Despite Concerns About Content, Screen Time, and Online Security, New Research Reveals The Internet Improves Communication and Quality of Life Across Generations

The Internet (Via Pixabay)

A new study released by the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) examines the online attitudes of parents and seniors, highlighting the benefits and challenges of intergenerational technology use. 

The report, "Online Safety Across the Generations," investigates behaviors of connected families, with 57% of parents citing that technology has improved communication in their family.

For parents, top concerns focused on the content kids access, notably surpassing concerns over screen time. For seniors who reported connecting to the Internet, a multitude expressed worries about Internet safety and security.

Overall, the study showed a cyclical nature to how generations interact with and learn about technology. While dynamics and specific challenges vary by age range, respondents showed a strong consensus that digital activities have a positive impact on their lives and family communication. Parents of connected children are nearly twice as likely to feel technology and the Internet have made their job as a parent easier rather than harder. Findings also indicated that families rely on each other as a main resource for online safety and understood the major role they play in supporting digital wellbeing.

When asked what worried them more, 64% of parents felt that the content their child accessed online was more concerning, compared to just 32% who worried more about the amount of time their child spends online. Only one in three parents reported feeling satisfied with the control they had over both content and time spent online.

Among seniors polled, 80% reported going online. Of this group, large majorities reported fears of identity theft, viruses and malware, and financial hacking. While more than nine in 10 seniors report taking at least one technical step to protect their personal information online, far fewer feel confident that they are doing all they can to protect their privacy. The 20% of seniors who reported that they do NOT go online stated that it was due to little interest in getting connected, and concerns about the online world.

Despite these concerns, both generations felt that technology had enhanced family communication, and notable proportions said that parents and elderly relatives draw on a variety of technologies to communicate with children and grandchildren. When it comes to understanding technology and navigating the digital world, seniors trust the advice of family above all others.

"It's very encouraging to see intergenerational technology use bringing families together," said Stephen Balkam, CEO of FOSI. "While there are still many unique safety and security challenges for both parents and seniors, these results show an overall positive impact on daily life and family connection."

The study also includes intentional oversample interviews among minority and low-income populations, highlighting key differences in technology use and attitudes across different groups.

Notable differences between socioeconomic and minority groups include:

• African-American (66%), Hispanic (61%) and Millennial (62%) parents are the most likely to use technology together with their children.
• Hispanic (72%) and African-American (70%) parents say that they discuss online safety with their children more often than white parents (59%).
• The 20% of seniors who are not online are, on average, appreciably older, less white, less educated, and lower income than those who are online.
• Low-income parents are just as likely to say their child has access to a smartphone (91%) as are parents overall (91%), and just as many say their child has his or her own smartphone (53% of low-income parents, 54% of all parents). When it comes to children having their own laptop, the gap is most pronounced between low-income parents (32%) and upper-income parents with household incomes over $100,000 (53%).

"This research affirms that once a family, regardless of income, has connected to the Internet at home, the entire family benefits from its transformative technology" said David L. Cohen, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation.  "Through our Internet Essentials program, which helps connect low-income families to the Internet, we know that online safety concerns are a major barrier to broadband adoption. We are grateful for the opportunity to have partnered on this research, building on our commitment to making online safety a key pillar of our Internet Essentials program."

"The internet of things" (Via Pixabay)

Results from the study will be presented today in Washington, DC at the Family Online Safety Institute's Annual Conference, "Creating a Culture of Responsibility Online." 

• This research was made possible by the support of the Comcast Innovation Fund and Comcast's Internet Essentials Program, and conducted by Hart Research Associates. The study reflects quantitative data as well as qualitative data from focus groups of parents and seniors in Pennsylvania. The quantitative findings are based on data from national surveys conducted by telephone among 701 American seniors aged 62 and older, as well as an online parent survey of 673 parents with children aged 2-17. Both surveys included oversamples of African-American, Hispanic, and low-income households.

 SOURCE: Family Online Safety Institute

Regal Welcomes Aquaman Star Patrick Wilson to Knoxville

"Aquaman" - Patrick Wilson as King Orm (PRNewsfoto/Regal)

Regal (a leading motion picture exhibitor operating one of the largest theatre circuits in the United States) will host Aquaman star Patrick Wilson at the movie's exclusive advance screening on Thursday, December 13, benefiting Variety – The Children's Charity of Eastern Tennessee. 

In partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures, Regal is bringing Wilson to the Pinnacle theatre in Knoxville to meet fans and promote the deserving charity.

"We are excited to welcome Patrick Wilson to Knoxville for a benefit screening of this highly anticipated film," said Ken Thewes, CMO at Regal. "As a Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony Award nominee, Wilson is an incredibly talented performer, and we cannot wait for his return to the big screen with Aquaman. We are grateful to our friends at Warner Bros. for making this screening possible and helping raise funds for Variety's special needs children."

Patrick Wilson (Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Variety – the Children's Charity is a multi-million-dollar philanthropic organization that empowers children with special needs to grow, socialize, and express themselves independently. 

With 43 chapters in 13 countries, Variety makes an impact on both local and national levels through medical equipment donations, specialized therapeutic programs and well-placed donations. 

Regal established the local chapter of Variety in 2001 and has since raised over $10 million to aid children in East Tennessee.

Beginning Friday, November 16, a limited number of tickets will be available for sale to the public at the Regal Pinnacle theatre in Knoxville. Advance tickets are $50 through Thursday, December 6 and will increase to $75 on Friday, December 7 with all proceeds benefiting Variety – the Children's Charity. 

⏩ All event guests will enjoy a catered reception in the Pinnacle lobby before Wilson walks the red carpet. After the red carpet reception, attendees will have the opportunity to be some of the first moviegoers to view the movie.

"Aquaman" (Image via aquamanmovie.com)

About Aquaman:

From Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan comes an action-packed adventure that spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas, Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa in the title role and Jason Patrick as Orm/Ocean Master. The film reveals the origin story of half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry and takes him on the journey of his lifetime—one that will not only force him to face who he really is, but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be... a king.

The film also stars Amber Heard, Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, as well as Ludi Lin and Temuera Morrison.

Wan directs from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, story by Geoff Johns & James Wan and Will Beall, based on characters created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger for DC.  

The film is produced by Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns and Walter Hamada serving as executive producers.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Peter Safran Production, a James Wan Film, Aquaman.  The film is set to hit theaters December 21st in 3D and 2D and IMAX, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. 

SOURCE: Regal

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#IfLoveHurts -Video Developed to Mark White Ribbon Day in the Campaign for the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Survivors make domestic abuse film to mark White Ribbon Day - #iflovehurts

Sunday 25th November marks White Ribbon Day - The UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. A short film has been developed to mark the day. 

Director Peter Giblin says: "The film explores the emotional aspect of domestic abuse and how that abuse takes place within a context of love. It takes on average up to eight abuses before a victim will feel able to speak out. Often, victims of domestic abuse love their abusers, as well as fear them. Frequently, victims will not realise they are in an abusive relationship. That's one of the reasons why it's so hard to leave an abusive relationship, and why the message of the film is 'If love hurts, it's not love'."

'If Love Hurts' was written and directed by Peter Giblin, will be screened at the House of Commons on 28th November to an audience of MP's and campaigners. This year, the campaign is focusing on domestic abuse, saying "If love hurts, it's not love". 2017 crime figures from the Crown Prosecution Service revealed that 2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner, and an overwhelming majority of domestic abuse crimes are committed by men.

Anthea Sully, Chief Executive at White Ribbon UK said, "For real change to occur, men must understand the systems in place that give rise to toxic masculinity and male violence towards women. This film powerfully shows the impact of abuse in all its forms in relationships. White Ribbon UK asks men to take responsibility in ending male violence against women by being active bystanders, calling out abuse and sexism among their peers; talking openly about the male cultures that can lead to abuse and why men must take a stand against them."

A 2015 crime survey for England and Wales revealed that 2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner, and an overwhelming majority of domestic abuse crimes are committed by men. (PRNewsfoto/White Ribbon UK)

• To also raise awareness, White Ribbon UK are asking people to wear a white ribbon and pledge never to commit, excuse or remain silent about male violence against women.
• Be part of the conversation: #IfLoveHurts

About White Ribbon UK:

White Ribbon UK is a team made up of a number of domestic abuse survivors, working with men and boys to challenge those male cultures that lead to harassment, abuse and violence.  Their volunteer ambassadors engage with other men and boys to call out such behaviour among their peers and promote a culture of equality and respect. 

The film was self-funded and donated to White Ribbon, made by a diverse team which included domestic abuse survivors. A world-class production team featuring Somesuch, MPC, Trim Editing, and Wave.

Pledge never to commit, excuse or remain silent about male violence against women at whiteribbon.org.uk and find out how individuals can do more to raise awareness in their community.

SOURCE: White Ribbon UK

'If Love Hurts' - The Video:

The Resilience of Barbados Counters Trump's 'Sh*thole' Remarks

Barbados was ground zero for racism and slavery but due to the resilience of the islanders, it is a model country of democracy. (Here a sugar cane harvest post card, circa 1927. W. L. Johnson & Co. Ltd., Barbados. No. 15, CC BY-SA)

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, former attorney and future inmate Michael Cohen revealed some of the uglier things Donald Trump said to him during their many years together.

Among the alleged quotes: “Name one country run by a Black person that’s not a sh*hole.” (One wonders how Trump characterized the United States when Barack Obama was President.)

Rarely stated so bluntly, this racist trope is widespread. As always, Trump gives vulgar expression to quiet prejudice, making him sound “honest” to about 40 per cent of Americans no matter how many lies he tells. As Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted after a similar revelation last year, Trump’s straight-shooting bigotry is one thing his fans love about him.

Those who don’t love him need to fight back with specific examples from the real world. Time and again, we need to highlight the big, complex reality that Trump and many of his supporters call “fake news.” Otherwise, his twisted version of the truth will continue to displace objective reality.

Many think of Rihanna when they hear Barbados. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff)

Take the nation of Barbados, a small island on the eastern end of the Caribbean that I’ve been studying and teaching about for many years. Best known as the birthplace of Mount Gay rum and Rihanna, it’s a remarkable example of what some Black people endured and overcame in the New World.

Ground zero for slavery and racism 
Settled by the English in 1627, Barbados became one of the most brutal and profitable slave regimes in human history. An astonishing 600,000 Africans came in chains to Barbados, about five per cent of all the victims of the Atlantic slave trade. Smaller numbers of Irish and Native American captives were also “Barbadoz’d,” exiled to this early jewel in the British crown.

Few of them survived for long.

The people spent their days under the tropical sun, cutting and dragging eight-foot canes to cattle-drawn sugar mills. There the stalks were crushed between heavy rollers and boiled in huge cauldrons. Many slaves had their hands caught in the rollers; others, exhausted by 24-hour shifts, fell into the cauldrons.

Dental records show that the Black majority nearly starved each winter, when food supplies were scarce. (Sugar monoculture left little room for corn, squash or yams.) Malnutrition led to frequent miscarriages and stillbirths. Babies crawled around in soils full of worms and tetanus, leading to catastrophic death rates for infants.

As early as 1661, well before Black slavery had taken hold in North America, the Barbados assembly passed a code describing all “negroes” as dangerous brutes, liable to the same kinds of discipline —branding, whipping, gelding —as livestock. This code was later adopted by the British colonies in Jamaica and South Carolina, and Barbadian slaves were sold to buyers as far away as Boston.

Shipping sugar, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1909. (Allister Macmillan, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division)

In 1692, the same year a Barbadian slave named Tituba began the Salem witch hysteria, the planters snuffed out an uprising among the slaves. The accused were castrated, burned alive or “hung out to dry” on meat hooks. For more than a century after that, a miserable calm settled over the island.

In short, Barbados was Ground Zero for American slavery and racism, a Caribbean concentration camp in which hundreds of thousands of people of African descent were tortured to make white planters very rich.

Transition to peaceful stability 
No wonder those planters feared violent retribution when the British Empire abolished slavery in the 1830s, just as the “peculiar institution” took off again in the cotton-growing United States.

Instead, Barbados became one of the most peaceful and stable Caribbean islands.

Most “Bajans,” as the islanders are known, valued honest work, humility and forgiveness. Gradually and painfully, they wrested political power away from the old planter elite, forming strong unions during the Great Depression and finally breaking away from British rule in 1967.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaks during the opening plenary of the Global Action Climate Summit on Sept. 13, 2018, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Today, Barbados is a democracy that combines British and Bajan traditions of parliamentary supremacy, the rule of law and social justice. Prime Minister Mia Mottley leads the Barbados Labour Party, which prevailed over the Democratic Labour Party in this spring’s elections. She is the first woman to serve as prime minister.

This is not to deny the nation’s many social problems, especially since the collapse of the sugar industry during the 1980s and because of the lingering effects of the 2008 financial crisis. Rather, it is to recognize Barbados as an example of human endurance and solidarity within a pitiless world.

So watch what you say about “sh*thole countries,” Mr. Trump. At the present hour, tiny Barbados inspires as much hope as the mighty United States.

About Today's Contributor:
J.M. Opal, Associate Professor of History and Chair, History and Classical Studies, McGill University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

The Henry Rios Mysteries Podcast, A New Gay-Themed Podcast Adapting An Acclaimed Series Of Crime Fiction, Is Coming In January 2019

Armando Rey plays Henry Rios in Persigo Press' new podcast

Henry Rios, the gay, Latino lawyer created by Michael Nava in an acclaimed series of mysteries published between 1986 and 2000 is coming to life in a new podcast from Persigo Press. The Henry Rios Mysteries debuts on January 15, 2019.  

Season one adapts the first novel in the series, Lay Your Sleeping Head, into a 17-episode podcast inspired by classic radio theater. Rios is voiced by veteran stage and screen actor, Armando Rey with a supporting cast of actors drawn from San Francisco' s theater scene where the podcast is being produced. 

The podcast features original music by composer, Josh DeRosa, and is written and produced by Nava working with Oakland sound engineer Dave Peck.

The Henry Rios novels were ground-breaking. Garth Greenwell, writing in The New Yorker called Rios "a detective unlike any other previous protagonist in American noir, whose hard-boiled bona fides – world weariness, wit, a penchant for erotic entanglement – are accompanied by hyper-attentiveness to class and a commitment to the poor."  

Compared by reviewers to classic noir writers like Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon, Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times summed up Nava's reputation when she called him simply "one of our best."  

The Rios novels won an unprecedent six Lambda Literary Awards and Nava was honored with the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in LGBT Literature, awarded annually by the Publisher's Triangle, the association of LGBT publishing professionals.

"I'm bringing Rios back because in an age when every kind of bigotry is being empowered from the top, a gay, Latino hero seems more relevant and necessary than ever," Nava said, explaining his decision to revive the series as a podcast. 

He adds, "Podcasting is an entertainment medium, unlike TV and movies, where there are no corporate gatekeepers who decide whose stories are going to be told, thus continuing to marginalize LGBT people and people of color. I also hope to appeal to a new, younger audience while reconnecting with my readers."

Related Video: "Michael Nava reads Henry Rios at the San Francisco Public Library"

⏩ You can subscribe here on Itunes and listen to the trailers for the series.

About Michael Nava:

(Via michaelnavawriter.com)

Michael Nava (Image via michaelnavawriter.com)

Michael Nava is the author of an acclaimed series of seven crime novels featuring gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. The Rios novels won six Lambda Literary awards and Nava was called by the New York Times, “one of our best.” In 2001, he was awarded the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in LGBT literature. A native Californian and the grandson of Mexican immigrants, he divides his time between San Francisco and Palm Springs.

In 2014, he published The City of Palaces an historical novel set in the years just before and at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Novelist Christopher Bram said about The City of Palaces: “City of Palaces begins as the love story of two good people, a Catholic and an atheist, who find each other in the corrupt world of belle epoch Mexico City. It grows into a magnificent epic about family, politics, art, revolution, and hope. This is a masterly work of old-fashioned storytelling, rich and spacious and moving, a novel that deserves to be compared to The Leopard, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Doctor Zhivago, but with its own intimacy and grandeur.”

In 2016, Korima published a revised version of the first Henry Rios novel, re-titled Lay Your Sleeping Head. In 2017, Korima Press published the novella, Street People. Both books were nominated for Lambda Literary Awards.

In 2018, he announced the formation of his own press, Persigo Press, through which he intends to relaunch the Rios series with a new novel, Carved in Bone, tentatively scheduled for spring, 2019. He will also republish the existing Rios novels. Additionally, as part of the relaunch, he is producing a podcast that adapts Lay Your Sleeping Head into a 17-episode series inspired by classic radio theater.

Nava has also had a distinguished legal career, having earned his law degree from Stanford University. He retired from the law in July 2016. He can reached though his Facebook page, “Michael Nava, Writer”

SOURCE: Persigo Press