Alex Beattie
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drlxbt.bsky.social
Alex Beattie
@drlxbt.bsky.social
Media academic 📱 📚 | Dad👨‍👧| Gardener 🍀🌸🌴 | Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka
This isn’t just about tech policy — it’s about cultural power, moral authority, and the future of digital freedom.
Read the full piece here:
🔗 theconversation.com/as-social-me...
@youthrights.bsky.social @digitalfreedom.bsky.social #digitalculture #ADHD @digitalchildau.bsky.social
As social media age restrictions spread, is the internet entering its Victorian era?
Social media bans suggest a resurgence of conservative values in our digital lives. But at what cost to young people’s autonomy, creativity and expression?
theconversation.com
October 16, 2025 at 11:12 PM
We need to ask:
Who gets to decide what “safe” digital life looks like?
Whose values are being protected?
And what kinds of youth expression are being silenced in the name of care?
October 16, 2025 at 11:12 PM
But banning platforms doesn’t eliminate risk. It may push youth toward less regulated, more opaque corners of the internet — where surveillance is lower, but harm can be higher.
October 16, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Like Victorian-era reforms, today’s restrictions are driven by a desire to restore order, discipline, and innocence — especially around how young people communicate, express emotion, and form relationships online.
October 16, 2025 at 11:12 PM
These policies often frame youth screen time as a threat to mental health, attention, and social development. But beneath the surface is a deeper anxiety: that digital life is eroding traditional values and norms.
October 16, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Did AI help co-write your grant application? Do you use CoPilot to brainstorm ideas? Or Chat GPT to edit your writing? How about Otter to automate transcriptions? And how else are we automating aspects of qualitative research? Come tell us and contribute to this special issue!!
January 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
She’s threatened by your research. A badge of honour?
December 10, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Thanks Dan (and good to see you at AANCZ) - it shouldn’t be a surprise but it still is unsettling😔
December 4, 2024 at 4:02 AM
@binarythis.bsky.social have you ever considered this? Still remember my tarot reading at AOIR2019!!
December 2, 2024 at 8:43 PM