The Present

A draft recommendation released Tuesday by a health task force emphasizes testing for high-risk HPV as a primary screening approach for women ages 30 to 65. MoMo Productions/Digital Vision/Getty Images CNN  —  T esting for high-risk human papillomaviruses every five years – even with a self-collected sample – is the “preferred screening strategy” for cervical cancer starting at age 30, according to a new draft recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force. Traditionally, many women have been screened for cervical cancer with cervical cytology – also known as Pap tests or Pap smears – in which cells from the cervix are collected and checked for signs of cancer. But the draft USPSTF recommendation, released Tuesday, emphasizes testing for high-risk human papillomaviruses, or HPV, as a primary screening approach for women ages 30 to 65, as most cervical cancers are caused by the virus. The HPV test involves collecting a vaginal sample and checking cells for infection with the high-risk types of HPV that can cause cervical cancer. “We are highlighting that HPV screening, as the primary screening for women ages 30 to 65, is the best balance between the benefits and the harms in finding cervical cancer, and that should be offered first and when available,” said task force member Dr. Esa Davis , professor and senior associate dean for population health and community medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. And for the first time, the draft recommendation statement includes the option for women to self-collect their own vaginal samples for HPV testing. “Now we have an additional screening test that may be more appealing to those who otherwise would not come in for screening, and that’s with self-collection,” Davis said. When HPV testing is not available, then it is recommended to perform a Pap test for screening, or co-test with both HPV testing and cervical cytology. HPV testing “has the best balance of benefits and harms, but the other two are effective screening options as well, and so therefore they’ll still be a choice for clinicians and for patients,” Davis said. This update in the draft recommendation is not because a Pap test is harmful, but because an HPV test is more effective as a cervical cancer screening tool for ages 30 to 65, according to the task force. The draft recommendation continues to recommend screening with cervical cytology alone every three years for women in their 20s. The draft recommendation is not final, but will be available on the task force’s website for public comment through January 13, along with a draft evidence review, according to USPSTF , a group of independent medical experts whose recommendations help guide doctors’ decisions and influence insurance plans. The American Cancer Society also recommends HPV testing as part of a cervical cancer screening plan, and on its website, the organization states that a primary HPV test is better at preventing cervical cancers than a Pap test that is performed alone. “We look forward to reviewing these important guideline recommendations for cervical cancer screening and providing feedback to the USPSTF,” Dr. Robert Smith, senior vice president, early cancer detection science at the American Cancer Society, said in a statement. “Screening guidelines are critically important to women as cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable types of cancer, and it is essential that women get screened regularly.” ‘Early detection is really important’ It’s estimated that about 80% of people will get an HPV infection in their lifetime. HPV, a group of more than 150 viruses , is spread primarily through sexual contact and includes low-risk strains, which most often cause warts, and high-risk strains, which have been associated with an increased risk of certain cancers, such as cervical, anal, penile and oropharyngeal cancers. If a woman is found to have high-risk HPV, it does not necessarily mean she has cancer. In most cases, HPV clears on its own within two years, but when the infection does not go away , health problems like cancer may occur – which is why detecting these infections early can be helpful so that it can be monitored. When finalized, the draft recommendation will update the USPSTF’s latest cervical cancer screening recommendation , which was issued in 2018. That year, the task force recommended to screen for the disease every three years with cervical cytology alone in women ages 21 to 29. For women ages 30 to 65, it recommended three options: continue screening every three years with cervical cytology alone; every five years with high-risk human papillomavirus testing alone; or every five years with high-risk HPV testing in combination with cytology. The task force recommended against screening for cervical cancer in women younger than 21, and in women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screenings and are not otherwise at high risk for cervical cancer – and the new draft recommendation statement continues that guidance. Overall, “it is really, really important to get screened if you’re in that age range of 21 to 65 regularly, because cervical cancer is very preventable and treatable, and early detection is really important,” Davis said, adding that the introduction of self-collection HPV tests in the new draft recommendation may help to expand access to screening. Self-collection for HPV testing In May, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the approvals of two HPV tests to allow for self-collected vaginal samples to be used with those tests when a patient either cannot or prefers not to have the sample collected by a health care professional. With this greenlight from the FDA, patients now have the option to collect their own vaginal samples for screening if the self-collection occurs in a health care setting, such as at their doctor’s office, an urgent care or even a mobile clinic. The approach is similar to how patients may self-collect a urine sample when they visit their doctor. “This self-collection option does provide more access to women who just may feel more comfortable doing those self-collections and thus, expands the opportunity to screen more women who may not have come in for screening otherwise,” Davis said. “For women who were not coming in before because they felt uncomfortable, here’s an option now that hopefully will appeal to that group and get them in for screening, because cervical cancer is preventable if detected early,” she said. “We wouldn’t want any barriers for women who are eligible to be screened.” Source: CNN

The enrollment preparation material distributed by the Kyushu Institute of Technology's cooperative association bears the phrase "Congratulations on your acceptance" in Japanese, as seen in this photo provided by an applicant's parent. FUKUOKA -- The Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech)'s cooperative association sent entrance preparation materials with a congratulatory message to applicants including those who weren't accepted, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned through interviews with an applicant's parent and the group. The co-op had sent the materials to applicants just before the university in the city of Kitakyushu announced admission results. A parent of an applicant who received the materials but was not accepted said angrily, "It offends the test-takers' feelings and is unacceptable. This is appalling as applicants have spent their entire high school life studying for the entrance exam." According to the parent in Fukuoka Prefecture, the enrollment preparation materials arrived on Dec. 5, a day before Kyutech announced the results of the recommendation-based admission for the School of Engineering. The documents included phrases such as, "To all successful applicants," and, "Congratulations on your acceptance." The parent rejoiced but was advised by their relative to wait for the official announcement, so they did not tell their child about the documents. On Dec. 6, they learned that they had been rejected. According to the co-op, it has been sending materials to exam-takers who requested them prior to the announcement of acceptance so that they can prepare for their enrollment early, but this time it neglected to correct the wording. It sent the materials to approximately 230 applicants, and it is believed that they include many who were rejected. A co-op representative told the Mainichi Shimbun, "It's an unacceptable mistake caused by our failure to check. Some people were disappointed, and we apologize for that. We want to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future." The university was originally founded as a private institution called the Meiji College of Technology in 1909, and the management was later transferred to the government. It became the Kyushu Institute of Technology in 1949. (Japanese original by Masanori Hirakawa and Mayuka Ikeda, Kyushu News Department) Source: The Mainichi

Part-time lecturers at J. F. Oberlin University go on strike in front of the university campus in the suburban Tokyo city of Machida on Dec. 9, 2024. (Mainichi/Nanako Hori) TOKYO -- Three part-time lecturers at J. F. Oberlin University in the suburban Tokyo city of Machida staged a walkout and cut their classes short on Dec. 9 after their demand for a base salary increase was not met. According to an education institution workers' union supporting the strike, it is unusual for university staff to walk off the job to demand base wage increase. The part-time lecturers who initiated the strike belong to the union's "Obirin branch." There hasn't been any base salary increase for part-time teachers at the university since 2006, according to the Obirin branch. The organization added that, although class hours were extended from 90 to 100 minutes starting in the 2019 academic year, part-time teachers were only paid for the extra time in that academic year, resulting in a de facto wage cut ever since. The part-time lecturers demanded a 15% base pay increase, but decided to go on strike after not receiving a satisfactory response from the university. The three part-time teachers cut each of their classes short by 15 minutes. They held up banners near the university campus reading "Strike in Progress." Kazumi Tsuchida, a representative of the union's Obirin branch, said, "The university had a surplus of 400 million yen (about $2.64 million) in its current account balance for the 2023 academic year. It is unjust (for the university) to refuse to raise wages claiming it would have to raise tuition fees among other reasons." (Japanese original by Nanako Hori, Lifestyle, Science & Environment News Department) Source: The Mainichi

UK’s AI research body’s ‘ability to be a serious scientific organisation’ is in danger, 90 staff tell trustees The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence and data science, is based at the British Library in London. Photograph: Eye Ubiquitous/Alamy Staff at the UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence have warned that its credibility is in “serious jeopardy” and raised doubts over the organisation’s future amid senior departures and a cost-cutting programme. More than 90 staff at the government-backed Alan Turing Institute have written to its board of trustees expressing concerns about its leadership. The letter warns that a redundancy programme, which could affect about 140 of ATI’s 440 staff , has put the institute’s credibility at risk. “With programmes and their teams all slated ‘at risk’ of redundancy, the future of the Turing’s ability to be a serious scientific organisation is now in serious jeopardy,” the letter reads. The staff members warned that ATI was being left behind as the technology, epitomised by the ChatGPT chatbot, developed rapidly. “Both the community and cutting-edge has moved ahead without us, whilst we are publicly and privately criticised for being behind the curve,” the letter adds. The letter also claims that recent employee departures have damaged ATI’s ability to “deliver against existing contractual commitments”, without naming partnerships that might be at risk. Claiming that “numerous” grant awards have fallen through recently due to concerns about ATI’s performance, it adds: “If these failures continue, the institute’s financial viability and ability to secure future funding will be severely compromised.” ATI confirmed to the Guardian that two out of four recently appointed directors of science and innovation have left the institute since their appointment in February. The letter asks the board of trustees, which is chaired by Douglas Gurr, the director of the Natural History Museum, to intervene and hold ATI’s leadership “accountable” for failing to properly implement a newly established strategy for the institute. It adds that if the board does not act, the institute “risks a very serious and public failure”. The institute, named after the British mathematician widely considered the father of modern computing, was founded in 2015 as a national institute for data science before adding AI to its remit in 2017. Its goals include to “advance world-class research and apply it to national and global challenges”, as well as driving an “informed public conversation” on AI, a subject that has climbed up the political agenda following recent breakthroughs including ChatGPT. Its five founding universities were Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, UCL and Warwick. A spokesperson for ATI, which is a registered charity and governed by a board of trustees, said the institute had recently secured £100m from the government in a five-year funding deal and said the board was “actively supporting the leadership team” as it implemented a new strategy. The strategy, dubbed “Turing 2.0”, focuses on three key areas: health, the environment, and defence and security. The spokesperson added that the institute’s work was having a “real-world impact” including developing methodology for assessing the human rights risk associated with AI and working with the Met Office to improve weather forecasting. Jean Innes, ATI’s chief executive, said: “We are shaping a new phase for the Turing in line with an ambitious strategy set by our board and endorsed by our core funder. This will see us collaborating with partners across the ecosystem to use data science and AI to deliver real-world impact on issues like climate and environmental change, improving health and protecting people from defence and security threats.” Source: CNN

The harm to babies and mothers is one of the warnings being sent to Cop29 decision-makers by leading scientists Potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic currents and urban infrastructure were dangers also cited. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP Miscarriages, premature babies and harm to mothers caused by the climate crisis are a “blind spot” in action plans, according to a report aimed at the decision-makers who will attend the Cop29 summit in November. Potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest , vital Atlantic Ocean currents and essential infrastructure in cities are also among the dangers cited by an international group of 80 leading scientists from 45 countries. The report collects the latest insights from physical and social science to inform the negotiations at the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan. “The world faces planetary-scale challenges, from the rise of methane emissions to the vulnerability of critical infrastructure,” said Prof Johan Rockström, a co-chair of Earth League , one of the groups behind the report. “The report shows that rising heat, ocean instability and a tipping of the Amazon rainforest could push parts of our planet beyond habitable limits. Yet it also provides clear pathways and solutions, demonstrating that with urgent, decisive action, we still can avoid unmanageable outcomes.” The report follows an ultimatum from the UN secretary general , António Guterres, on the climate emergency: “We’re playing with fire, but there can be no more playing for time. We’re out of time.” He said global heating was supercharging monster hurricanes, bringing biblical floods and turning forests into tinderboxes, and said governments had to rapidly wean the world off its fossil fuel addiction. Increasing climate extremes are causing more lost babies, premature births and cognitive damage to newborns, the report said. For example, a study in India found a doubled risk of miscarriage in pregnant women suffering heat stress, while another in California found a significant association between long-term heat exposure and stillbirth and premature birth. Flooding is responsible for more than 100,000 lost pregnancies a year in 33 countries in South and Central America, Asia, and Africa, according to another study, with the danger highest for women with lower income and education levels. Rising heat also increases the intimate partner violence suffered by women, a south Asian analysis found. However, only 27 out of 119 national climate plans submitted to the UN include action related to mothers and newborns, making this a major “blind spot”, the report said. “Global temperature records continue to break, exacerbating threats to maternal health,” said Prof Jemilah Mahmood at the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia. She said the breakdown of healthcare services, sanitation and food supplies during extreme weather compounded the problems for pregnant women. “Preparedness for heat extremes, including early warning systems, must be a priority,” she said. “Without action, the consequences could be catastrophic.” The report cites recent analysis that found global heating would drive billions of people out of the “climate niche ” of habitable temperatures in which humanity has flourished for millennia. Fossil fuel emissions are still rising, heating the land and oceans to record highs in the last year, the report said. This heating appears to be making El Niño events more intense, it said, with the impacts potentially causing damage of $100tn by the end of the century. Recent research on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation has documented its slowdown and suggested the system of ocean currents could collapse much sooner than previously estimated. “Such an event would have truly catastrophic consequences for our societies,” the report said. Similarly, the report said, the resilience of the Amazon rainforest was being eroded, increasing the risk of large-scale collapse, when it would flip from being a sink for climate-heating carbon emissions to a source. Cop29 must bring progress on Brazil’s proposed $250bn-a-year Tropical Forests Forever fund, as well as increased law enforcement against illegal loggers and miners and support for Indigenous peoples, the report said. The report also cites rapidly rising levels of methane , a potent greenhouse gas, as an urgent issue for Cop29. It said cost-effective solutions existed to stop the leaks from fossil fuel exploitation , but enforceable policy was largely missing. Today’s infrastructure, including transport, energy and water supplies, healthcare, communications and waste collection, were all built for a climate that no longer exists, it said. Significant funding is needed to prepare this infrastructure for worsening extreme weather, particularly in the global south, and joined-up planning is required. The report also said artificial intelligence could help deliver more robust, more efficient and better-adapted solutions. The key goal of the Cop29 summit is to agree a new target for the finance available to countries to cut emissions and to deal with the ever-growing damage caused by global heating, with many nations calling for a goal of $1tn a year. The fast-growing demand for the energy transition metals essential for clean energy technology is highlighted in the report. Mining and supply of the metals, such as copper, lithium, cobalt and rare earths, needs better governance to protect people and the environment, it said. The final factor emphasised by the researchers is fairness in climate policies. The rich produce far greater emissions than the poor, and policies that seem unfair often meet with resistance and fail, the report said, such as the fuel tax rises that prompted the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests in France in 2018. “Ignoring citizens’ readiness and needs when designing and implementing climate policies will ultimately lead to many missed opportunities,” said Prof Joyashree Roy of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. Source: The Guardian

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters speaks during a special state Board of Education meeting in April 2023 in Oklahoma City. Sue Ogrocki/AP/File OKLAHOMA CITYAP  —  A group of Oklahoma parents of public school students, teachers and ministers filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state’s top education official from forcing schools to  incorporate the Bible  into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12. The lawsuit filed Thursday with the Oklahoma Supreme Court also asks the court to stop Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters from  spending $3 million to purchase Bibles  in support of his mandate. The suit alleges the mandate violates the Oklahoma Constitution because it involves spending public money to support religion and favors one religion over another by requiring the use of a Protestant version of the Bible. It also alleges Walters and the state Board of Education don’t have the authority to require the use of instructional materials. “As parents, my husband and I have sole responsibility to decide how and when our children learn about the Bible and religious teachings,” plaintiff Erika Wright, the founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition and parent of two school-aged children, said in a statement. “It is not the role of any politician or public school official to intervene in these personal matters.” The plaintiffs are represented by several civil rights groups, including the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice. It is the second lawsuit filed in Oklahoma seeking to challenge Walters’ mandate.  Another lawsuit  filed in June by a Locust Grove man currently is pending in Mayes County. Walters said in a statement posted to his account on X that he will “never back down to the woke mob.” “The simple fact is that understanding how the Bible has impacted our nation, in its proper historical context, was the norm in America until the 1960s and its removal has coincided with a precipitous decline in American schools,” Walters wrote. Walters, a former public school teacher elected in 2022, ran on  a platform of fighting “woke ideology,”  banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists,” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms. Source: CNN

Policemen stand guard outside a closed college amid ongoing protests over an alleged rape of a woman student.PHOTO : AF P LAHORE - Authorities shut schools, colleges and universities in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Oct 18, following the most violent student protests in the country in recent years over the alleged rape of a student on campus, officials said. The protests have spread since Oct 14, with participants alleging that a female student was raped by a security guard on the campus of a private college chain in the city of Lahore. Hundreds of protesting students demanded action by the government, but officials say they have not yet found any evidence of such an incident, with some blaming social media for spreading fake news. LAHORE - Authorities shut schools, colleges and universities in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Oct 18, following the most violent student protests in the country in recent years over the alleged rape of a student on campus, officials said. The protests have spread since Oct 14, with participants alleging that a female student was raped by a security guard on the campus of a private college chain in the city of Lahore. Hundreds of protesting students demanded action by the government, but officials say they have not yet found any evidence of such an incident, with some blaming social media for spreading fake news. Dozens of students, police and college employees have been injured since Oct 14 as protesters clashed with law enforcement as they rampaged through several of the campuses in the chain, police said, adding hundreds of students had been arrested. All educational institutions will remain closed on Oct 18, an order issued by the Punjab government and seen by Reuters, said. No official reason was given. "We have investigated it thoroughly - no such incident happened," Lahore police chief Bilal Saddique Kamyana told a news conference on Oct 17, adding that no complainant had come forward on the matter. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, in a press conference, said the incident was fake news being spread by the party of political rival Imran Khan, who has been in jail since 2023. Ms Nawaz, the daughter of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said a number of social media accounts, including ones affiliated with Khan's party, had shared "doctored images" of the alleged victim and some video bloggers had also spread false information. Mr Shaukat Basra, the provincial secretary for information at Khan's party, accused Ms Nawaz of trying to conceal the crime. "If it was fake news and the PTI (Khan's party) brought students to roads, why did it close all educational institutions in Punjab," he told Reuters. While some students said the victim was admitted to a hospital, police say the girl being identified had been there days before the alleged incident having fallen down a flight of stairs. In a bid to quell rumours, police released a video alongside a man wearing a surgical mask identifying himself as the father of the girl, saying she was wrongly being named as the rape victim. The students have nevertheless continued their protests, saying authorities were trying to hush up the case due to the involvement of powerful people. A petitioner sought the intervention of the courts on Oct 18, and Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Ms Aalia Neelum, ordered an independent panel to be set up, headed by the chief of the Federal Investigation Agency, government prosecutor Khalil Ishaq said. Mr Agha Tahir, director-general of the college chain where the incident allegedly happened, which has nearly 600,000 students enrolled, said they had submitted all official records and closed-circuit camera footage to help the police investigation. REUTERS Source: The Straits Times

Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future According to data from Les Entreprises du Voyage, the scheme has led to a 30% increase in school trips to the UK from France since its introduction last year. Photograph: PjrTravel/Alamy A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK. New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak. The pair struck a deal to allow French pupils to travel to Britain using national identity cards, and for their non-EU classmates to enter without the need for a visa, in an attempt to address a decline in visits after Brexit . However, the Financial Times reported that the scheme was at risk because of the UK’s new electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme, which is due to come into force on 2 April 2025 and will require all EU visitors to register before travelling to the UK, a process that requires children to have a passport. The FT cited a letter written by Valérie Boned, the president of Les Entreprises du Voyage, the main trade body for travel agencies in France , to the UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, on 8 October asking whether the programme for French school groups would be retained. The group said it had not received a reply from the Home Office. The Home Office declined to comment. Boned wrote in her letter, seen by the FT: “The sooner we manage to clear the situation, the less impact it will have on the number of school trips for 2025,.” According to data from Les Entreprises du Voyage, the scheme has led to a 30% increase in school trips to the UK from France, which it said had been 60% below 2019 levels when the scheme was introduced. The FT also cited French government officials who had “expressed concern” to the UK government over how the ETA programme would affect the school trips scheme. The Labour government has committed to “resetting” relations with the EU. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, is under pressure from Brussels for the reset to include opening discussions on a youth mobility scheme that would allow young people from the EU to live and work in the UK for a fixed period, and vice versa. However, Starmer has repeatedly ruled out such a measure, despite the UK having similar arrangements with more geographically distant partners such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Source: The Guardian

Firm names Russia as top source of such activity but says it is ‘striking’ how little AI was used to try to trick voters Nick Clegg said the relatively low-impact of fakery using generative AI to manipulate video, voices and photos was ‘very, very likely to change’. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images Meta has intervened to take down about 20 covert influence operations around the world this year, it has emerged – though the tech firm said fears of AI-fuelled fakery warping elections had not materialised in 2024. Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at the company that runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said Russia was still the No 1 source of the adversarial online activity but said in a briefing it was “striking” how little AI was used to try to trick voters in the busiest ever year for elections around the world. The former British deputy prime minister revealed that Meta, which has more than 3 billion users, had to take down just over 500,000 requests to generate images on its own AI tools of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, JD Vance and Joe Biden in the month leading up to US election day. But the firm’s security experts had to tackle a new operation using fake accounts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal at the rate of more than one every three weeks. The “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” incidents included a Russian network using dozens of Facebook accounts and fictitious news websites to target people in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Another was a Russia-based operation that employed AI to create fake news websites using brands such as Fox News and the Telegraph to try to weaken western support for Ukraine, and used Francophone fake news sites to promote Russia’s role in Africa and to criticise that of France. “Russia remains the No 1 source of the covert influence operations we’ve disrupted to date – with 39 networks disrupted in total since 2017,” he said. The next most frequent sources of foreign interference detected by Meta are Iran and China. Giving an evaluation of the effect of AI fakery after a wave of polls in 50 countries including the US, India, Taiwan, France, Germany and the UK, he said: “There were all sorts of warnings about the potential risks of things like widespread deepfakes and AI enabled disinformation campaigns. That’s not what we’ve seen from what we’ve monitored across our services. It seems these risks did not materialise in a significant way, and that any such impact was modest and limited in scope.” But Clegg warned against complacency and said the relatively low-impact of fakery using generative AI to manipulate video, voices and photos was “very, very likely to change”. “Clearly these tools are going to become more and more prevalent and we’re going to see more and more synthetic and hybrid content online,” he said. Meta’s assessment follows conclusions last month from the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security that “deceptive AI-generated content did shape US election discourse by amplifying other forms of disinformation and inflaming political debates”. It said there was a lack of evidence about its impact on Donald Trump’s election win. It concluded that AI-enabled threats did begin to damage the health of democratic systems in 2024 and warned “complacency must not creep [in]” before the 2025 elections in Australia and Canada. Sam Stockwell, research associate at the Alan Turing Institute, said AI tools may have shaped election discourses and amplified harmful narratives in subtle ways, particularly in the recent US election. “This included misleading claims that Kamala Harris’s rally was AI-generated, and baseless rumours that Haitian immigrants were eating pets going viral with the assistance of xenophobic AI-generated memes,” he said. Source: The Guardian

Report by committee of experts also calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups The report urges the government to name mobile phone addiction as a public health concern. Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images Smartphones sold in Spain should carry a label warning users about their potential health impacts, experts have told the Spanish government, in a report that calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups. As Spain pushes forward with a draft law to limit children’s exposure to technology, the 50-member committee of experts has also called for minors to have limited exposure to digital devices until they are 13 to mitigate what they see as a public health problem. The experts’ nearly 250-page report, seen by the newspaper El País, recommends that children under the age of three do not have any exposure to digital devices, while children up to six years old should be allowed to access them only on an exceptional basis. For children between six and 12, the use of so-called “dumb phones” – which do not have access to the internet and which are limited to calls – should be prioritised, as should offline activities such as sports. The report called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, informing consumers of the health risks that some have linked to social media and digital devices, as well as the possible impacts that access to inappropriate content could have on the development of children. Similar warnings should pop up on screens when certain apps or platforms are accessed, detailing the claims of health risks and the maximum recommended usage time, the report recommended. It urged the government to name mobile phone addiction as a public health concern, a designation that would facilitate the development of preventive measures and early detection systems. Questions about screen time and problematic behaviours should be incorporated into health consultations for all age groups, while “screening for depression, anxiety and use of technology” should be carried out regularly during medical checkups for adolescents. The committee was assembled earlier this year in response to what Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described as an “authentic epidemic” of online pornography consumption among children. “The numbers are both very telling and very troubling,” Sánchez said in January. “One in four young people under the age of 12 – and nearly half of those under 15 – has had access, or currently has access, to pornography.” In the end, though, the report took a wider view of the problem, looking not only at children’s access to pornography but their use of digital devices full stop. Their intervention comes amid a growing global debate over children’s exposure to technology, one that has led schools around the world to crack down on the use of mobiles in classrooms. In France, a government-commissioned study said in April that children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok and Instagram until they are 18. In Spain, where statistics suggest that a quarter of children have mobile phones by the age of 10 and nearly half of them by 11, the socialist-led coalition government in June set out draft legislation to protect minors, proposing that parental controls be installed by default on smartphones and that a national education campaign be rolled out to help children and teenagers navigate social media. The draft bill also set out new data requirements that would, if enforced, raise the minimum age for opening a social media account from 14 to 16, while teachers and healthcare staff would be trained to spot children who are struggling with potential smartphone addictions. The draft legislation, which is in the public consultation phase, is expected to be further refined by the report, which was compiled with input from organisations such as the European Association for Digital Transition as well as paediatricians and psychiatrists. The report also hinted at the role of the wider environment in curtailing children’s exposure, calling for training programmes aimed at families, where experts could answer questions on how children can go online safely and how to limit access and exposure, as well as urging schools to remove any educational applications based on immediate gratification. Source: The Guardian