CYBERPSYCHOLOGY SECTION
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
TUESDAY 6 - WEDNESDAY 7 JULY 2021, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor Tom BuchananUniversity of Westminster
University of Westminster
Professor Tom Buchanan is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Westminster. Much of his work has centred on how people behave while they are online, as well as considering what the internet has to offer for psychologists in research and teaching contexts.
Some of Professor Buchanan’s research has been methodological in nature, for example focusing on web-based psychological measurement, validity of online research techniques, and ethics of online data collection. Other work has focused on the application of these techniques to topics including online self-disclosure and self-presentation, personality and cognitive assessment, and online fraud and deception.
Professor Buchanan’s focus is generally on how people present themselves in various online spaces, factors affecting how they engage with online technologies, and potential influences of online stimuli on our behaviour. Most of his current work deals with factors influencing interactions with false material online.
Title: Tales from the Disinformation Superhighway
Quarter of a century ago, the future looked bright for the 'Information Superhighway' that was going to transform the world. Of course, it did. But even back then there were concerns that the internet could become a theatre for mass deception and manipulation: a disInformation Superhighway. They were well founded. Now, false information is widely spread through social media: sometimes for political advantage, sometimes for financial gain, sometimes as part of information operations conducted by adversarial states and other entities.
The intended effects of online disinformation include political influence, increasing group polarisation, reducing trust, and generally undermining civil society. Its actual impacts are becoming widely recognised. Recent salient – and deadly - examples include the 2021 riot at the US Capitol, and the spread of false coronavirus-related material that has serious implications for public health.
Much of the spread of disinformation can be attributed to the actions of individual social media users. Ordinary people may propagate the material to their own social networks through deliberate sharing. Other interactions with it, such as ‘liking’, also trigger the algorithms of social media platforms to display it to other users. This can lead to false information spreading exponentially. So who interacts with false material? Why? And what can be done about it?
This talk presents data from a series of studies examining individual and contextual predictors of the likelihood of ordinary people acting as vectors for disinformation. Methodological issues, future research priorities, and practical implications will also be discussed.
The London School of Economics and Political Science
Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Taking a comparative, critical and contextualised approach, her research examines how changing conditions of mediation reshape everyday practices and possibilities for action. She has published 20 books on media audiences, children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (OUP 2020). Since founding the EC-funded 33 country “EU Kids Online” research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti), she has advised the Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF. She chaired LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission and is currently leading the Digital Futures Commission with the 5Rights Foundation. See www.sonialivingstone.net
She runs a blog called www.parenting.digital and contributes to the LSE’s Media Policy Project blog. You can follow Professor Livingstone on Twitter:
@Livingstone_S.
Title: From evidence of risk to advocacy of rights: learning from children’s experiences in a digital world
General Comment 25 on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment was formally adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was launched in February 2021. For the child rights organisations hitherto uncertain exactly how rights offline can equally be realised online, the General Comment provides the vision and argumentation for their advocacy. For digital policymakers uncertain where children fit into ongoing debates over internet governance, AI ethics, data protection or freedom of expression, it provides the soft law authority and explanation needed. For the wider public keen to see children thrive in a digital world, it provides the road map for change. And for 1000+ children consulted around the world, and the one in three internet users under 18 for whom they spoke, General Comment 25 considered their views on a matter that they care about and that affects them greatly – the digital world. As the lead drafter for this document, I will critically reflect on its basis in empirical research and theoretical debate from the fields of psychology and other social sciences.
Cyber 2021
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