Several polls in the past couple of years (including from Ipsos, YouGov and most recently Savanta on behalf of Kings College Policy Institute and the BBC) have been examining the kinds of conspiratorial beliefs people have. The findings have led to a lot of concern and discussion. There are several revealing aspects of these polls. As a researcher, I’m mainly interested […] … learn more→

“Living”, “evolving” and “dead”: we often talk about languages as if they were living organisms. The reason for this use of a metaphor to talk about language lies in the deep complexity of language as a concept. But treating language in this way can have drawbacks: it can lead us to misunderstand the relationship between […] … learn more→

Between March 2020 and June 2022, families in Toronto experienced some of the longest lockdowns in the world. Ontario schools closed for in-person learning for over 27 weeks, longer than any other province or territory, and government restrictions on public spaces lasted for months. Parents were left to figure out how to manage work, child care and virtual school. […] … learn more→

Whether you are passionate about animals or want to make an impact, you can advocate for animal welfare in your community in several ways. One of the best ways is to become a volunteer for a local shelter or anti-cruelty group. It will allow you to meet the animals and learn how they feel. Report […] … learn more→

Each day, messages from Nigerian princes, peddlers of wonder drugs and promoters of can’t-miss investments choke email inboxes. Improvements to spam filters only seem to inspire new techniques to break through the protections. Now, the arms race between spam blockers and spam senders is about to escalate with the emergence of a new weapon: generative […] … learn more→

Some acts are only considered criminal if they are committed by someone aged under 18. This doesn’t just include things such as drinking alcohol. In some US states, for example, it is illegal for children to run away from home or even to repeatedly disobey parental authority. This behaviour is called incorrigibility. If a child is decided to […] … learn more→

Ernst Kuipers, the Dutch health minister, recently announced that regulations were being modified to allow doctors to actively end the lives of children aged one to 12 years who were terminally ill and suffering unbearably. Previously, assisted dying was an option in the Netherlands in rare cases in younger children (under one year) and in some older […] … learn more→

As public concern about the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence keeps growing, it might seem like it’s time to slow down. But inside tech companies themselves, the sentiment is quite the opposite. As Big Tech’s AI race heats up, it would be an “absolutely fatal error in this moment to worry about things […] … learn more→

Research from the Children’s Commissioner for England has found that 79% of children have encountered violent pornography before they are 18. One-third of young people have reported receiving nude videos or photographs, with more than half sent from strangers. There has also been a dramatic rise of hyper-masculine social media influencers, causing alarm among teachers and teaching unions. These […] … learn more→

Our personal data circulates on the Internet: name, addresses, bank or social security details, real-time location… and related cases are making a permanent place in public debate, from the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal to data theft to the Red Cross , to the recent blockages of hospitals by ransomware (or ransomware ) and the banning of the TikTok application for civil servants in several countries . […] … learn more→