the web browser. ... When the user next returns to the site, it will check for cookies and use the information to customize the site's content or appearance. For example, if a user were to enter in their name and password on a forum website and then selected the "remember me" option, this preference would be saved using a cookie. The next time the user visits ... (view more)

More than half of the world's population now has Internet access according to newly-published estimates. The figures also suggest there are more mobile phones than people worldwide. The estimates come from the International Telecommunications Union ... (a specialized agency of the United Nations), and the World Bank. (Source: itu.int ) While most of the figures relate to subscriptions, the overall Internet use number is for individual people. The estimate has 51.2 percent of people online as of the end of 2018, with dramatic growth in Internet access in Africa helping reach this milestone. ... (view more)

Facebook is to tell users why a particular post has appeared in their news feed. However, it won't be telling the full story. One of the most controversial elements of Facebook is its news feed algorithm, which is responsible for showing 'news' from ... friends when a user logs into Facebook. At one point, this simply consisted of everything the user's friends had posted or shared in chronological order. This arguably became impractical, as both the number of users and the range of content users could share or otherwise interact with had rocketed. The argument is that the sheer amount of content ... (view more)

Firefox is to stop websites from playing videos automatically when a user visits a page. By default, autoplay will only be allowed if the sound is muted. The move by developers Mozilla is designed to tackle the problem of unwanted noise when ... somebody is simply expecting to read an article. This is a particular problem with sites that carry video ads or news sites that automatically play a video report, even if it isn't related to the story the user was expecting to read. The new default takes effect in version 66 of Firefox, which is getting a public release this week. The videos will still ... (view more)

The creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) says it faces a "downward plunge to a dysfunctional future." Sir Tim Berners-Lee said many of its problems were unintended consequences. Berners-Lee spoke to mark the 30th anniversary of him submitting a ... proposal to his managers at European science group CERN for a way to organize data. That technology, based on hyperlinked text, became the World Wide Web. In turn, that helped shape the Internet into something used worldwide by ordinary people. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Writing an open letter, Berners-Lee noted that the web is now "a public square, a library ... (view more)

A new online chat service costs one cent for every character in a message. It appears to be both a business idea and a social experiment. The site has the straightforward name called "Expensive Chat," and has the equally to-the-point description of ... "Spend money to chat with strangers who spend money to chat with strangers." Users can register to pay with their bank card or through third-party payment site "Stripe." Once they are setup, every time they write a message, they'll see a reminder of the price based on its length. They'll have to confirm the message and their willingness ... (view more)

Some videos on YouTube's Kids app contain instructions on how to commit suicide. It casts serious doubt on YouTube's claims to "curate" the content available to children. YouTube Kids is a dedicated app for mobile devices and smart televisions. The ... content it hosts is also available at a dedicated website. YouTube describes the service as being a "fun, family-friendly place for children and families." The app is designed to be easy to use, even for young children. Although parents can create individual accounts for each child which learn their viewing tastes and make ... (view more)

Russia may briefly disconnect from the Internet as a cyber-defense exercise. It's being billed as an attempt to see if the country could keep the benefits of the Internet without having to interact with the rest of the world, though critics suggest ... it is nothing more than political censorship. Russian officials are said to fear that other countries may be taking measures to block its country from the Internet. On paper there does not appear to be any such proposals, though NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has threatened some form of sanctions over alleged cyber attacks by Russia ... (view more)

Two organizations hired by Facebook to check facts in news articles have pulled out of the deals. The Associated Press (AP) and Snopes are both being somewhat vague about exactly why they are stopping the work. While financial considerations may be ... the cause, third-party reports suggest the organizations were upset with the way Facebook handled their fact-checking operations. The two groups were among the most high-profile of what Facebook says is 34 organizations checking facts across 16 languages. According to the BBC, the AP and Snopes withdrawal means only two organizations in the US are ... (view more)