Alex Holmes on Building a Better Online Experience: A Safer Internet Day Video with Highlights & Insights
All Tech Is Human was privileged to host a special Safer Internet Day livestream featuring Diana Award Deputy CEO and Trust & Safety Advisor Alex Holmes in conversation with All Tech Is Human Head of Trust and Safety & Global Policy Matt Soeth on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. We’ve highlighted key highlights and insights from the discussion below.
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What are trends/best practices for creating healthy digital spaces?
Include user voices in design and decision stages
The friction between growth vs. safety: “There’s a friction between growth versus safety. I've seen that play out on a couple of the advisory boards. But what you do get by actively including some of those user groups is a real different perspective.”
Language and outlook matter: “We may be thinking as a myself as a safety expert, I might be thinking more about typical wellbeing, but a creator will say to me, what about financial wellbeing?”
Multistakeholder perspectives elevate platform success: “I think actively including those voices is crucial and I've been impressed with a real strive to mix creators provide that balance.”
Platform vs. User Responsibility
People will benefit from increased education about the platforms they use: "“Instead of policymakers saying we must do more, we also have to ask humans to do more. One of the ways I'd like to see companies go a bit further is equip users with those tools to actively upskill yourself or level up in understanding the platform you're using.”
Platforms have a responsibility to provide awareness and safety information in transparency reports: “I'd like to see the point where awareness or safety information is something companies put in their transparency reports they report on. It would be really good to understand platforms [if they say] this is what we did, this is how it was used, or how often it's used. That sort of information would be really valuable, but transparency isn't necessarily there around accountability.”
How do you respond to drama? How do you manage it in your life?
Young people are excited about the internet. I do think media and some politicians have played a part in that because it's far easier to blame technology or to have an ulterior motive because it's eating into your advertising revenue or you wish that it was regulated in the same way that you were. That's built up this fear-based perception a lot of the time. So, yeah, you're right. It's important to remember there is real harm online, but there's also a lot of harmful experiences offline. The majority of young people would say, and actually that was a stat from the UK Safe Internet Centre, I think 70 percent said they're excited about the internet and they're more excited than ever. There's still a lot of good faith out there and a lot of positive experiences happening, particularly for children and young people.
How have you advised lawmakers and educators about where youth is?
Youth voices need to be included in conversations. Language matters. I think we'll always try to make sure that if we're meeting with a decision maker or a policy leader that we bring young people with us so they can speak their truth and lived experience. I think language is also important. I'm even conscious of not using the words cyberbullying because [young people] pointed out that cyber doesn't mean much to them.
How should governments approach regulation?
Governments should promote consistency and collaboration. “I would like consistency and coordination. It's great that some countries or regions put [a policy] in place, but it's going to leave behind others that aren't thinking when some countries introduced laws and regulation in the past or maybe around hate speech. You did see a big shift in moderation resource and time and energy from the companies to one region where that means others miss out. I’m really impressed with the industry coordination around things like child sexual abuse imagery or terrorism. You see a lot of fantastic coordination, but some of the other harms or even the regulation space there isn't quite that coordination.”
Quotes have been edited for readability.
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