tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/moral-panic-6797/articlesMoral panic – The Conversation2023-05-16T20:09:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2056482023-05-16T20:09:47Z2023-05-16T20:09:47ZCalling drag queens ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community<p>Drag queens around the world are currently being accused of “grooming children” through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Queen_Story_Hour">drag storytime events</a>. These accusations curiously associate public book reading with child sex offending. </p>
<p>We know from <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/the-sexual-abuse-of-children/">decades of research and inquiries</a> the places that young people are most at risk of sexual victimisation are their home or an institution of care (such as a school, orphanage or church). The people that most often offend against children are family members and care providers.</p>
<p>However, this recent panic about drag queens reading in public libraries is actually typical in the history of child sexual abuse. This history has involved repeated moral panics that distract from the alarming data regarding child sexual abuse in the home. Instead, these narratives locate the threat to children outside of the home - to gay men, “stranger danger” and even satanic ritual abuse - rather than confronting the situations and protecting children where they are most at risk.</p>
<h2>Moral panic</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, feminist attention to domestic violence, sexual assault and the patriarchy created the conditions that enabled the sexual assault of children in the home to be put in the spotlight. </p>
<p>It wasn’t long, however, before attention was shifted elsewhere. In the 1980s, fears about a new form of abuse spread. <a href="https://theconversation.com/satanic-worship-sodomy-and-even-murder-how-stranger-things-revived-the-american-satanic-panic-of-the-80s-186292">Satanic ritual abuse</a> was thought to involve large numbers of victims and perpetrators, but was <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/jscp.1997.16.2.112">“so cloaked in secrecy and involve such precise concealment of evidence that almost no one knew about it”</a>. </p>
<p>Satanic ritual abuse captured headlines and people’s imaginations with tales of particularly painful, depraved and degrading practices. Research has shown that reports of abuse initially came from adults who “regained memories” of experiences of satanic abuse in their childhoods. Additional reports clustered in the periods after media attention on initial cases. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/satanic-worship-sodomy-and-even-murder-how-stranger-things-revived-the-american-satanic-panic-of-the-80s-186292">'Satanic worship, sodomy and even murder': how Stranger Things revived the American satanic panic of the 80s</a>
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<p>The consensus in medical literature that emerged in the 1990s was there was a tendency of some individuals, especially clients of particular psychotherapists, to manufacture memories of abuse which never occurred. Corroborating evidence of abuse was not found, leading sceptics to account for these <a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.2466/pms.1994.78.3c.1376">“pseudomemories” through “misdiagnosis, and the misapplication of hypnosis, dreamwork, or regressive therapies”</a>. </p>
<p>Subsequently, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organised-Sexual-Abuse/Salter/p/book/9781138789159?gclid=CjwKCAjwjYKjBhB5EiwAiFdSflzGRpk-QL7yO8HrAOZbbtD-okQbGIOYC47WI3m-obre71DXVhs7_hoCfwcQAvD_BwE">satanic ritual abuse controversy</a> and “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924933816020824">false memory syndrome</a>” have been used to discredit hard-fought feminist recognition of the gravity of child sex offending.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526373/original/file-20230516-15-hvo9ru.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">At McMartin Preschool in California, it was alleged that hundreds of children had been sexually abused at underground rituals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
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<h2>A deviant lifestyle</h2>
<p>There is also a long history of using paedophilia and ideas about child grooming in homophobic and transphobic ways to oppose the recognition of the civil rights of LGBTIQA people. </p>
<p>Campaigns to decriminalise homosexuality often struggled against attempts to impose unequal ages of consent in reform legislation. In 1967, for example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967">homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales</a>, but men had to wait until they were 21 to legally consummate their love, five years longer than straight lovers. </p>
<p>In Tasmania, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Pink_Triangle.html?id=Wp6cPAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">the last Australian state to decriminalise sex between men</a> (in 1997), a heated public debate frequently raised issues of child protection. Letters to newspapers claimed that decriminalisation “would only open the floodgates and allow the very young to become prey to those who have chosen to lead this deviant lifestyle”. </p>
<p>The idea was that young people are vulnerable to becoming homosexual and shouldn’t be allowed to consent to sexual activity until they were much older than their heterosexual peers. </p>
<p>Sitting behind this notion of the vulnerability of young queer people is the <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/orientation">false idea</a> that LGBTIQA status is a sign of moral failing, illness or perversion. </p>
<p>Further, it perpetuates the myth that queerness or transness is somehow transmissible. This is the somewhat fantastical idea that everybody has the latent potential to become queer or trans, and all that is needed to convert is exposure to a queer or trans person. </p>
<p>These fears have fuelled repressive legislation, such as the notorious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protesters-30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben">Section 28</a> in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UGANDA-LGBT/movakykrjva/">Ugandan</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gay_propaganda_law">Russian</a> laws banning the promotion of homosexuality, and the “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/17/florida-advances-dont-say-gay-bill?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsIejBhDOARIsANYqkD1-IyOtYIl1WefomHHCyNZ0t88GRQTVciS7iJFoUslPSu4In5ayS3IaAqadEALw_wcB">don’t say gay</a>” laws in the United States.</p>
<p>Ironically, these strange and harmful ideas are also behind the ineffective, discredited and dangerous attempts to change or suppress LGBTIQA people’s sexuality or gender identity. </p>
<p>In these instances of so-called “conversion therapy”, it is <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/IESOGI/Academics/Equality_Australia_LGBTconversiontherapyinAustraliav2.pdf">often religious conservatives</a> who <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1201588/Healing-spiritual-harms-Supporting-recovery-from-LGBTQA-change-and-suppression-practices.pdf">“groom” young LGBTIQA people</a> in attempts to make them straight and cisgendered. </p>
<p>Such change and suppression practices are now thankfully <a href="https://www.humanrights.vic.gov.au/change-or-suppression-practices/about-the-csp-act/#:%7E:text=Practices%20that%20seek%20to%20change,preventing%20and%20responding%20to%20them.">against the law</a> in many jurisdictions around the world. </p>
<h2>A kinder and gentler future</h2>
<p>Despite periodic moral panics, the history of gender and sexuality since 1970 tends towards a kinder, gentler future. People have generally become more accepting of LGBTIQA people’s human rights, and are more welcoming and celebrating of sexual and gender diversity. </p>
<p>The pace of change has been fast, however, and some groups of people haven’t gotten used to contemporary community standards of acceptance, such as the move towards marriage equality around the world.</p>
<p>Because of this history of growing acceptance, young people are feeling more comfortable and safer to explore their identities at younger ages. They are thus more visible than they used to be in the past. </p>
<p>However, they’re also more vulnerable as they explore sensitive aspects of their inner selves at younger and potentially less resilient ages. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00615-5">Research shows</a> the impacts that homophobic and transphobic messaging can have on young people, proving they need to be protected from this harmful rhetoric – not from drag queens.</p>
<p>Drag storytime events are an age-appropriate way to celebrate diversity. They benefit all children – gay, straight, transgender and cisgender – with education about consent, human dignity, self determination and human rights. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681811.2021.1978964">knowledge is one of the best protective factors</a> against child victimisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy W. Jones receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Victorian Government, and has provided consultancy services to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales, and the United Nations Human Rights Council. He serves as President of the Australian Queer Archives.</span></em></p>There is also a long history of using paedophilia and ideas about child grooming in homophobic and transphobic ways to oppose the recognition of the civil rights of LGBTIQA people.Timothy W. Jones, Associate Professor in History, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042512023-04-26T12:28:10Z2023-04-26T12:28:10ZA tweak to the University of Nebraska’s logo shows how the once benign ‘OK’ sign has entered a ‘purgatory of meaning’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522694/original/file-20230424-24-f223jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C54%2C5160%2C3391&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nebraska Cornhuskers mascot Herbie Husker pumps up the crowd during a 2015 football game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nebraska-cornhuskers-mascot-herbie-husker-is-seen-during-news-photo/493666358?adppopup=true">Michael Hickey/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On April 17, 2023, the Nebraska Cornhuskers unveiled the latest version of their beloved mascot, <a href="https://myhusker.com/herbie-husker-nebraska/">Herbie Husker</a>.</p>
<p>Herbie’s left hand no longer forms the “OK” symbol. Instead, an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/04/19/nebraska-herbie-husker-mascot-change/">index finger is raised</a> to indicate that the team is No. 1.</p>
<p>The change was made, University of Nebraska officials explained, because the universal <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-say-ok-122528">symbol of approbation</a> – curling the index finger to touch the thumb, forming an “O” – had become associated with white supremacy and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/764728163/the-ok-hand-gesture-is-now-listed-as-a-symbol-of-hate">hate speech</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two cartoon logos of farmers in overalls wearing red cowboy hats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522812/original/file-20230425-14-dy9dxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The University of Nebraska determined that the ‘OK’ gesture was too prone to misinterpretation, prompting a change to one of its logos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.si.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_700/MTk3MzE2MzY5MjI0NTc0MjI5/herbiehuskeroldnew.webp">University of Nebraska Athletics</a></span>
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<p>How did something as benign and commonplace as the “OK” hand gesture come to assume such sinister undertones? And what does the University of Nebraska’s willingness to change its mascot say about the ways in which ambiguous signs and symbols can take on a life of their own?</p>
<h2>A new way to hate?</h2>
<p>In 2015, Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard Spencer and other figures of the “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alt-right">alt-right</a>,” a white nationalist movement, started using the hand gesture in <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardBSpencer/status/796132542739083264">posed photos of themselves</a>. But it took off in February 2017, when a prank message was posted on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/09/25/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-to-understand-4chan-the-internets-own-bogeyman/">4-chan</a>, the anonymous messaging site that has been a breeding ground for racism and conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/249/757/858.jpg_large">Operation O-KKK</a>” encouraged the flooding of social media sites like Twitter with posts proclaiming the familiar gesture to be a symbol of the alt-right. But what began as an effort to “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/09/18/ok-sign-white-power-symbol-or-just-right-wing-troll">troll the libs</a>” quickly took on a life of its own.</p>
<p>In May 2019, an attendee at a Chicago Cubs baseball game made the gesture on camera behind a Black reporter, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/cubs-fan-banned-wrigley-field-after-flashing-white-power-symbol-n1003681">prompting the team to ban him</a> from Wrigley Field.</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, school officials recalled yearbooks in <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/white-power-sign-yearbook-photo-symbol-gesture/5323243/">Petaluma, California</a>, and <a href="https://www.insider.com/oak-park-river-forest-high-school-reprinting-yearbooks-white-power-symbols-2019-5">Chicago</a> after discovering pictures of students making the gesture. The Anti-Defamation League went on to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/26/okay-hand-sign-has-moved-trolling-campaign-real-hate-symbol-civil-rights-group-says/">add the gesture</a> to its database of hate symbols.</p>
<p>There have also been cases of mistaken identity, however.</p>
<p>During the 2019 Army-Navy football game, midshipmen and cadets flashed what seemed to be the white power gesture on-camera behind the ESPN commentator – a game that was politically charged because then-President Donald Trump was in attendance.</p>
<p>The academies, however, determined that the students had been playing the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/us/army-navy-circle-game.html">Circle Game</a> instead – a practical joke in which participants try to trick each other into looking at a circle gesture, which prompts a punch.</p>
<p>The Army-Navy incident was a high-profile example of misperception. But there have been several similar episodes involving the same gesture.</p>
<h2>Symbolic overreaction</h2>
<p>In June 2020, for example, a utility employee in San Diego supposedly made a white power sign while dangling his arm from a company truck. Another motorist took a picture and reported the worker to his company. The employee was fired, even though he claimed to be merely <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/502975-california-man-fired-over-alleged-white-power-sign-says-he-was/">cracking his knuckles</a>.</p>
<p>And in April 2021, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/business/media/jeopardy-hand-gesture-maga-conspiracy.html">a contestant on “Jeopardy!”</a> held up three fingers when he was introduced in celebration of having won the three previous games. Yet the belief that it was a white power gesture prompted nearly 600 former contestants to <a href="https://medium.com/@j.contestants.letter/letter-from-former-jeopardy-2eda854efdf1">sign a statement</a> denouncing what they perceived as a gesture of hate.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ET15AOp-6Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant came under fire for flashing a symbol meant to indicate his three wins in 2021.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As I describe in my recently published book on the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781633888906/Failure-to-Communicate-Why-We-Misunderstand-What-We-Hear-Read-and-See">causes of miscommunication</a>, these types of incidents are not new and not unusual. </p>
<p>They can be characterized as symptoms of <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100208829;jsessionid=C4EB93703624B46E08D17572D94A202C">moral panic</a>, in which the media, politicians and activists fan the flames of uncertainty and worry.</p>
<p>In the case of the “OK” symbol, <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-far-right-extremist-violence-really-spike-in-2017-89067">concerns about white supremacy snowballed</a> in the wake of events like <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-ryan-kellys-pulitzer-prize-winning-photograph-an-american-guernica-82567">the 2017 Unite the Right rally</a>, when white nationalists and far-right militias converged on Charlottesville, Virginia.</p>
<p>The ensuing clashes with counterprotesters resulted in more than 30 injuries and one death. Afterward, many Americans were particularly sensitive to racist symbols – and perhaps more prone to interpret ambiguous gestures as white power signs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marchers holding Nazi and Confederate flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522839/original/file-20230425-14-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators carry Confederate and Nazi flags during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-carry-confederate-and-nazi-flags-during-the-news-photo/830922288?adppopup=true">Emily Molli/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Gang signs and moral panic</h2>
<p>A very similar dynamic involving gang signs has played out over the past couple of decades. </p>
<p>In 2007, the Virginia Tourism Agency created an <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-08-19-0708180225-story.html">ad campaign</a> that included actors making the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/hand-heart-gesture-grows-in-popularity-noticed.html">heart sign</a>: curled fingers joined with thumbs pointing downward. The campaign was changed when state officials discovered that the street and prison gang the Gangster Disciples <a href="https://www.c-ville.com/Thug_life">also used the symbol</a>.</p>
<p>In 2013, a group of California <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/2013/11/06/police-students-could-be-mistaken-as-gang-members-with-new-school-sweatshirt">high school seniors</a> ordered sweatshirts with “XIV” – their year of graduation – emblazoned on them. However, the number is also a symbol of the northern California <a href="https://unitedgangs.com/nortenos-norte-14/">Norteños gangs</a>, as “N” is the 14th letter of the alphabet. To avoid any association with the gangs, school officials advised students to avoid wearing the clothing.</p>
<p>And in March 2014, a Mississippi high school placed a student on indefinite suspension after he had been photographed standing next to his biology project. He was accused of flashing a gang sign because his thumb and two other fingers were outstretched. These form a “V” and an “L” – a symbol of the Vice Lords gang. But the student <a href="https://reason.com/2014/03/10/mississippi-high-school-suspended-studen/">protested that he was merely indicating</a> “3,” the number of his football jersey, which he was also wearing in the photo.</p>
<p>Tragically, there have also been episodes in which sign language was <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/deaf-woman-asl-sign-language-shot-gang-signs-1639018">misinterpreted</a> as gang symbols, leading to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/deaf-man-stabbed-sign-language-mistaken-gang-signs/story?id=18213488">acts of violence</a> against those simply trying to communicate.</p>
<h2>Kids, cats and devils?</h2>
<p>As these examples make clear, moral panics often reflect society’s anxieties. </p>
<p>They run the gamut, from uneasiness about young children <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-smartphones-for-kids-is-just-another-technology-fearing-moral-panic-74485">using smartphones</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-cats-for-destroying-wildlife-shaky-logic-is-leading-to-moral-panic-138710">house cats killing wildlife</a> and even to role-playing games fostering <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/us/when-dungeons-dragons-set-off-a-moral-panic.html?">demon worship</a>.</p>
<p>Fears of gangs and hate groups are just the latest manifestation of this phenomenon.</p>
<p>At the time of the Army-Navy game, The Washington Post wrote that the “OK” gesture “now lives in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/16/how-okay-hand-sign-keeps-tricking-us-into-looking/">purgatory of meaning</a>.” </p>
<p>It’s hardly surprising, then, that universities are distancing themselves from ambiguous and controversial symbols. </p>
<p>Moral panics may not be grounded in reality, but the concerns they give life to can still be bad for one’s image – or one’s team.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger J. Kreuz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hand gestures are notoriously prone to misinterpretation.Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856772022-06-23T02:37:51Z2022-06-23T02:37:51ZNew Zealand needs a new gang strategy – political consensus would be a good start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470452/original/file-20220623-50706-xiz1zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=144%2C625%2C3285%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The concern about gangs and gang-related violence in New Zealand continues to be <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018845752/poto-williams-axed-as-police-minister-in-cabinet-reshuffle">highly politicised</a>. Government ministers are under constant media scrutiny and political pressure, with both sides trying to look more staunch on crime than the other. The problem is that these debates often lack history, context or vision.</p>
<p>Every generation panics intermittently about crime, especially when it concerns gangs and youth. One of the earliest New Zealand examples was in 1842 and 1843 when more than 100 male juveniles were <a href="https://www.geni.com/projects/Parkhurst-Boys-Australia-and-New-Zealand-1842-1861/40626">transported from Parkhurst Prison</a>. The arrival of these former delinquents and a perceived rise in crime caused concern.</p>
<p>Although a plea by the head of police for a prohibition on further deportations was accepted, the country realised it had a problem.</p>
<p>The following years saw the introduction of new legislation, such as that designed to <a href="http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_bill/vb1866107.pdf">deal with “vagabonds and rogues”</a> (including the particularly troublesome “incorrigible” ones). This overlapped with generic laws designed to protect public order and keep criminals locked up.</p>
<p>Crime did not stop, but it did evolve. It was recognised as “organised” in the 1920s, well before the first post-WWII counterculture emerged. But the country was so shocked by youth behaviour in the 1950s that a dedicated committee on “<a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/the-mazengarb-report-on-juvenile-moral-delinquency-is-released">Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents</a>” was established. Its findings on the sexual morality of teenagers were posted to every home in the land.</p>
<p>It was not a huge success. By the late 1950s there were around 41 “milkbar cowboy” gangs in Auckland and 17 in Wellington. By the early 1960s, more enduring brands like the Mongrel Mob and a New Zealand chapter of the Hells Angels were beginning to put down roots.</p>
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<h2>Six decades of a growing challenge</h2>
<p>Since then, politicians have swung left and right, wielding sticks and then carrots to deal with the issue. As we examine in our recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/People-Power-Law-Zealand-History/dp/1509931619">People, Power, and Law: a New Zealand History</a>, government responses have moved from involving isolated ministries towards multiple overlapping agencies approaching the problem strategically and holistically.</p>
<p>There has also been a plethora of legislation. As well as the continually evolving criminal law, there have been laws on everything from fortified houses and the recovery of criminal proceeds, through to the prohibition of gang patches in public spaces.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-claims-nzs-policing-is-too-woke-crime-rates-are-largely-static-and-even-declining-156103">Despite claims NZ's policing is too 'woke', crime rates are largely static — and even declining</a>
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<p>While the practicality of many of these laws is <a href="http://www.nzlii.org/nz/journals/NZLFRRp/2022/4.html">questionable</a>, the fundamental point is that none has stemmed the tide. Gang membership reached about 2,300 by 1980. It took nearly 35 years to reach just under <a href="https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/cabinet-paper-whole-government-action-plan-reduce-harms-caused-new-zealand#:%7E:text=In%20June%202014%2C%20Cabinet%20agreed,(PDF%2C%20190%20KB).">4,000 in 2014</a>, but then only seven years before the numbers <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300464553/gang-numbers-have-nearly-doubled-in-five-years-police-say">doubled again to 8,061</a> in 2021.</p>
<p>Gang members are over-represented in crime statistics. As of mid-2021, <a href="https://www.corrections.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/44398/Annual_Report_2020_2021_Final_Web.pdf">2,938 people in prison</a> had a gang affiliation – approximately 35% of the prison population.</p>
<p>In many ways, these people have joined gangs for similar reasons for generations: alienation, identity, purpose, respect, friendship, excitement, security and even economic opportunity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-coronavirus-is-changing-the-market-for-illegal-drugs-134753">How coronavirus is changing the market for illegal drugs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Drugs and gangs</h2>
<p>But today’s gangs are not the same. Their scale, <a href="https://www.policeassn.org.nz/news/501s-mean-business">methods</a> and social impact (especially <a href="https://voxdev.org/topic/labour-markets-migration/how-globalisation-made-narcos-understanding-violent-crime-urban-mexico">overseas</a>) have all changed. They’ve become mobile, transnational enterprises worth an <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/toc/factsheets/TOC12_fs_general_EN_HIRES.pdf">estimated 1.5% of global GDP</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unodc.org/res/wdr2021/field/WDR21_Booklet_2.pdf">ever-expanding</a> global supply and demand for illegal narcotics has impacts everywhere. Although New Zealand Customs’ illegal drug take was <a href="https://www.customs.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/annual-report-2021/annual-report-2021.pdf">down during the pandemic</a>, the overall trend is one of growing seizures and a diversity of offshore suppliers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-reducing-harm-to-society-is-the-goal-a-cost-benefit-analysis-shows-cannabis-prohibition-has-failed-145688">If reducing harm to society is the goal, a cost-benefit analysis shows cannabis prohibition has failed</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Drugs are obviously attractive to gangs. In the <a href="https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/national-wastewater-testing-programme-quarter-1-2021">first quarter of 2021</a>, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine netted an estimated NZ$77 million through illegal distribution. </p>
<p>The previous quarter was even higher, with about <a href="https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/national-wastewater-testing-programme-quarter-4-2020">$8.5 million generated</a> every week. The estimated 74 tonnes of cannabis consumed in New Zealand each year may add up to <a href="https://berl.co.nz/sites/default/files/2020-09/Evidence-to-inform-a-regulated-cannabis-market-June-2020-PROACTIVE-FINAL.pdf">$1.5 billion</a> to the total.</p>
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<h2>A bipartisan approach</h2>
<p>Solving a problem of this scale will require a strategic shift away from treating organised criminal groups like a partisan political game. It’s an intergenerational challenge that should ideally be a cross-party issue.</p>
<p>One way to achieve this would be through a new framework law that encourages whichever government is in power to focus consistently on illegal activity by organised groups. It should begin with a detailed review of what has worked and what has failed legally, socially and culturally.</p>
<p>There would then need to be an agreed system of political accountability set against known and transparent targets and indicators. But laws and policies designed to deter and punish criminal activity must also be seen in a wider context.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/policing-by-consent-is-not-woke-it-is-fundamental-to-a-democratic-society-155866">Policing by consent is not ‘woke’ — it is fundamental to a democratic society</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>The law does not exist in a vacuum. The rights of victims of organised crime should be measurably enhanced. And the rights of freedom of association and freedom from discrimination due to group identity need to be reconciled.</p>
<p>We also need to accept that gangs will not simply disappear. Areas for co-operation on shared lawful projects should be found. Helping people safely leave organised criminal organisations would be another priority. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most critical aim of all will be to slow gang recruitment. Of course, that is a fundamental challenge well beyond any single policy or program – to create an inclusive society where the pathways, opportunities and benefits of being a lawful citizen outweigh the alternative.</p>
<p><em>Correction: Two sentences in this article have been updated for clarity. The original version read “One of the earliest New Zealand examples was in 1842 when 123 male juveniles who had been <a href="https://www.geni.com/projects/Parkhurst-Boys-Australia-and-New-Zealand-1842-1861/40626">transported from Parkhurst Prison</a> in England began roaming the streets of Auckland.”</em></p>
<p><em>This has been changed to “One of the earliest New Zealand examples was in 1842 and 1843, when more than 100 male juveniles were <a href="https://www.geni.com/projects/Parkhurst-Boys-Australia-and-New-Zealand-1842-1861/40626">transported from Parkhurst Prison</a>. The arrival of these former delinquents and a perceived rise in crime caused concern.”</em></p>
<p><em>The second sentence originally began: “In many ways, these people have joined gangs for similar reasons the Parkhurst boys got together in the early 1840s: […]”. It was changed to “In many ways, these people have joined gangs for similar reasons for generations: […]”.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History shows there is no magic bullet for solving gang crime. Only an evidence-based approach, coupled with mutually agreed targets and indicators, will start to achieve real change.Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoClaire Breen, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1574542021-11-09T10:03:17Z2021-11-09T10:03:17Z‘We have nothing left’ – the catastrophic consequences of criminalising livelihoods in West Africa<p>We were in Obalende: a bustling working-class neighbourhood of office buildings, shops and residential areas, on Lagos Island, Nigeria. During the day, the neighbourhood teems with small market stalls selling all manner of things, from fruit and vegetables to electronics, tailored clothes and everyday household items.</p>
<p>In the evenings, new stalls spring up to cater for commuters queuing for buses, and noisy street-side bars open to provide distraction and refreshment for people coming back from a long day at work. </p>
<p>But we weren’t there to buy an iPod or have a drink. We were in Obalende, in August 2019, to explore the clandestine world of Tramadol dispensing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Birds-eye view of an African street packed with market stalls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427485/original/file-20211020-18-8k44y4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A busy street in Obalende, Lagos, Nigeria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gernot Klantsching</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-politique-africaine-2021-3-page-85.htm">research</a> examined what happens when previously informal – and legal – activities are criminalised, and heavy-handed state regulations blur the lines between what is considered legal and illegal. Specifically, <a href="https://tnocwestafrica.blogs.bristol.ac.uk">our project</a> looked at how the criminalisation of Tramadol in Nigeria, and stricter rules governing the movement of people and goods in the Sahara region, were affecting people and society.</p>
<p>We chose the trade of Tramadol and the transport of migrants in west Africa because they had both attracted widespread policy and media attention. Both activities have also been directly linked to a supposed rise in organised crime, along with other activities, such as sex work or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-mining-artisanal-explainer-idUSKBN1ZE0YU">artisanal</a> (small-scale) gold mining. Our aim was to question these media and policy portrayals – and instead provide an insider’s view of these activities.</p>
<p>In both cases, it seemed new restrictive laws had, almost overnight, turned people once thought to be earning an “honest living” into organised criminals. We discovered that policy changes – in particular, criminalisation – often do not have their intended impact and there is little consideration of the wide-reaching effect criminalising livelihoods has on communities that have sometimes relied on them for centuries. </p>
<p>We conducted a total of 40 in-depth interviews in Nigeria and Niger. These included 21 in Lagos, Nigeria, with local sellers of Tramadol, as well as official pharmacists selling the drug legally. We spoke with national and local agency workers, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (<a href="https://www.unodc.org/">UNODC</a>) and Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (<a href="https://ndlea.gov.ng/">NDLEA</a>). </p>
<p>In Agadez, Niger, we conducted 19 interviews, including with former migrant transporters (or “passeurs”) and local and international humanitarian organisations working in the region, such as the International Organization for Migration (<a href="https://www.iom.int/">IOM</a>), the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en">International Red Cross</a> and <a href="https://alarmephonesahara.info/en/">Alarme Phone Sahara</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Doctor’ will see you now</h2>
<p>Back in Obalende, a contact explained to us that Tramadol was still being sold and consumed openly, despite the restrictions.</p>
<p>Tramadol is a synthetic opioid, providing almost immediate relief for moderate to severe pain. It is not illegal to sell Tramadol in Nigeria, but since 2018 it has been heavily regulated by the government, and now should only be available through licensed pharmacies – doses above 100mg per tablet <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/nigeria/Tramadol_Trafficking_in_West_Africa.pdf">are also prohibited</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, its availability is restricted to only a few licensed medical authorities and pharmaceutical dispensers. This was intended to curb its abuse, turning the informal selling of the drug into a criminal activity.</p>
<p>Our contact arranged for us to have a meeting with a Tramadol retailer, known locally as “Doctor”. Doctor, aged in his late twenties, agreed to meet us later that evening at his shop. </p>
<p>Constructed from a cheap wooden shed, Doctor’s shop operated like a kiosk, with a seating area for himself and his customers, from which he sold small retail items, and a variety of pharmaceutical products, including Tramadol. He needed to attend to the throng of customers queueing outside his shop, before he would be able to make time for a conversation. This gave us the opportunity to people-watch and observe him interacting with his regulars. </p>
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<img alt="A busy nighttime street packed with market stalls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427486/original/file-20211020-23-1jyuide.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Obalende at night, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/26th-october-2018-obalende-one-busiest-1453408370">Shutterstock/Joshua Akinyemi</a></span>
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<p>Customers approached Doctor and told him they had particular ailments, after which he would recommend a drug, which they would then buy. So, in one sense, it operated like a lawful pharmacy. But sometimes a customer knew exactly which drug they wanted and we witnessed some requests for illegal Tramadol.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Doctor’s dispensing of Tramadol and other drugs to buyers was not done surreptitiously. Some of Doctor’s patrons even wore shirts that indicated they were employees of the Nigeria Police Force, and the shop itself was near a police barracks.</p>
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<p>When we finally got a chance to talk, Doctor told us that he had previously worked as a farmer in northern Nigeria, before relocating to Lagos. He had moved in search of better job opportunities, but a lack of stable employment had led him into the drug business. </p>
<p>While people like Doctor are being increasingly categorised by the state as criminals, our conversation with Doctor didn’t feel like a meeting with a drug dealer, as his work was conducted openly and was regarded as legitimate in the eyes of both him and his customers. </p>
<h2>Moral panic</h2>
<p>So how did Nigeria end up in this situation? Despite the fact that Tramadol has been imported into Nigeria for more than two decades, it only recently was propelled into the spotlight, partly because of the opioid crisis in America and partly because of a codeine cough syrup ban by the Nigerian government. </p>
<p>The cough syrup ban followed the release of a 2018 BBC documentary, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43982302">Sweet, Sweet Codeine</a>, which reported that millions of bottles of codeine were being consumed daily across Nigeria. The government’s response to the situation was to ban the production of <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-8074-5">codeine cough mixture</a>.</p>
<p>Another 2018 BBC report then claimed that a Tramadol crisis was “fuelling death, despair and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44306086">Boko Haram</a>” in Nigeria. This echoed reports published by the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/westandcentralafrica/en/2017-12-11-unodc-warns-tramadol-use.html">UNODC</a> and the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2018/11/12/default-calendar/forty-first-meeting-of-the-expert-committee-on-drug-dependence">World Health Organisation</a>, as moral panic about Tramadol increased, too. </p>
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<p>Again, in 2018, the Nigerian government responded with a ban, restricting the sale of Tramadol to only a very limited number of approved dispensers and cracking down on the production of high dosage pills. The state’s clampdown on unlicensed Tramadol dispensers was arguably harsh and forced sellers onto the black market.</p>
<h2>Healthcare and unemployment</h2>
<p>But the government’s Tramadol crackdown didn’t account for the fact that Nigeria – the most populous country in Africa – lacks adequate and affordable healthcare. Indeed, the thriving black market in pharmaceuticals is inextricably tethered to this lack of adequate health infrastructure for the nation’s population of 211m, encouraging the normalisation of self-medication by a large majority of the country’s <a href="https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/fake-drugs-health-wealth-and-regulation-in-nigeria(264db0b0-b146-44a0-95b6-7ad55a2e25e9).html">underprivileged citizens</a>.</p>
<p>Then there is the fact that a third of the population is <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-third-of-nigerians-are-unemployed-heres-why-159262">unemployed</a>. So for Tramadol sellers like Doctor, the clandestine work provides a stable source of income. Bashir*, Another Tramadol seller we met, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are just involved in this trade because we want to survive, because there are no jobs in the country…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bashir said he tried to sell only to a loyal group of customers, in order to avoid being arrested, but explained that Tramadol was his most sought-after product. </p>
<h2>Saharan migrant transport</h2>
<p>In Agadez, the problems aren’t drug-related. But the issues surrounding state regulation were the same. Agadez is the fifth largest city in Niger with a population of approximately 110,000 people. It is located in the Sahara desert, and lies at the crossroads of major Sahelian and Saharan migration routes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Arial view of the desert city of Agadez." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427508/original/file-20211020-21-yis7sq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aerial shot of the desert city of Agadez in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/agadez-niger-022019-arial-shot-desert-1537010993">Shutterstock/Nicole Macheroux-Denault</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Agadez has been an important trading hub in Africa since the 16th century, providing a critical source of income to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sahel-region-africa-72569">Sahelian region</a> – <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-november-2017/new-face-sahel">one of the poorest in the world</a>. But Niger’s migration policy has dramatically evolved to curtail the movement of people and goods through the region. This was formalised through the passing of a statute <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2020/05/smuggling">in 2015</a>. This change came on the back of growing political and media debates concerning the so-called “migrant crisis” and, in particular, concerns about the trafficking of migrants from west Africa to Algeria, Libya and on into Europe.</p>
<p>Niger is a member of the Economic Community of West African States, which supposedly guarantees the free movement of people across its 15 member countries. Yet the new legislation essentially criminalised migration from Niger across the Sahara to north African countries.</p>
<p>This has radically transformed the socioeconomic structure of Agadez. Before 2015, migration from Agadez to Algeria and Libya, and for some on into Europe, was commonplace, particularly boosting the local economy in Agadez across various sectors. The economic benefits were felt across the entire country.</p>
<p>At the grassroots level, local businesses in Agadez thrived due to the steady flow of travellers through the city. But today, any visitor familiar with its history as a Saharan hub of exchange will regard Agadez as a ghost town. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Empty store front on quiet road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427546/original/file-20211020-13-1j1vcgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A transport business in ‘ghost town’ Agadez in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ini Dele-Adedeji</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan regime in 2011, Niger experienced strong external pressure from the European Union to <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2020/05/smuggling">prevent migration northwards</a>. The EU purportedly promised to implement specific initiatives to ameliorate the loss of income to ex-transporters and introduce alternative means of income (as did the Nigerien government). </p>
<p>But according to former transporters we interviewed in Niger, these promises have yet to be fulfilled and many informed us of the devastating impact the law has had on their ability to sustain a livelihood. One ex-transporter, Abdul*, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s nothing we can do. We have no activity … it has totally destroyed us, we have nothing left.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Dying in the desert</h2>
<p>Like the Tramadol ban in Nigeria, the criminalisation of transporting migrants has not totally ended the practice. In response, transporters have been forced to foster stealthier strategies for remaining in the trade and evading the authorities. This has inevitably resulted in transporters taking more perilous routes through the Sahara to avoid arrest, routes which previously were centred around water points. </p>
<p>While transporters we spoke to boasted of their reliability in getting people across the Sahara safely, interviews with humanitarian agencies, including the International Organization for Migration, reported that an increasing number of migrants are being abandoned in the desert, which can be attributed to the use of less-familiar travel routes by transporters. The risks transporters are compelled to take have been significantly compounded by the criminalisation of migration across the Sahara. The director of one humanitarian organisation working in the region told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many people disappear in the desert, many people die, and now there are military patrols chasing people in the desert… The drivers can throw the passengers outside of the car… in case they are arrested.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Local initiatives have been implemented to assist with the reintegration of ex-transporters and humanitarian agencies have operations on the ground to assist with extricating stranded migrants in the Sahara. Nevertheless, the region continues to suffer as a result of the legislation and those who do continue in this previously legal activity are now deemed “human traffickers”. Another ex-transporter told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It wasn’t illegal… we were taking an official route… we paid taxes, we did everything according to the regulation and what we were supposed and then the men came and made this migration criminal. They said we are criminals, that we are trafficking people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Foreign government agencies and NGOs claim they are prioritising the safety of vulnerable migrants. But we found that these legislative changes actually steer formerly legal workers into more precarious situations and devastate regional economies that have very limited forms of employment. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1143466064392495104"}"></div></p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>These measures need to be entirely reconsidered. Pressure from international agencies and foreign governments have contributed to the governments of both Nigeria and Niger resorting to harsh, punitive measures in seeking to address the challenges of Tramadol distribution and trans-Saharan migration. </p>
<p>But what these impoverished communities need is more protection and less criminalisation.</p>
<p>NGOs and local organisations are doing important work in seeking to address these issues on the ground. For example, the International Rescue Committee, International Red Cross and Alarme Phone Sahara help stranded migrants in the Sahara and with the reintegration of ex-transporters. In Nigeria, meanwhile, there are several national initiatives seeking to address substance abuse, including awareness campaigns (<a href="https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/in-lagos-government-launches-lagos-state-kicks-against-drug-abuse-campaign/st9lb06">Lagos State Kicks Against Drug Abuse</a>) and support groups promoting youth-orientated alternative projects like <a href="https://youthriseng.org/">Youth Rise Nigeria</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1395306141845004288"}"></div></p>
<p>But uncertainty about future economic survival continues to affect the vast number of people who are unemployed or in precarious employment. And this uncertainty drives them to exploit opportunities to create employment, whether “legal” or otherwise. As Doctor explained before we left him to deal with his customers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is nobody to say they will help me and give me money… I am just managing myself like this, I am managing and pushing my goods around…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>*<em>All names have been changed to protect the anonymity of those involved.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article is based on a research project on the 'Hidden narratives of transnational organised crime in West Africa', funded by the UK Economic and and Social Research Council. We would like to thank Dr Elodie Apard (IFRA-Nigeria) and Dr Philippe Frowd (University of Ottawa), the two Co-Investigators on the project, for their help in refining this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Schmid-Scott and Ini Dele-Adedeji do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Livelihoods which communities have relied on for centuries are being criminalised by heavy-handed state restrictions.Ini Dele-Adedeji, Research Associate, University of BristolAmanda Schmid-Scott, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Newcastle UniversityGernot Klantschnig, Associate Professor in International Criminology, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695302021-10-14T19:10:12Z2021-10-14T19:10:12ZSex, drugs and TikTok: keeping young people safe needs a mature response, not a moral panic<p>You may have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-sex-drugs-minors-11631052944">read recently</a> that TikTok allegedly “serves up” sex and drug videos to minors. Media reports have described the video-sharing platform, which is <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-adults-have-never-heard-of-tiktok-thats-by-design-119815">designed predominantly for young people</a>, as an “addiction machine” that promotes harmful content.</p>
<p>In an investigation, reporters at the Wall Street Journal created 31 bot accounts on TikTok, each programmed to interact only with particular themes of content. Many of the bots were registered as being aged 13-15, including one programmed with an interest in “drugs and drug use”, which was ultimately shown 569 videos related to drugs. </p>
<p>The investigation sought to better understand how the app’s algorithm selects videos for users. The workings of these kinds of algorithms are an industry secret, but much has been made of the app’s apparent ability to “know” what users want to see, and whether content creators can <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3447535.3462512">game the system</a> and garner more views.</p>
<p>The article concluded that TikTok’s algorithm actively “serves up” drug content to minors, who “may lack the capability to stop watching and don’t have supportive adults around them” to help moderate their opinions. But is this a reasonable conclusion, and if so, should parents be concerned about drug content on TikTok?</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal article doesn’t provide enough detail to allow us to evaluate the rigour of its methods and the validity of its conclusions. However, there are reasons to suspect the methodology is inherently flawed.</p>
<p>One problem is that a bot designed to engage only with content related to a specific set of interests is not a very realistic model of a typical social media user. Real humans do not have a set list of interests outside which they never stray – they have a diverse range of interests and curiosities.</p>
<h2>Moral panic</h2>
<p>Anxiety and moral panic around technologies popular with young people is nothing new. Fears about the harmful effects of social media have been around for at least a quarter of a century, since the advent of <a href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2152">MySpace</a> and even earlier platforms in the 1990s. </p>
<p>In turn, these fears about harms to children help fuel calls for greater <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367877920912257">surveillance and censorship</a>. Several countries such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53225720">India</a>, <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-bans-tiktok-for-4th-time-for-inappropriate-content-101626853759583.html">Pakistan</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/29/trump-tiktok-wechat-china-us-explainer">the United States</a> have temporarily banned TikTok or considered doing so. Parents have been encouraged to stop their children using it, and the app has been urged to censor drug content entirely.</p>
<p>TikTok offers the perfect recipe for a technopanic. The mysterious workings of its algorithm, and the unprompted nature in which users are served videos in their “For You” feed, has driven fears about the circulation of improper content that facilitates <a href="https://theconversation.com/anorexia-coach-sexual-predators-online-are-targeting-teens-wanting-to-lose-weight-platforms-are-looking-the-other-way-162938">sexual grooming or disordered eating</a>. This is exacerbated by the fact the platform is <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-adults-have-never-heard-of-tiktok-thats-by-design-119815">explicitly designed</a> to attract a young user base.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-adults-have-never-heard-of-tiktok-thats-by-design-119815">Most adults have never heard of TikTok. That's by design</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Young people, despite being “digital natives” and highly adept at using technology, are often seen as lacking impulse control and being vulnerable to dangerous influences. Yet their voices are largely left out of these conversations. Despite their expertise in navigating these platforms, young people are spoken about, rather than spoken to.</p>
<p>Instead of assuming young people are inherently deficient in their judgement, taking their experiences and expertise seriously could uncover new ways of looking at old problems. One of this article’s authors (Isabelle Volpe) is investigating this in her ongoing PhD research.</p>
<h2>Drug content on social media</h2>
<p>Another problem with the framing of these moral concerns is that not all drug-related content on TikTok necessarily condones drug use. TikTok provides a forum for all sorts of content creators, some of whom openly use drugs and some of whom talk about drug use, its potential harms and risks.</p>
<p>While traditional <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0091450917722817">media coverage</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24882707/">drug education</a> typically focuses on criminality, addiction or distress, these framings often do not resonate with young people, which can lead to intended messages <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10345329.2011.12035916">not being taken seriously</a>. In comparison, social media platforms give exposure to a wider range of perspectives on drug use.</p>
<p>Some content creators talk about recovery from addiction (including <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@addictionrecovery?">health professionals</a> describing their work, and people giving <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cleanandserene?">first-hand accounts</a>), while some give advice aimed at <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@harmreductionservices?">reducing potential harms</a> to people who take drugs. </p>
<p>It’s also undeniably true that some creators give accounts of the pleasures of recreational drug use. Drug use is complex, and appraising drug content on TikTok involves painting a complex picture.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hand holding a joint" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426347/original/file-20211014-26-10zi8b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While some TikTok content creators advocate drug use, others offer constructive health advice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gras Grun/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What should we do about drugs and TikTok?</h2>
<p>It’s understandable parents might view TikTok as a dangerous place. But it’s important to remember any social media platform can feature drug-related content. Parents and carers can help young people navigate these spaces by having <a href="https://adf.org.au/talking-about-drugs/parenting/talking-young-people/">open and honest conversations about drugs</a>, so young people feel safe and confident to raise any questions or worries about anything they see online.</p>
<p>TikTok also offers an opportunity to deliver evidence-based health information to people who use drugs or are considering doing so. These audiences are often considered “hard to reach”, partly because of the social stigma of seeking out information about drugs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-can-be-good-for-your-kids-if-you-follow-a-few-tips-to-stay-safe-144002">TikTok can be good for your kids if you follow a few tips to stay safe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>An algorithm that can identify people who may benefit from evidence-based information about drugs, and deliver it to them without them explicitly asking for it, could be a powerful tool for public health. Health professionals are <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/16900/3498">already using TikTok</a> as a new and engaging way to share public health messaging, and TikTok has already introduced “fact-checking” content warnings to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/safety/en-us/covid-19/">combat COVID-related misinformation</a>. </p>
<p>A similar approach could be applied to drug-related content, perhaps directing users to reliable health information. There is no quick fix for the complex problem of misinformation; we have to use a range of strategies to offer reliable information to those who need it.</p>
<p>Banning all drug content from TikTok might be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, by also removing content focused on health information and harm reduction. If we are serious about protecting young people online, we need to be driven by evidence, not fear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isabelle Volpe receives funding from the National Centre for Clinical Research into Emerging Drugs. Her PhD research is funded by the Australian Government and UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture. She is affiliated with not-for-profit organisations The Loop Australia and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clare Southerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fears that TikTok is “serving up” drug content to impressionable users have prompted calls for all drug content to be censored on the platform. But that would remove useful health advice too.Isabelle Volpe, PhD Candidate, Drug Policy Modelling Program, UNSW SydneyClare Southerton, Postdoctoral Fellow, Vitalities Lab, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1486062020-10-25T12:43:33Z2020-10-25T12:43:33ZFolk devils and fear: QAnon feeds into a culture of moral panic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365105/original/file-20201022-15-1mjjddl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5600%2C3719&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People display Qanon messages on cardboards during a political rally in Bucharest, Romania on Aug. 10, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Using conspiracy theories that include child sex traffickers and restaurants serving human flesh, QAnon has unleashed a modern-day moral panic.</p>
<p>It is now more than 30 years since sociologists proposed moral panic as a way to understand the incitement of fear around a perceived enemy. In the opening paragraph of his canonical study of popular media from 1972, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Folk-Devils-and-Moral-Panics/Cohen/p/book/9780415610162"><em>Folk Devils and Moral Panics</em></a>, sociologist Stanley Cohen outlined his basic thesis: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In President Donald Trump’s America, those people are queers, racial minorities and Jews. </p>
<p>At the time Cohen was writing, his focus was on popular media and the manipulation of mods and rockers as moral degenerates. He argued that those in positions of authority used sensationalized headlines to enforce what they saw as threats to social order. </p>
<p>We find ourselves in a similar place today. The media in question is social, but the targets are as old as journalism itself. </p>
<h2>Rights and recognition</h2>
<p>When Trump refused to call out QAnon in his Oct. 15 town hall, preferring to show sympathy for its purported fight against pedophilia, he tapped into a moral panic with deep historical roots. The danger that QAnon poses is not that it’s endorsed by the president. It’s the way it speaks to long-festering hatreds that transcend political affiliation.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">During a news conference on Aug. 20, 2020, Trump responds to a journalist asking him to comment on QAnon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>QAnon was born digital in the age of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2018.1450276">platformed antagonism</a>,” where social media breathes new life into racist stereotypes. But its appeal owes to a longer history of animosity towards sexual and racial minorities at critical points in their quest for rights and recognition. It does this through the use of the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159529/qanon-blood-libel-satanic-panic">modern-day blood libel accusation</a>. </p>
<h2>Murder, matzo and mayhem</h2>
<p>Charges of ritual murder were frequently waged against Europe’s Jewish populations as an effort to reinforce the exclusionary logic of ethnic nationalism. Jews were accused of kidnapping and murdering gentile children so as to use their blood and make matzo. Ritual murder accusations could result in mob violence, as it was in 1900 in the case of a local <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Butchers-Tale/">Jewish butcher</a> in the West Prussian town of Konitz. </p>
<p>Jews were also slandered for their role in the so-called white slave trade, the luring of young white women into prostitution. This mix of sexual excess and ritualistic fervour went hand-in-hand with Jewish emancipation, visibility and new-found claims to equal citizenship. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/technology/pizzagate-justin-bieber-qanon-tiktok.html">Both the Pizzagate</a> and <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN25G1IV">Cannibal Club</a> conspiracies in QAnon share roots with the blood libel accusation. </p>
<p>Suggestions that Hillary Clinton and financier George Soros <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/soros-clinton-trump-accuser/">were part of a global sex ring</a> have long permeated social media networks. In 2018, these claims morphed in a new direction: children were not just being lured into a sexual underground, <a href="https://spectator.us/fear-adrenochrome-conspiracy-theory-drug/">they were considered sources of adrenochrome</a>, a chemical with hallucinogenic qualities harvested for satanic rituals. A cabal of elites didn’t just harvest children’s blood, they consumed the flesh itself: as proof, conspiracy theorists pointed to a website that falsely claimed that Raven Chan — Mark Zuckerberg’s sister-in-law — was involved with a fake restaurant called the Cannibal Club.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/25/fact-check-cannibal-club-fake-priscilla-chan-isnt-involved/3310368001/">Although the story has since been debunked</a>, it’s alive and well on social media, surfacing most recently in the hashtags used by Twitterers in the wake of the Trump town hall, linking Hollywood to human sacrifice, secret societies and pedophilia.</p>
<h2>Panic at the movements</h2>
<p>Similar moral panics accompanied the pursuit of equality by gays and lesbians, with fears around the seduction of minors frequently used as an argument against criminal justice reform. The new-found visibility of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.4.1.r34444x4376v1x31">Gay Liberation Front</a> and lesbian, feminist and Black power movements unleashed a preoccupation with adolescence, childhood sexuality and age of consent. </p>
<p>While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — used to define and classify mental disorders — <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs5040565">removed homosexuality from its list of paraphilias in 1973</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/the-conservative-split-on-the-meaning-of-marriage/397415/">conservatives lamented the legalization of same-sex sexuality</a> for what they saw as a sea change in societal values. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/07/archives/anita-bryants-crusade.html">Anti-gay rights activist Anita Bryant’s</a> “Protect America’s Children” campaign <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10510977909368019">gave this moral panic a celebrity face</a>. </p>
<p>The AIDS epidemic, scandals within the Catholic Church, trans rights and, most recently, <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a28352055/jeffrey-epstein-criminal-case-facts/">the Jeffrey Epstein assaults</a> have all cast renewed attention on the history of changing social and sexual mores brought about by the <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/sexual-revolutions-angry-children-15827.html">sexual revolution</a>.</p>
<p>At its core, the preoccupation with pedophilia and childhood sexuality is an attempt to protect the heterosexual family as the bedrock of society, a salve against degeneration and excess. There are too many examples to list, from Pope Benedict blaming <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-abuse-benedict-idUSKCN1RN0WI">homosexual “cliques”</a> for the general collapse of morality in the late 20th century to opponents of the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf">2015 Obergefell decision legalizing gay marriage</a>, a cause célèbre in the conservative media linking gay, lesbian, and trans rights with pedophilia as a <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/21/pedophile-project-7-year-old-next-sexual-revolutions-hit-parade/">leftist plot against the family</a>. </p>
<p>Even Dr. Anthony Fauci — a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — was not immune from conspiracy theorists who <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2492A1">falsely linked his wife to Epstein handler Ghislaine Maxwell</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1301870407771807745"}"></div></p>
<p>The QAnon conspiracy theory draws together anti-Semitism, sexual excess, homophobia and race-baiting in a modern-day moral panic. They resonate because they have a place in the contemporary zeitgeist as products of long-standing animosity against change. </p>
<p>De-platforming QAnon is not enough. For while Trump is proving himself to be conspiracist-in-chief, the culture of folk devils and fear is of our own making.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Evans receives funding from the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Social Science Research Council. </span></em></p>The QAnon conspiracy movement is the latest in a long line of moral panics that emerge as a response to change. False theories are used to undermine claims to social justice raised by marginalized groups.Jennifer Evans, Professor of Modern European History, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387102020-07-30T12:11:04Z2020-07-30T12:11:04ZDon’t blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346724/original/file-20200709-62-uc4lv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4799%2C3058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are cats really to blame for the worldwide loss of biodiversity?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/homeless-cats-in-the-street-royalty-free-image/626427276">Dzurag/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of conservationists claim cats are a <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-cat-one-year-110-native-animals-lock-up-your-pet-its-a-killing-machine-138412">zombie apocalypse for biodiversity</a> that need to be removed from the outdoors by “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167411/cat-wars">any means necessary</a>” – coded language for shooting, trapping and poisoning. Various media outlets have <a href="https://gizmodo.com/we-have-to-do-something-about-outdoor-cats-1834252423">portrayed cats</a> as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/opinion/sunday/the-evil-of-the-outdoor-cat.html">murderous superpredators</a>. Australia has even declared an official <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-war-on-feral-cats-shaky-science-missing-ethics-47444">“war” against cats</a>. </p>
<p>Moral panics emerge when people perceive an existential threat to themselves, society or the environment. When in the grip of a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420">moral panic</a>, the ability to think clearly and act responsibly is compromised. While the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">moral panic over cats</a> arises from valid concerns over threats to native species, it obscures the real driver: humanity’s exploitative treatment of the natural world. Crucially, errors of scientific reasoning also underwrite this false crisis.</p>
<h2>The (shaky) case against cats</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1633">Conservationists</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/09/essay-to-save-birds-should-we-kill-off-cats/">media</a> often claim that cats are a main contributor to a <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250062185">mass extinction</a>, a catastrophic loss of species due to human activities, like habitat degradation and the killing of wildlife. </p>
<p>As an interdisciplinary team of scientists and ethicists studying animals in conservation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">we examined this claim</a> and found it wanting. It is true that like any other predator, cats can suppress the populations of their prey. Yet the extent of this effect is ecologically complex. </p>
<p>The potential impact of cats differs between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032">urban environments, small islands and remote deserts</a>. When <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025970">humans denude regions of vegetation</a>, small animals are particularly at risk from cats because they have no shelter in which to hide. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a 2019 study, cat remains were found in 19.8% of coyote scat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/coyote-carrying-cat-royalty-free-image/93419185">jhayes44/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Small animals are similarly vulnerable when humans kill apex predators that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv100">normally would suppress cat densities and activity</a>. For instance, in the U.S., cats are a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/urban-coyotes-eat-lot-garbageand-cats-180974461/">favorite meal for urban coyotes</a>, who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075718">moderate feline impact</a>; and in Australia, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02207.x">dingoes hunt wild cats</a>, which relieves pressure on native small animals. </p>
<p>Add in contrary evidence and the case against cats gets even shakier. For instance, in some ecological contexts, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/2102-birds-glad-cats-eat-rats.html">cats contribute to the conservation of endangered birds</a>, by preying on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00285.x">rats and mice</a>. There are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WR19181">documented cases of coexistence</a> between cats and native prey species. </p>
<p>The fact is, cats play <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12103">different predatory roles</a> in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/08/australian-cats-and-foxes-may-not-deserve-their-bad-rep">different natural and humanized landscapes</a>. Scientists cannot assume that because cats are a problem for some wildlife in some places, they are a problem in every place. </p>
<h2>Faulty scientific reasoning</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13527">most recent publication</a> in the journal Conservation Biology, we examine an error of reasoning that props up the moral panic over cats. </p>
<p>Scientists do not simply collect data and analyze the results. They also establish a logical argument to explain what they observe. Thus, the reasoning behind a factual claim is equally important to the observations used to make that claim. And it is this reasoning about cats where claims about their threat to global biodiversity founder. In our analysis, we found it happens because many scientists take specific, local studies and overgeneralize those findings to the world at large. </p>
<p>Even when specific studies are good overall, projecting the combined “results” onto the world at large can cause unscientific overgeneralizations, particularly when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.01.003">ecological context is ignored</a>. It is akin to pulling a quote out of context and then assuming you understand its meaning. </p>
<h2>Ways forward</h2>
<p>So how might citizens and scientists chart a way forward to a more nuanced understanding of cat ecology and conservation?</p>
<p>First, those examining this issue on all sides can acknowledge that both the well-being of cats and the survival of threatened species are legitimate concerns. </p>
<p>Second, cats, like any other predator, affect their ecological communities. Whether that impact is good or bad is a complex value judgment, not a scientific fact. </p>
<p>Third, there is a need for a more rigorous approach to the study of cats. Such an approach must be mindful of the importance of ecological context and avoid the pitfalls of faulty reasoning. It also means resisting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13126">the siren call of a silver (lethal) bullet</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A lazy day at a cat sanctuary in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lazy_day_at_the_Richmond_Animal_Protection_Society_cat_sanctuary.jpg">Canadianknowledgelover/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Yet there are many options to consider. Protecting apex predators and their habitat is fundamental to enabling <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-give-feral-cats-their-citizenship-45165">threatened species to coexist with cats</a>. In some cases, people may choose to segregate domestic cats from vulnerable wildlife: for instance, with <a href="http://www.feralcats.com/catio/">catios</a> where cats can enjoy the outdoors while being kept apart from wildlife. In other cases, unhomed cats may be managed with <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/community-cats-changing-legal-paradigm-management-so-called-%22pests%22">trap-neuter-return programs</a> and <a href="https://www.lanaicatsanctuary.org">sanctuaries</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, contrary to the framing of some scientists and journalists, the dispute over cats is not primarily about the science. Rather, it evokes an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13494">ongoing debate</a> over the ethics that ought to guide humanity’s relationship with other animals and nature.</p>
<p>This is the root of the moral panic over cats: the struggle to move beyond treating other beings with domination and control, toward fostering a relationship rooted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108648">compassion and justice</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://vetsites.tufts.edu/one-health-fellowship/2018/05/04/joann-lindenmayer-dvm-mph/">Joann Lindenmayer, DVM, MPH</a> is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University and contributed to this article.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arian Wallach receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on cats, and from Alley Cat Allies for a workshop on cats in 2017. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila and William S. Lynn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Framing cats as responsible for declines in biodiversity is based on faulty scientific logic and fails to account for the real culprit – human activity.William S. Lynn, Research Scientist, Clark UniversityArian Wallach, Lecturer, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology SydneyFrancisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1317812020-02-13T17:08:02Z2020-02-13T17:08:02ZHow my research into 19th-century military music revealed progressive attitudes towards homosexuality in a farmer’s diary<p>Recently, quite by accident while looking for something completely different – information on British military music in the Napoleonic era, to be precise – I discovered a remarkable discussion of homosexuality in the diary of an early 19th-century Yorkshire farmer.</p>
<p>Reflecting on reports of the recent execution of a naval surgeon for sodomy, Matthew Tomlinson wrote on January 14 1810:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It appears a paradox to me, how men, who are men, shou’d possess such a passion; and more particularly so, if it is their nature from childhood (as I am informed it is) – If they feel such an inclination, and propensity, at that certain time of life when youth genders [develops] into manhood; it must then be considered as <em>natural</em> otherwise, as a <em>defect</em> in nature […] it seems cruel to punish that defect with death. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This inference sparked solemn religious introspection, as Tomlinson struggled to understand how a just creator could countenance such severe penalties for a God-given trait: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It must seem strange indeed that God Almighty shou’d make a being, with such a nature; or such a defect in nature; and at the same time make a decree that if that being whome <em>he had</em> formed, shou’d at any time follow the dictates of that Nature with which he was formed he shou’d be punished with death.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As part of my doctoral research I’ve investigated many cases that reflect attitudes to sexuality in the armed forces of the period. There were many accusations of drummers working as prostitutes or rumours of their sexual involvement with officers. But this was something quite different.</p>
<p>A 45-year-old tenant farmer, Tomlinson resided at Dog House Farm on the Lupset Hall estate, a mile south-west of Wakefield in Yorkshire. His voluminous diaries chronicle local Luddite disturbances, agricultural life, and his attempts to find a second soulmate after the demise of his first wife. </p>
<p>A former Methodist, Tomlinson was an observant but ecumenical Christian – he wrote extensively on faith, love, death, and the political and economic affairs of his day. Although a few historians, including Katrina Navickas, have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/174587011X12928631621276">quoted from Tomlinson’s diaries in the past</a>, his meditations on homosexuality have never previously been brought to light.</p>
<h2>A chance discovery</h2>
<p>I identified the passage quite by chance. Returning by train from a 2018 conference on military history in Leeds, I decided to stop in Wakefield on a whim to view Tomlinson’s diaries in the local museum, having noticed colourful quotations from them in a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1750-0206.12249">book by Ellen Gibson Wilson</a> on the Yorkshire election of 1807.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the diaries had little to say about military music – Tomlinson was disdainful of patriotic pageantry – but his reflections on homosexuality, which I spotted while paging through the journals, stood out to me as striking and unusual for the time. I later decided to reach out to specialists on 18th and 19th-century sexuality to discern if my instincts were correct. UK-based American researcher <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/">Rictor Norton</a> and <a href="https://history.princeton.edu/people/fara-dabhoiwala">Fara Dabhoiwala</a> of Princeton University both generously shared their expertise, confirming the rarity and significance of my discovery.</p>
<p>The argument that same-sex relations were natural and innocuous was occasionally advanced in 18th-century England (in a <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/eighteenth-century-life/article-abstract/31/1/22/622/In-Search-of-Lost-Texts-Thomas-Cannon-s-Ancient">1749 tract by Thomas Cannon</a> for instance), while Enlightenment thinking on individual liberties and legal reform spurred calls for Britain to emulate its continental counterparts by abolishing the death penalty for homosexual acts. </p>
<p>Some men and women of the time who engaged in same-sex relationships viewed their sexual orientation as innate: Halifax landowner <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/37678">Anne Lister</a> justified her lesbian feelings as “natural” and “instinctive” <a href="https://theconversation.com/gentleman-jack-a-gripping-19th-century-tale-of-one-womans-bravery-in-sex-and-politics-116868">in her diary</a> in 1823. Utilitarian philosopher and social reformer <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/bentham/">Jeremy Bentham even expressed support</a> for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in various writings from the 1770s to the 1820s, contending that sodomy statutes stemmed from “no other foundation than prejudice”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gentleman-jack-a-gripping-19th-century-tale-of-one-womans-bravery-in-sex-and-politics-116868">Gentleman Jack: a gripping 19th-century tale of one woman's bravery in sex and politics</a>
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<p>But he did not dare publish such radical views. After all, this was an era when spreading false allegations of same-sex proclivities was considered by some commentators as akin to committing murder, such was the reputational ruin faced by the accused.</p>
<h2>‘Crime’ and punishment</h2>
<p>In an <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/twicken.htm">age of rampant persecution</a>, homosexual men in Georgian Britain were regularly executed or publicly disgraced, brutalised by hostile crowds in public pillories and forced into exile overseas. Tomlinson’s own meditations appear in his private diary, an intimate record of his thoughts not intended for a wider audience.</p>
<p>While Tomlinson’s writings reflect the opinions of only one man, the phrasing implies that his comments were informed by the views of others. This exciting new evidence perhaps complicates and enriches our understanding of historical attitudes towards sexuality, suggesting that the revolutionary conception of same-sex attraction as a natural human tendency, discernible from adolescence and deserving of acceptance, was mooted within the social circles of a Yorkshire farmer during the reign of George III.</p>
<p>Tomlinson’s reflections were prompted by reports of the court-martial and execution of naval surgeon James Nehemiah Taylor, who was hanged from the yard-arm of HMS Jamaica on December 26 1809 for committing sodomy with his young servant. Newspapers across Britain and Ireland <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1810tayl.htm">published accounts of the case</a>, reminding their burgeoning readerships of the draconian state penalties for homosexual behaviour. </p>
<p>Contemporary media reporting on sodomy cases, often couched in the language of moral panic, both reflected and reinforced social stigma against same-sex intimacy. But Tomlinson’s writings suggests that not all readers uncritically accepted the homophobic assumptions they encountered in the press. Disheartened by the ignominious demise of an accomplished medical man, the diarist questioned the justice of Taylor’s punishment and debated whether so-called “unnatural” acts were truly deserving of such an appellation.</p>
<p>But Tomlinson’s musings are still very much the product of his time. Although the diarist seriously considered the proposition that sexual orientation was innate, he did not unequivocally endorse it. Erroneously believing homosexual behaviour was unknown among animals, Tomlinson still allowed for the possibility that homosexuality might be a choice and therefore (in his view) deserving of punishment, suggesting that capital sentences for sodomy be replaced by the still gruesome alternative of castration.</p>
<h2>Wider implications</h2>
<p>Tomlinson’s meditations thus prove ultimately inconclusive, but nonetheless provide rare and historically valuable insight into the efforts of an ordinary person of faith to grapple with questions of sexual ethics more than two centuries ago. His comments anticipate many of the arguments deployed successfully by the LGBT+ and marriage equality movements in recent decades to promote acceptance of sexual diversity. </p>
<p>Tomlinson’s remarkable reflections suggest that recognisably modern conceptions of human sexuality were circulating in British society more widely – and at an earlier date – than commonly assumed.</p>
<p>I am thrilled to be able to share this exciting and historically significant new evidence with a wider audience, particularly during LGBT+ History Month. I hope the find will inspire other historians and students to engage more fully with the rich collections available in local and regional archives, while serving as a reminder of the serendipity inherent in historical research. </p>
<p>Sometimes the most interesting and important discoveries are the ones you weren’t even looking for.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an article published by the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/how-i-made-remarkable-discovery-lgbt-history-mistake-0">University of Oxford’s arts blog</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eamonn O'Keeffe receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for his DPhil at the University of Oxford. </span></em></p>Matthew Tomlinson deplored the execution of a naval surgeon for sodomy, writing that the death penalty was cruel and unfair.Eamonn O'Keeffe, PhD Researcher in History, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1306252020-01-31T10:13:41Z2020-01-31T10:13:41ZWhy shutting down Chinese ‘wet markets’ could be a terrible mistake<p>In late 2019, a new coronavirus – now formally known as Covid-19 – <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/">emerged in the city of Wuhan, China</a>. Despite a quarantine established by Chinese authorities, it subsequently spread to South Korea and Japan, and then Iran and Italy. So far, at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-wuhan-coronavirus-maps.html">80,000 people have been infected, with nearly 2,700 deaths</a>.</p>
<p>As anthropologists who have worked for a long time on diseases that spread from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) in China, our research can provide insights into the unfolding crisis. It is highly probable that this new form of coronavirus, which causes pneumonia – in some cases lethal – emerged through a zoonotic spillover, a “jump” of the virus from non-human animals to humans, in early December 2019. Chinese scientists <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30154-9/fulltext">have traced</a> the potential source of the virus to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which 27 of the initial cluster of 41 admitted hospital patients (but not the first recorded patient) had visited.</p>
<p>The market sold much more than seafood, including a range of wild animals. And scientists suspect that the virus “jumped” to humans from one of the wild animal species sold at the market. Contrary to the earlier hypothesis that <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/coronavirus-outbreak-china-originate-snakes-cobra/">the virus originated in snakes</a>, current genetic evidence suggests an emergence <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30154-9/fulltext">in bats</a>, which are less frequently sold in Chinese markets, but are widely believed to constitute the animal reservoir of many <a href="https://theconversation.com/ebola-bats-get-a-bad-rap-when-it-comes-to-spreading-diseases-32785">infectious diseases transmissible to humans</a>. Wuhan closed and disinfected the market on January 1, and China issued a temporary ban on all trade in wild animal products on January 22.</p>
<p>In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, global media accounts of China’s live animal markets have themselves gone viral. A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/world/asia/china-markets-coronavirus-sars.html"><em>New York Times</em> article</a>, for example, consciously described China’s “omnivorous” markets in a way that would be aesthetically unacceptable to its western audience (whole plucked chickens – with heads and beaks attached), as well as an assortment of wild animals, selected to shock the reader:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Live snakes, turtles and cicadas, guinea pigs, bamboo rats, badgers, hedgehogs, otters, palm civets, even wolf cubs.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the focus on exotic food consumption in China often <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.2005.107.1.031">relies on Orientalisation</a>, and is in some cases <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08949468.2016.1131484">tinged with anti-Chinese sentiment</a>.</p>
<h2>Creating moral panic</h2>
<p>The epidemiological need to be specific about what species the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market actually contained, and in what frequency, is undermined by media reports <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/abolish-asias-wet-markets-where-pandemics-breed-11580168707">urging for a permanent ban or abolition</a> of these “wet markets”. Such reports often lean heavily on a montage of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.sg/wuhan-coronavirus-chinese-wet-market-photos-2020-1/?r=US&IR=T">images from different markets across China</a> with little information on the where and when these were taken, and no acknowledgement of the significant variations in cuisine across different regions of the country.</p>
<p>These images communicate a sense of disgust toward the eating habits of the Chinese and at the same time reflect a fear of the interconnectedness of two types of “emergence” in China: viral emergence and economic emergence.</p>
<p>Anthropologists have discussed in some detail how the Chinese model of development (the economic emergence of China in the 21st century) <a href="https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/yellow-peril-epidemics(0c78d54e-bab8-4947-b4d6-92878cab9490).html">has been perceived in the West</a> as a threat, both in political and cultural terms: China’s economic development because of its rapid nature and the competition this might pose to the US or EU economies; and culturally, because reforms seem incompatible with western expectations of modernisation. In short, rather than China adapting to capitalism, capitalism (in China) is adapting to China.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312876/original/file-20200130-41490-1jw6uoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Chinese economy has boomed in the 21st century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hong-kong-china-feb-12-two-400240357">Radiokafka/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>China’s food consumption is iconic in this process. While Chinese consumers have embraced supermarkets and pre-packaged foods, China’s economic development has not led to a demise in Chinese forms of consumption, such as the desire for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/23/appetite-for-warm-meat-drives-risk-of-disease-in-hong-kong-and-china">“warm meat”</a>, and has not ushered in European and American cultural norms of what is eatable and what is not.</p>
<p>In western media, “wet markets” are portrayed as emblems of Chinese otherness: chaotic versions of oriental bazaars, lawless areas where animals that should not be eaten are sold as food, and where what should not be mingled comes together (seafood and poultry, serpents and cattle). This fuels Sinophobia and anxieties of what anthropologists have long identified as “matter out of place”: a symbolic system of pollution through which proscriptions and prescriptions of what foods or foodstuffs may be combined is held up.</p>
<p>This image is highly flawed, not only because it relies on western sensitivities of what is eatable and what is not, and which portrays a modern form of Chinese food trade and consumption as “traditional”, but more practically, because it misrepresents the material and economic reality of these markets.</p>
<h2>Diversity of the markets</h2>
<p>In reality, most seafood, live animal and wholesale markets in China contain far less exotic fare. An enormous variety of different kinds of market are confusingly lumped within the term “wet market”, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/east-asian-words-oxford-english-dictionary-hong-kong-singapore-oed">term that originated</a> in Hong Kong and Singapore English to distinguish markets selling fresh meat and produce from “dry” markets selling packaged and durable goods such as textiles.</p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-019-00961-8">several kinds of “wet markets” can be distinguished</a>, with differences that are often crucial for accurately assessing the risks they pose for the emergence of viruses: scale (wholesale or retail), produce (live animals, only slaughtered meat and fresh vegetables, only live seafood; animals (domestic only or wild). Where markets do contain what many western media portray as “wild animals”, the majority of these are actually bred and farmed in captivity, such as mallard ducks, frogs, or snakes. Only a smaller proportion of animals are actually poached from the wild for sale.</p>
<h2>The struggle of Chinese farmers</h2>
<p>What is perhaps most omitted in the discussion of Chinese wet markets is the perspective of farmers, producers, and vendors. Although media reports often marvel at the consumption of wild animals, little is said about why farmers produce them. As Lyle Fearnley learned <a href="https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca30.1.03">during fieldwork research</a> with wild swan goose (<em>dayan</em>) farmers in Jiangxi Province, two factors brought most farmers into the breeding of wild geese during the late 1990s: an opportunity to meet consumer demand without illegal poaching from the wild, and as a path toward higher-value production, at a time when rural smallholder farmers faced increasing economic pressure from large-scale industrial food producers.</p>
<p>During China’s post-Mao market reforms which began in 1978, collective farmland was redistributed to individual households, leading to an explosion in smallholder farmers, known as “specialised” (<em>zhuanyehu</em>) because they focused on particular cash crops or livestock, including chickens, ducks or pigs. But in the 1990s, China embarked on a “second leap” to expand the scale of agricultural production. Heavily capitalised “dragonhead enterprises”(<em>longtou qiye</em>) – industrial food production conglomerates – built integrated supply chains, often centred on slaughterhouses and processing facilities, and contracted livestock out to household-scale farmers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312878/original/file-20200130-41532-qd0k50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Post-Mao, farming in China rapidly changed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/macro-close-photograph-mao-on-chinese-1628518051">Trekandshoot/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>After the livestock revolution</h2>
<p>An enormous consolidation followed, as independent smallholders were progressively driven out of livestock farming, especially in sectors such as pork or poultry, because prices dropped too low and the cost of inputs went up. Livestock diseases, such as Newcastle disease and Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, also played a role in <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0e3c/bfc507a8c9fa37f1c773d57158fb9b1fc354.pdf">driving smallholders out of these sectors</a>. Unable to survive as independent smallholders, many farmers <a href="http://www.medanthrotheory.org/read/10965/after-the-livestock-revolution">faced a drastic choice</a>: take up farming under contract to an industrial food conglomerate, or get out of farming pork or poultry altogether.</p>
<p>Some farmers discovered a third way, opting to raise local breeds and wild animals that could be sold for higher returns in niche markets. Many of these species were less afflicted with diseases than mainstream livestock, often simply an effect of the smaller number being farmed. Although the higher price of wild animals compared to domesticated <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/health/china-coronavirus-wuhan-visitors-officials-tracing-risk-1375444">has led to the belief</a> that its consumption “is a dietary choice and not driven by low income”, for farmers the story is different: breeding wild animals can be a path toward a steady income when it remains a struggle to live off the land in rural China.</p>
<p>The variety of markets grouped under the term “wet markets”, much like the farming of wild animals, have provided important livelihoods to independent smallholder farmers. These markets often also have informal supply chains that enable smallholders to transport animals to market without the involvement of large-scale food processing firms that own slaughterhouses and control contracts with supermarkets. But although informal, it’s not to say such markets are unregulated. Research by Christos Lynteris <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/2150">recorded regular inspections</a> of “wet markets” markets by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and by municipal sanitary authorities that begin after the SARS epidemic in 2003.</p>
<p>“Wet markets” form an integral part of the Chinese market and of Chinese social life. And based on the latest data suggesting a significant number of early cases of coronavirus <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally">without links to the Huanan Seafood Market</a>, several infectious disease experts have raised doubts about whether the market was the source of the novel coronavirus at all. Whatever the case, while shutting them down temporarily and curbing wild-animal trade has advantages when it comes to preventing disease, a permanent shut down or abolition of “wet markets” would have an immense and unpredictable impact on everyday life and well-being in China.</p>
<p>A permanent shutdown of “wet markets” would affect patterns of food consumption in ways that are unknowable but potentially harmful to public health. It would deprive Chinese consumers of a food sector that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698915301892">accounts for 30-59% of their food supplies</a>. Due to the large number of farmers, traders and consumers involved, the abolition of “wet markets” is also likely to lead to an explosion of an uncontrollable black market, as it did when such a ban was attempted in 2003, in response to SARS, as well as in 2013-14, in response to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6291110/">avian influenza H7N9</a>.</p>
<p>This would involve enormously greater risk to public and global health than the legal and regulated live animal markets in China today. And live poultry and animal markets have long served as <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)15329-9/fulltext?version">a crucial “early warning” site</a> for viral surveillance, including in the United States.</p>
<p>What “wet markets” in China require is more scientific and evidence-based regulation, rather than being abolished and driven underground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christos Lynteris receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, and has received funding from the European Research Council, The Brocher Foundation, The Russell Trust, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, The University of Cambridge's Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Roddan Trust, and the Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyle Fearnley has received funding from Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, and SUTD Start-Up Research Grant.</span></em></p>Exotic and sensational depictions of Chinese “wet markets” may prevent a proper and efficient understanding of how viral diseases emerge.Christos Lynteris, Senior Lecturer, anthropologist, University of St AndrewsLyle Fearnley, Assistant Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258422019-10-25T10:33:28Z2019-10-25T10:33:28ZLab-grown mini brains: we can’t dismiss the possibility that they could one day outsmart us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298691/original/file-20191025-173554-1b31ue4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It may not be science fiction anymore.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/human-brain-floating-liquid-bell-jar-1242833386?src=0cu5bB6HRKxhfgC7h18BLg-1-24"> 80's Child/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cutting-edge method of growing clusters of cells that organise themselves into mini versions of human brains in the lab is gathering more and more attention. These “brain organoids”, made from stem cells, offer <a href="https://theconversation.com/lab-grown-mini-brains-shed-light-on-how-humans-split-from-great-apes-125331">unparalleled insights into the human brain</a>, which is notoriously difficult to study.</p>
<p>But some researchers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/25/growing-brains-in-labs-why-its-time-for-an-ethical-debate">are worried</a> that a form of consciousness might arise in such mini-brains, which are sometimes transplanted into animals. They could at least be sentient to the extent of experiencing pain and suffering from being trapped. If this is true – and before we consider how likely it is – it is absolutely clear in my mind that we must exert a supreme level of caution when considering this issue.</p>
<p>Brain organoids are currently very simple compared to human brains and can’t be conscious in the same way. Due to a lack of blood supply, they do not reach sizes larger than around five or six millimetres. That said, they have been found to <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(19)30337-6">produce brain waves</a> that are similar to those in premature babies. A study has showed they can also grow neural networks <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4127">that respond to light</a>.</p>
<p>There are also signs that such organoids can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4127">link up with other organs</a> and receptors in animals. That means that they not only have a prospect of becoming sentient, they also have the potential to communicate with the external world, by collecting sensory information. Perhaps they can one day actually respond through sound devices or digital output. </p>
<p>As a cognitive neuroscientist, I am happy to conceive that an organoid maintained alive for a long time, with a constant supply of life-essential nutrients, could eventually become sentient and maybe even fully conscious. </p>
<h2>Time to panic?</h2>
<p>This isn’t the first time biological science has thrown up ethical questions. Gender reassignment shocked many in the past, but, whatever your beliefs and moral convictions, sex change narrowly concerns the individual undergoing the procedure, with limited or no biological impact on their entourage and descendants.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-edit-human-embryos-to-safely-remove-disease-for-the-first-time-heres-how-they-did-it-81925">Genetic manipulation of embryos</a>, in contrast, raised alert levels to hot red, given the very high likelihood of genetic modifications being heritable and potentially changing the genetic make up of the population down the line. This is why successful operations of this kind conducted by Chinese scientist He Jianku <a href="https://theconversation.com/gene-edited-babies-china-wants-to-be-the-world-leader-but-at-what-cost-107643">raised very strong objections</a> worldwide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297095/original/file-20191015-98674-1ajs2qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Human cerebral organoids range in size from a poppy seed to a small pea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NIH/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But creating mini brains inside animals, or even worse, within an artificial biological environment, should send us all frantically panicking. In my opinion, the ethical implications go well beyond determining whether we may be creating a suffering individual. If we are creating a brain – however small –– we are creating a system with a capacity to process information and, down the line, given enough time and input, potentially the ability to think.</p>
<p>Some form of consciousness is ubiquitous in the animal world, and we, as humans, are obviously on top of the scale of complexity. While we don’t know exactly what consciousness is, we still worry that human-designed AI may <a href="https://theconversation.com/robots-and-ai-could-soon-have-feelings-hopes-and-rights-we-must-prepare-for-the-reckoning-73462">develop some form of it</a>. But thought <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-like-hal-9000-can-never-exist-because-real-emotions-arent-programmable-94141">and emotions</a> are likely to be emergent properties of our neurons organised into networks through development, and it is much more likely it could arise in an organoid than in a robot. This may be a primitive form of consciousness or even a full blown version of it, provided it receives input from the external world and finds ways to interact with it.</p>
<p>In theory, mini-brains could be grown forever in a laboratory – whether it is legal or not – increasing in complexity and power for as long as their life-support system can provide them with oxygen and vital nutrients. This is the case for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks">cancer cells of a woman called Henrietta Lacks</a>, which are alive more than 60 years after her death and multiplying today in hundreds of thousands of labs throughout the world.</p>
<h2>Disembodied super intelligence?</h2>
<p>But if brains are cultivated in the laboratory in such conditions, without time limit, could they ever develop a form of consciousness that surpasses human capacity? As I see it, why not? </p>
<p>And if they did, would we be able to tell? What if such a new form of mind decided to keep us, humans, in the dark about their existence – be it only to secure enough time to take control of their life-support system and ensure that they are safe? </p>
<p>When I was an adolescent, I often had scary dreams of the world being taken over by a giant computer network. I still have that worry today, and it has partly become true. But the scare of a biological super-brain taking over is now much greater in my mind. Keep in mind that such new organism would not have to worry about their body becoming old and dying, because they would not have a body.</p>
<p>This may sound like the first lines of a bad science fiction plot, but I don’t see reasons to dismiss these ideas as forever unrealistic. </p>
<p>The point is that we have to remain vigilant, especially given that this could all happen without us noticing. You just have to consider how difficult it is to assess whether someone is lying when testifying in court to realise that we will not have an easy task trying to work out the hidden thoughts of a lab grown mini-brain.</p>
<p>Slowing the research down by controlling organoid size and life span, or widely agreeing a moratorium before we reach a point of no return, would make good sense. But unfortunately, the growing ubiquity of biological labs and equipment will make enforcement incredibly difficult – as we’ve seen with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/28/scientist-in-china-defends-human-embryo-gene-editing">genetic embryo editing</a>.</p>
<p>It would be an understatement to say that I share the worries of some of my colleagues working in the field of cellular medicine. The toughest question that we can ask regarding these mesmerising possibilities, and which also applies to genetic manipulations of embryos, is: can we even stop this?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guillaume Thierry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We worry about AI developing consciousness, but brain organoids may be more likely to do so.Guillaume Thierry, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1239002019-10-09T13:05:42Z2019-10-09T13:05:42ZGames blamed for moral decline and addiction throughout history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295835/original/file-20191007-121079-kwgzgo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C1737%2C1092&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Did ancient Egyptian parents worry their kids might get addicted to this game, called senet?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SenetBoard-InscribedWithNameOfAmunhotepIII_BrooklynMuseum.png">Keith Schengili-Roberts/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Video games are often blamed for <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-video-games-jobs-emploment-20160923-story.html">unemployment</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/26/20754659/video-games-and-violence-debate-moral-panic-history">violence in society</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/fortnite-lawsuit-gaming-addiction-epic-games-a9146486.html">addiction</a> – including by <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/video-game-violence-became-partisan-issue/595456/">partisan politicians raising moral concerns</a>. </p>
<p>Blaming video games for social or moral decline might feel like something new. But fears about the effects of recreational games on society as a whole are centuries old. History shows a cycle of apprehension and acceptance about games that is very like events of modern times.</p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.academia.edu/8210038/The_Egyptian_Game_of_Senet_and_the_Migration_of_the_Soul">ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs</a>, historians know that the oldest examples of board games trace back to the game of <a href="https://www.mastersofgames.com/rules/senet-rules.htm">senet</a> around 3100 B.C. </p>
<p>One of the earliest known written descriptions of games dates from the fifth century B.C. The <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/dialogues-of-the-buddha/oclc/506265870">Dialogues of the Buddha</a>, purport to record the actual words of the Buddha himself. In them, he is reported to say that “some recluses…while living on food provided by the faithful, <a href="https://sacred-texts.com/bud/dob/dob-01tx.htm">continue addicted to games and recreations</a>; that is to say…games on boards with eight or with 10, rows of squares.”</p>
<p>That reference is widely recognized as describing a <a href="https://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfChess/page/n39">predecessor to chess</a> – a much-studied game with an abundant literature in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2016.08.002">cognitive science</a> and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Chess-1st-Edition/Gobet/p/book/9781138216655">psychology</a>. In fact, chess has been <a href="https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA13489514">called an art form</a> and even used as a <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/white-king-and-red-queen-how-the-cold-war-was-fought-on-the-chessboard/oclc/759836279">peaceful U.S.-Soviet competition during the Cold War</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the Buddha’s concern, chess has not historically raised concerns about addiction. Scholars’ attention to chess is focused on mastery and the wonders of the mind, not the potential of being addicted to playing. </p>
<p>Somewhere between the early Buddhist times and today, worries about game addiction have given way to scientific understanding of the cognitive, social and emotional <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/a0034857">benefits of play</a> – rather than its detriments – and even viewing chess and other games as teaching tools, for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00762">improving players’ thinking</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_SJOP.2012.v15.n2.38866">social-emotional development</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.02.002">math skills</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295840/original/file-20191007-121071-18qnhue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A die among other playing pieces from the Akkadian Empire, 2350-2150 B.C., found at Khafajah in modern-day Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Games and politics</h2>
<p>Dice, an ancient invention developed in many <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080614053946/http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=5668&sectionid=351020108">early cultures</a>, found their way to ancient Greek and Roman culture. It helped that both societies had believers in numerology, an almost religious link between the divine and numbers. </p>
<p>So common were games of dice in Roman culture that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/651038">Roman emperors wrote about their exploits in dice games such as Alea</a>. These gambling games were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500003119">ultimately outlawed</a> during the rise of Christianity in Roman civilization, because they allegedly promoted immoral tendencies.</p>
<p>More often than not, the concerns about games were used as a political tool to manipulate public sentiment. As <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/unlvgalj3&div=16">one legal historian puts</a> it, statutes on dice games in ancient Rome were only “sporadically and selectively enforced … what we would call ‘sports betting’ was exempted.” The rolling of dice was prohibited because it was gambling, but wagering on the outcomes of sport were not. Until of course, sports themselves came under fire. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/kings-book-of-sports-a-history-of-the-declarations-of-king-james-i-and-king-charles-i-as-to-the-use-of-lawful-sports-on-sundays/oclc/4788417">history of the “Book of Sports,”</a> a 17th-century compendium of declarations of King James I of England, demonstrates the next phase of fears about games. The royal directives outlined what sports and leisure activities were appropriate to engage in after Sunday religious services.</p>
<p>In the early 1600s, the book became the subject of a religious tug-of-war between Catholic and Puritan ideals. Puritans complained that the Church of England needed to be purged of more influences from Roman Catholicism – and liked neither the idea of play on Sundays nor how much people liked doing it.</p>
<p>In the end, English Puritans had the book burned. As a Time magazine article put it, “<a href="https://www.si.com/vault/1962/01/08/590449/the-bizarre-history-of-american-sport">Sport grew up through Puritanism</a> like flowers in a macadam prison yard.” Sports, like board games of the past, were stifled and the subject of much ire in the past and present. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KeFjYDRMggc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Retro Report explains the pinball-machine bans of the mid-20th century.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pinball in the 20th century</h2>
<p>In the middle part of the 20th century, one particular type of game emerged as a frequent target of politician concern – and playing it was even outlawed in cities across the country. </p>
<p>That game was pinball. But the parallels with today’s concerns about video games are clear.</p>
<p>In her history of moral panics about elements of popular culture, historian Karen Sternheimer observed that the invention of the coin-operated pinball game coincided with “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Pop-Culture-Panics-How-Moral-Crusaders-Construct-Meanings-of-Deviance/Sternheimer/p/book/9780415748063">a time when young people</a> – and unemployed adults – had a growing amount of leisure time on their hands.” </p>
<p>As a result, she wrote, “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Pop-Culture-Panics-How-Moral-Crusaders-Construct-Meanings-of-Deviance/Sternheimer/p/book/9780415748063">it didn’t take long for pinball to show up</a> on moral crusaders’ radar; just five years spanned between the invention of the first coin-operated machines in 1931 to their ban in Washington, D.C., in 1936.”</p>
<p>New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia argued that pinball machines were “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/the-mayor-who-took-a-sledgehammer-to-nycs-pinball-machines/267309/">from the devil</a>” and brought moral corruption to young people. He famously used a sledgehammer to destroy pinball machines confiscated during the city’s ban, which <a href="https://guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-ban-in-gaming-history">lasted from 1942 to 1976</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295847/original/file-20191007-121051-1meovop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An early pinball machine, before the innovation of flippers to keep the ball in play longer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flipper1948.jpg">Huhu/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His complaints sound very similar to modern-day concerns that <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/03/30/the-link-between-video-games-and-unemployment">video games contribute to unemployment</a> at a time when millennials are one of the most <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/payout/2017/07/21/the-underemployment-phenomenon-no-one-is-talking-about/">underemployed generations</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>Even the cost of penny arcade pinball machines raised political alarms about wasting children’s money, in much the way that politicians declare they have <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/loot-boxes-in-games-are-gambling-and-should-be-banned-for-kids-say-uk-mps/">problems with small purchases and electronic treasure boxes</a> in video games.</p>
<p>As far back as the Buddha’s own teachings, moral leaders were warning about <a href="https://sacred-texts.com/bud/dob/dob-01tx.htm">addicting games and recreations</a> including “throwing dice,” “games with balls” and even “turning somersaults,” recommending the pious hold themselves “aloof from such games and recreations.”</p>
<p>Then, as now, play was caught in society-wide discussions that really had nothing to do with gaming – and everything to do with keeping or creating an established moral order.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsay Grace does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Somewhere between the early Buddhist times and today, worries about game addiction have given way to scientific understanding of the benefits of play, rather than its detriments.Lindsay Grace, Knight Chair in Interactive Media; Associate Professor of Communication, University of MiamiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1237072019-09-18T11:54:31Z2019-09-18T11:54:31ZTeaching in rural schools can damage mental health of lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292973/original/file-20190918-187980-1lh6st9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stressed-nursery-teacher-classroom-she-sitting-447228703?src=RbyKfvV6BIQ53WiXouu9Lw-1-1">DGLimages/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jo is a teacher in a large primary school in a village in Southeast England. She tells me she is having counselling for depression and has taken time off school because she finds her personal life as a lesbian totally incompatible with her professional identity as a teacher. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I find myself stopping mid-sentence in the classroom or the staffroom. I’m constantly worried, I’ll say something that accidentally outs me to pupils and other teachers. It’s exhausting and, although I love teaching, some days I feel as though I can’t cope.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jo is not unusual. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/9/249">I recently surveyed</a> more than 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) teachers in the UK and found that more than half (61%) of those in village schools have accessed help for depression and anxiety linked to their sexual identity and role as a teacher. This compared to 11% in cities and 14% in towns. Indeed, 46% of LGB teachers in village schools have been absent from work, compared with only 5% of teachers in towns and cities.</p>
<p>Some respondents told us that they now avoid applying for posts in rural areas completely. Those that do get jobs in rural schools rarely stay very long. Sarah taught English in a village secondary school for a year, but returned to London after being warned by her headteacher not to come out as gay. She told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My head told me that if I was serious about leadership, I must never come out at school, as the parents wouldn’t tolerate it. He added that ‘lesbians don’t become headteachers’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My research found that more than 40% of teachers in village schools thought that their sexual or gender identity had been a barrier to their promotion compared with an average of 15% of teachers in towns or cities. A third of teachers in village schools had left a role because of homophobia compared with 17% of teachers in schools in towns or cities.</p>
<p>In addition, 31% of teachers in rural schools reported hearing homophobic language every day, compared with only 2% of urban teachers.</p>
<p>Almost a third of LGB teachers in village schools said that they were not able to be themselves in the school staffroom and kept their personal lives a secret from their colleagues. In towns and cities, 98% of LGB teachers were out to at least some school staff but not to pupils and their parents.</p>
<h2>Rural life</h2>
<p>Teachers in rural schools face an all or nothing situation when deciding whether or not to come out. The interwoven nature of rural relationships and communities makes it much harder for people to only come out to a few people without everyone else hearing about it. Many LGB teachers told us they avoid posts in rural schools because being the local schoolteacher brings with it a level of surveillance which is intolerable.</p>
<p>The percentage of LGB teachers in rural schools accessing help for anxiety and depression suggests that there may be a link between the extent to which LGB teachers feel able to be open about their sexual identity in the workplace, and their mental health. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072932/">Research into</a> the mental health of LGB people suggests that they may more be prone to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression because of repeated messages of exclusion. </p>
<p>A sense of inclusion and harmony with one’s environment is the basis for good mental health. Where teachers feel that the culture of the school and local community is unwelcoming it can lead to significant stress and anxiety.</p>
<p>When lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) teachers are forced to retreat to the perceived safety of schools in towns or cities, it perpetuates the idea that rural areas are not suitable for them. When this occurs, children and young people have fewer opportunities to see on a day-to-day basis how LGBT adults live their lives, and in doing so, dispel any homophobic myths passed down from previous generations.</p>
<p>The LGBT teacher who remains unseen by the rural school community also denies emerging LGBT young people access to positive role models. The inevitable result of this is that many rural LGBT young people eventually migrate to towns or cities, further perpetuating the idea that rural life is incompatible with LGBT identities.</p>
<p>From September 2020, schools will introduce <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education">relationships and sex education</a> that includes LGBT relationships. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbt-school-lessons-row-shows-homophobia-is-alive-and-well-in-the-uk-114224">angry response</a> to this by parents and local communities in Birmingham and across the UK has created moral panic and left at least one of the teachers involved <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/06/06/birmingham-teacher-andrew-moffat-lgbt-lessons-therapy-protests/">needing counselling</a>.</p>
<p>Headteachers <a href="https://www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/curriculum-and-assessment-news/anti-equality-protests-must-be-stopped-by-the-end-of-term/">have called for</a> urgent support from the government amid fears that the disruption could escalate further. If protests do persist and become more widespread, the rural school workplace is likely to become even more challenging for LGBT teachers.</p>
<p><em>The study participants’ names have been changed to protect their identities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study suggests LGB teachers in rural schools far likelier to have depression or anxiety than those in towns or cities.Catherine Lee, Deputy Dean for Education, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192642019-09-10T12:40:24Z2019-09-10T12:40:24ZThe strange connection between Bobby Kennedy’s death and Scooby-Doo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291750/original/file-20190910-190026-otnyex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=123%2C16%2C1317%2C943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!' was a funky, lighthearted alternative to the action cartoons that, for years, had dominated Saturday morning lineups.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i0.wp.com/geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/09/SCOOBY-DOO_9.38.26.jpg?resize=1748%2C1309&ssl=1">GeekDad</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scooby-Doo has appeared in a whopping 16 television series, two live-action films, 35 direct-to-DVD movies, 20 video games, 13 comic book series and five stage shows. Now, with “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3152592/">Scoob!</a>,” the Mystery Incorporated gang will appear in a CGI feature-length film, which, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is going to be released to video-on-demand on May 15.</p>
<p>The very first television series, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063950/">Scooby-Doo, Where are You!</a>,” was created by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS Saturday morning and premiered on Sept. 13, 1969. The formula of four mystery-solving teenagers – Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy along with the titular talking Great Dane – remained mostly intact as the group stumbled their way into pop-culture history. </p>
<p>But as I explain in my forthcoming book on the franchise, Scooby-Doo’s invention was no happy accident; it was a strategic move in response to cultural shifts and political exigencies. The genesis of the series was inextricably bound up with the societal upheavals of 1968 – in particular, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.</p>
<h2>More horror, better ratings</h2>
<p>In the late 1960s, the television and film studio Hanna-Barbera was the largest producer of animated television programming. </p>
<p>For years, Hanna-Barbera had created slapstick comedy cartoons – “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls029632227/">Tom and Jerry</a>” in the 1940s and 1950s, followed by television series like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255768/">The Yogi Bear Show</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053502/">The Flintstones</a>.” But by the 1960s, the most popular cartoons were those that capitalized on <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9i0yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA434&lpg=PA434&dq=secret+agent+craze&source=bl&ots=kMYc6JU0AX&sig=ACfU3U2XAYMoeA24PqOGENx4oWMSi0RsXQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0sKPqssTkAhWNVN8KHSI_YYQ6AEwCHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=secret%20agent%20craze&f=false">the secret agent craze</a>, the space race and the popularity of superheroes. </p>
<p>In what would serve as a turning point in television animation, the three broadcast networks – CBS, ABC and NBC – launched nine new action-adventure cartoons on Saturday morning in the fall of 1966. In particular, Hanna-Barbera’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060026/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Space Ghost and Dino Boy</a>” and Filmation’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060012/">The New Adventures of Superman</a>” were hits with kids. These and other action-adventure series featured non-stop action and violence, with the heroes working to defeat, even kill, a menace or monster by any means necessary.</p>
<p>So for the 1967-1968 Saturday morning lineup, Hanna-Barbera supplied the networks with six new action-adventure cartoons, including “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061262/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Herculoids</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061237/">Birdman and the Galaxy Trio</a>.” Gone were the days of funny human and animal hijinks; in their place: terror, peril, jeopardy and child endangerment. </p>
<p>The networks, <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/12/08/91244471.html?pageNumber=401">wrote The New York Times’ Sam Blum</a>, “had instructed its cartoon suppliers to turn out more of the same – in fact, to go ‘stronger’ – on the theory, which proved correct, that the more horror, the higher the Saturday morning ratings.” </p>
<p>Such horror generally took the form of “fantasy violence” – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=owUIvAEACAAJ&dq=television+the+business+behind+the+box&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjfzeagybzkAhXK1FkKHfPZBB4Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ">what Joe Barbera called</a> “out-of-this-world hard action.” The studio churned out these grim series “not out of choice,” Barbera explained. “It’s the only thing we can sell to the networks, and we have to stay in business.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291575/original/file-20190909-109927-1xdg8r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joe Barbera poses with three of his studio’s most popular animated characters, Scooby-Doo, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, in this 1996 photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/AP-A-CA-USA-OBIT-BARBERA/8d05636b91d64f668c5cf196d13a3eb1/5/0">AP Photo/Reed Saxon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barbera’s remarks highlighted the immense authority then held by the broadcast networks in dictating the content of Saturday morning television. </p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ibxkAAAAMAAJ&q=entertainment+education+hard+sell&dq=entertainment+education+hard+sell&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih2r62ybzkAhXBwVkKHah2AgEQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg">Entertainment, Education and the Hard Sell</a>,” communication scholar Joseph Turow studied the first three decades of network children’s programming. He notes the fading influence of government bodies and public pressure groups on children’s programming in the mid-1960s – a shift that enabled the networks to serve their own commercial needs and those of their advertisers. </p>
<p>The decline in regulation of children’s television spurred criticism over violence, commercialism and the lack of diversity in children’s programming. No doubt sparked by the oversaturation of action-adventure cartoons on Saturday morning, the nonprofit corporation National Association for Better Broadcasting declared that year’s children’s television programming in March 1968 to be the “worst in the history of TV.” </p>
<h2>Political upheaval spurs moral panic</h2>
<p>Cultural anxieties about the effects of media violence on children had increased significantly after March 1968, concurrent with television coverage of the Vietnam War, student protests and riots incited by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As historian Charles Kaiser wrote in his book about <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-heat-and-light-of-1968-still-influence-today-3-essential-reads-108569">that pivotal year</a>, the upheaval fueled moral crusades.</p>
<p>“For the first time since their invention, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/1968_in_America.html?id=Wt1LOgmnlFgC">he wrote</a>, "televised pictures made the possibility of anarchy in America feel real.”</p>
<p>But it was the assassination of Robert. F. Kennedy in June 1968 that would exile action-adventure cartoons from the Saturday morning lineup for nearly a decade. </p>
<p>Kennedy’s role as a father to 11 was intertwined with his political identity, and he had long championed causes that helped children. Alongside his commitment to ending child hunger and poverty, he had, as attorney general, worked with the Federal Communications Commission to improve the “<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-newt-minow-fcc-ae-0117-20170118-column.html">vast wasteland</a>” of children’s television programming.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291571/original/file-20190909-109927-1o9gd1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robert Kennedy and his wife and kids go for a walk near their home in McLean, Va.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-VA-USA-APHS406926-Ethel-Kennedy-and-/88ca23037ec14851b89ed2d960cd7b5e/6/0">AP Photo/Henry Griffin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just hours after Kennedy was shot, President Lyndon B. Johnson <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11412-establishing-national-commission-the-causes-and-prevention-violence">announced the appointment</a> of a National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. While the commission’s formal findings wouldn’t be shared until late 1969, demands for greater social control and regulation of media violence surged directly following Johnson’s announcement, contributing to what sociologists call a “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Ashgate-Research-Companion-to-Moral-Panics-1st-Edition/Krinsky/p/book/9781409408116">moral panic</a>.”</p>
<p>Media studies scholar Heather Hendershot <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=b6Iqh5umo3sC&lpg=PP9&ots=-M78k0n01U&dq=Saturday%20Morning%20Censors%3A%20Television%20Regulation%20before%20the%20V-Chip&lr&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=false">explained</a> that even those critical of Kennedy’s liberal causes supported these efforts; censoring television violence “in his name” for the good of children “was like a tribute.”</p>
<p>Civic groups like the National Parent Teacher Association, which had been condemning violent cartoons at its last three conventions, were emboldened. The editors of McCall’s, a popular women’s magazine, provided steps for readers to pressure the broadcast networks to discontinue violent programming. And a Christian Science Monitor report in July of that year – which found 162 acts of violence or threats of violence on one Saturday morning alone – was widely circulated.</p>
<p>The moral panic in the summer of 1968 caused a permanent change in the landscape of Saturday morning. The <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/07/20/77179505.html?pageNumber=42">networks announced</a> that they would be turning away from science-fiction adventure and pivoting toward comedy for its cartoon programming.</p>
<p>All of this paved the way for the creation of a softer, gentler animated hero: Scooby-Doo.</p>
<p>However, the premiere of the 1968-1969 Saturday morning season was just around the corner. Many episodes of new action-adventure series were still in various stages of production. Animation was a lengthy process, taking anywhere from four to six months to go from idea to airing. ABC, CBS and NBC stood to lose millions of dollars in licensing fees and advertising revenue by canceling a series before it even aired or before it finished its contracted run. </p>
<p>So in the fall of 1968 with many action-adventure cartoons still on the air, CBS and Hanna-Barbera began work on a series – one eventually titled “Scooby-Doo, Where are You!” – for the 1969-1970 Saturday morning season.</p>
<p>“Scooby-Doo, Where are You!” still supplies a dose of action and adventure. But the characters are never in real peril or face serious jeopardy. There are no superheroes saving the world from aliens and monsters. Instead, a gang of goofy kids and their dog in a groovy van solve mysteries. The monsters they encounter are just humans in disguise.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on September 10, 2019.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Sandler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Demands for regulation of media violence reached a fever pitch after RFK’s assassination, and networks scrambled to insert more kid-friendly fare into their lineups. Enter: the Mystery Machine.Kevin Sandler, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1196742019-07-01T12:23:08Z2019-07-01T12:23:08ZConservative Party is in complete denial about its Islamophobia problem – just look at Boris Johnson if you need proof<p>Throughout his political career, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has been lauded as a “character”. He is portrayed as bungling through escapades with effable charm, as being prone to innocent gaffes and as lurching from one humorous episode to another. It would all be so very “Carry On” if the repercussions of his words weren’t quite so serious.</p>
<p>In August 2018 Johnson wrote an article in <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/05/denmark-has-got-wrong-yes-burka-oppressive-ridiculous-still/">The Telegraph</a>, in which he discussed the recent banning of the niqab, or full-face veil in Denmark. In it, Johnson described Muslim women as looking like “bank robbers”. He said he found it “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes”. Johnson described the expression of Islamic faith as a “problem” and customs of Muslims as “bizarre and unattractive”. No action was taken against Johnson at the time. Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi, who has long highlighted the issue of Islamophobia in the party, called it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/06/boris-johnsons-burqa-remarks-fan-flames-of-islamophobia-says-mp">“business as usual”</a>.</p>
<p>Now, Johnson is on the verge of becoming prime minister and the Conservative Party continues to deny it has a problem with Islamophobia. A recent <a href="https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2019/06/21/conservative-crisis-islamophobia">poll</a> showed that more than 43% of Conservative members would prefer not to have the country led by a Muslim. It also revealed that 67% of members believe the Islamophobic myth that areas of Britain operate under Sharia law. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/sajid-javid-10092">Sajid Javid</a> never really stood a chance in this leadership contest. Successive Tory party members have been disciplined or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/24/tory-islamophobia-row-15-suspended-councillors-quietly-reinstated">suspended from the party</a> for posting Islamophobic or racist content online (and then quietly readmitted and allowed to stand as potential election candidates).</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Johnson has downgraded his promise to hold an independent inquiry into Islamophobia in the Tory party if elected as leader. This will now be just a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/27/tory-islamophobia-inquiry-will-be-general-investigation-boris-johnson-sajid-javid">“general investigation”</a>. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, what would an investigation into a Conservative Party that has elected a leader who calls niqabi women “letter boxes” actually look like?</p>
<p>In a televised BBC TV debate the contenders for leadership were challenged to commit to an independent external inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. Javid put the other candidates on the spot, asking “shall we have an external investigation in the Conservative Party into Islamophobia?”. The agreement from the other candidates seemed reluctant. Jeremy Hunt contended that “racism was not restricted to any one political party”. Cool new guy, and ever the “diplomat” Rory Stewart, even found it difficult to call out Donald Trump’s blatant Islamophobic attacks on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. </p>
<p>Islamophobia is and has long been a problem – both within the halls of power and on the streets of the UK. It’s not difficult to see how irresponsible sentiments and language used by politicians can influence opinions in our everyday public spaces. Nor is it too difficult to see how unscrupulous politicians are willing to take advantage of misplaced fears and moral panics over the “Muslim other”.</p>
<p>Following Johnson’s comments, Tell MAMA, the anti-Islamophobia charity which records anti-Muslim hate crimes, found a <a href="https://tellmamauk.org/press/letterbox-insults-against-muslim-women-spike-in-wake-of-boris-johnson-comments">sharp rise</a> in reports of abuse from women wearing headscarves or the face veil. They reported having scarves ripped off, being spat at and verbally abused, sometimes with the words Johnson used in the article – “letter boxes”.</p>
<h2>Not sorry</h2>
<p>Johnson has yet to apologise for the words used in his article, nor is any apology likely to be forthcoming. But political leadership comes with added responsibility. People do look to the words of political leaders and re-use them on the streets. What does Johnson’s continued popularity, among fellow Conservative MPs and party members say about accountability or responsibility in British politics?</p>
<p>It is grossly irresponsible to use Islamophobia to a political advantage. And yet, Islamophobia is a vote winner, even if that phobia is couched in catch all terms of the “Muslim problem” – a trope which includes fears of mass immigration and creeping Islamification. We just have to look at the rise of Trump, political campaigns across Europe, and indeed, the campaign for Brexit, if we doubt just how much currency the “moral panic” over the Muslim population has in current political climes. Johnson’s continuing popularity among the electorate shows that politicians are all too aware of the benefits Islamophobic rhetoric, especially when it seems to conform underlying prejudices, that the root of all social ills in Britain can be reduced to Muslims.</p>
<p>Johnson has often been touted as a “tell it like it is” figure, and trusted to champion the ordinary, average Brit. His comments on Muslim women were echoed across online Conservative Party forums, with comments comparing the niqab to an “SS Uniform” and the need to eradicate the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/qvmx9b/boris-johnsons-burqa-comments-caused-a-wave-of-anti-muslim-racism-on-the-tory-internet">“cancer of Islam and Middle Eastern cultures”</a>. </p>
<p>Johnson was once described as a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sir-vince-cable-boris-johnson-poundland-donald-trump-brexit-liberal-democrat-lib-dem-conference-a7950631.html">“poundland Trump”</a> – a bit on the nose perhaps – but it’s possible to see how rising populism, and dog-whistle politics appealing to the lowest common denominator – rising anti-Muslim sentiments – are a sure currency during elections.</p>
<p>Niqab wearing Muslim women often bear the brunt of Islamophobia. Gendered Islamophobia – which takes into account intersections of race, religion, ethnicity and culture – shows that, overwhelmingly, Muslim women who veil are <a href="https://www.tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/tell_mama_2015_annual_report.pdf">more likely</a> to face anti-Muslim hostility, whether that’s verbal or physical abuse, because they are “visibly Muslim” . In 2018 <a href="https://tellmamauk.org/gendered-anti-muslim-hatred-and-islamophobia-street-based-aggression-in-cases-reported-to-tell-mama-is-alarming/">statistics</a> showed that veiling Muslim women remained number one victims of street level abuse.</p>
<p>What Johnson’s potential elevation to the highest echelon of British politics tells niqabi women is that, in the current political quagmire of nativism, populism and ethno-nationalism, anti-Muslim sentiments aren’t likely to hold you back, or impact negatively on political ambitions. In fact they’re likely to be rewarded.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rashida Bibi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The favourite to become the next prime minister has never felt the need to apologise for his offensive remarks about Muslim women.Rashida Bibi, PhD Researcher, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1085852018-12-14T11:44:38Z2018-12-14T11:44:38ZWorry over kids’ excessive smartphone use is more justified than ever before<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250494/original/file-20181213-178573-13c6751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sleep deprivation among teens spiked after 2012 – just as smartphone use became common.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handheld-closeup-shot-teen-girl-eyes-686633659?src=KrjDxRjfaktUcLxTZBdr3w-1-1">GCapture/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents who fear their kids are spending too much time in front of screens now have more reason for concern. </p>
<p><a href="https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/screen-time-nih-study-60-minutes">New research</a> funded by the National Institutes of Health found brain changes among kids using screens more than seven hours a day and lower cognitive skills among those using screens more than two hours a day. </p>
<p>When studies find links between screen time and negative outcomes, some <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-smartphones-for-kids-is-just-another-technology-fearing-moral-panic-74485">have argued</a> that this is just the latest moral panic over technology. </p>
<p>After all, didn’t the parents of baby boomers and Gen Xers worry that their kids were watching too much TV or talking on the phone too much? Those kids turned out OK, right?</p>
<p>So how are portable electronic devices, the chosen technology of today’s kids and teens – a generation I call “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/iGen/Jean-M-Twenge/9781501152016">iGen</a>” – any different?</p>
<p>New research I’ve conducted on the relationship between portable device use and sleep provides some answers.</p>
<h2>Everywhere, all the time</h2>
<p>It almost goes without saying that today’s portable devices – including smartphones and tablets – are fundamentally different than the living room television sets and rotary phones of the past.</p>
<p>Since researchers have been tracking TV watching habits, the average U.S. teen has never spent more than two-and-a-half hours a day watching TV. Yet as of 2016, the average teen spent about <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/ppm-ppm0000203.pdf">six hours a day</a> immersed in digital media – more than twice as much time.</p>
<p>This large amount of time spent using digital media is enough <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/">to crowd out time once spent on other activities</a>, such as interacting with friends face to face, reading or going out.</p>
<p>And unlike the telephone, digital media apps are designed to hook you. As former Silicon Valley executive <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/groundbreaking-study-examines-effects-of-screen-time-on-kids-60-minutes/">Tristan Harris said of smartphone apps</a>, “Your telephone in the 1970s didn’t have a thousand engineers … updating the way your telephone worked every day to be more and more persuasive.”</p>
<p>Second, unlike TV or landline phones, portable devices can be carried everywhere: to school, where teachers say <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/22/to-ban-or-not-to-ban-teachers-cope-with-students-driven-to-distraction-by-technology/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.15161031b770">they are a near-constant distraction</a>, and into social situations, where a conversation can instantly be upended by reaching for a buzzing phone. (There’s even a word for this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/she-phubbs-me-she-phubbs-me-not-smartphones-could-be-ruining-your-love-life-68463">phubbing</a>, a portmanteau of “phone” and “snubbing.”) </p>
<p>Sure enough, people have reported enjoying a restaurant dinner with friends <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180226122506.htm">less when their phones were available</a>, compared to when they weren’t.</p>
<h2>The sleep factor</h2>
<p>Across many studies, kids and teens who spend more time with screens – including both TV and portable devices – <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5380441/">also sleep less</a>. </p>
<p>That could be because they spend so much time engaged with their devices that it’s coming at the expense of sleep. But there’s also a physiological reason: The blue light emitted by electronic screens tricks our brains into thinking it’s still daytime, and then we <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232">don’t produce enough of the sleep hormone melatonin</a> to fall asleep quickly and get high-quality sleep.</p>
<p>Once again, some might argue that TV is just as bad: After all, it also takes up time and emits blue light. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389945718306099">in a new paper</a>, my co-authors and I decided to parse the two. We studied links between sleep and TV watching as well as links between sleep and portable device use. Then we compared the results. </p>
<p>Drawing from a large survey of parents administered by the U.S. Census Bureau, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389945718306099">we found</a> that 2- to 10-year-olds who spent four or more hours a day on portable electronic devices – versus no time – were twice as likely to be significantly sleep deprived. TV time was also connected to less sleep, but not as strongly or consistently. </p>
<p>Among teens ages 14 to 17, those who spent four or more hours a day on portable electronic devices – versus no time – were 44 percent more likely to not sleep enough. However, once portable device time was statistically controlled, watching TV or playing video games on a console had little link to sleep time.</p>
<p>Why would portable devices be more strongly associated with losing sleep?</p>
<p>For one thing, TV is simply not as psychologically stimulating as a portable device like a smartphone, which, unlike a TV, doesn’t exist to simply consume media. Smartphones have also become a huge part of social life, whether it’s texting with friends or interacting with them on social media.</p>
<p>And unlike TV, smartphones and tablets can be silently carried into the bedroom or even the bed, resulting in some teens using them throughout the night – what some call “<a href="https://theconversation.com/awake-online-and-sleep-deprived-the-rise-of-the-teenage-vamper-34853">vamping</a>.” </p>
<p>That might explain why sleep deprivation among teens <a href="https://theconversation.com/teens-are-sleeping-less-but-theres-a-surprisingly-easy-fix-85157">spiked after 2012</a> – just as smartphone use became common.</p>
<h2>The lesser of two evils?</h2>
<p>To be clear, we did find that watching many hours of TV was associated with less sleep, especially among elementary-school age children. Watching over three hours a day of TV <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167702617723376">is also associated with depression</a> – though more weakly than portable device use. </p>
<p>So parents were right to worry about kids watching too much TV in the 1970s and 1980s. But their worries might not have been as justified as today’s parents’ concerns about smartphones.</p>
<p>So what is a parent – or anyone who wants to sleep well – to do? </p>
<p>First, it’s best for smartphones and tablets to stay out of the bedroom after “lights-out” time. Nor is it a great idea to use the devices within an hour of bedtime, as their blue light influences the brain’s ability to produce melatonin. Finally, as a general rule, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-findings-add-twist-to-screen-time-limit-debate-105717">two hours a day or less</a> spent on portable devices is a good guideline. These rules apply to parents, too – not only kids. </p>
<p>Just don’t binge-watch TV instead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Twenge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some say the hysteria over screen time echoes parents’ worries that their kids were watching too much TV in the 1980s. But new studies show there’s nothing overblown about parents’ growing concern.Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080192018-12-03T05:28:01Z2018-12-03T05:28:01ZExplainer: what is nitrous oxide (or nangs) and how dangerous is it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248349/original/file-20181203-194925-1ihuscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nitrous oxide has been used as an anaesthetic for over 100 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nitrous-oxide-bulbs-know-laughing-gas-395309383?src=Tojawgbgpx-TB9dlKiqbNQ-1-5">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Media reports last week linked the use of “nangs” to the death of a teenager at schoolies week on the Gold Coast. <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/11/30/20/01/hamish-bidgood-schoolies-death-gold-coast-nitrous-oxide">Hamish Bidgood</a> died when he fell from a balcony. He and his friends had reportedly been using “nangs” that day.</p>
<p>Nangs is a slang term for nitrous oxide, an anaesthetic that has been used for more than 100 years. Most people probably know it as laughing gas.</p>
<p>In a medical setting, it is usually inhaled, mixed with oxygen, through a small mask that fits over your nose. It is generally used to help you relax during procedures that don’t require a general anaesthetic, such as childbirth and minor dental surgery. </p>
<p>It has been used to help people withdraw from alcohol – with <a href="https://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Fulltext/2003/04000/Therapeutic_Drug_Monitoring_of_Clozapine_in.19.aspx">mixed results</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weekly-dose-from-laughing-parties-to-whipped-cream-nitrous-oxides-on-the-rise-as-a-recreational-drug-83573">Weekly Dose: from laughing parties to whipped cream, nitrous oxide's on the rise as a recreational drug</a>
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<p>Nitrous oxide is also used as a propellant to make whipped cream, sold at supermarkets for around A$10 for a box of ten canisters, and in the automotive industry to improve engine performance.</p>
<p>It has been used recreationally since the late 1700s, when British aristocrats held “laughing gas parties”. With the expansion of its use in medical settings in the late 1880s, and hence its availability, it became more popular as a <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/william/nitrous/">recreational drug</a>.</p>
<h2>What are the effects?</h2>
<p>Nitrous oxide provides a short-lived (20 second) high, in which people who use it feel euphoria and relaxation. They can also feel dizziness, have difficulty thinking straight, and fall into fits of laughter. </p>
<p>In higher doses, some people report a sense of floating and dissociation of the mind from the body, which is why in medical circles it is referred to as a dissociative anaesthetic.</p>
<h2>How dangerous is it?</h2>
<p>If a person has small infrequent doses, there is a low risk of significant problems with this drug. </p>
<p>It is very rare to overdose from recreational use of nitrous oxide, but it can affect <a href="https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/nitrous-oxide/">coordination and judgement</a>. Overdose deaths have been reported in the United Kingdom and United States but we are not aware of any in Australia.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248375/original/file-20181203-194956-p4ucsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Nitrous oxide is the seventh most popular drug worldwide, excluding caffeine, alcohol and tobacco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/592498091?src=Tojawgbgpx-TB9dlKiqbNQ-1-7&size=huge_jpg">Lenscap Photography</a></span>
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<p>Given the effects on coordination and dizziness, it shouldn’t be used in risky situations and it’s advisable to have a person present who isn’t using. </p>
<p>In very large doses, without the addition of oxygen, it can cause loss of blood pressure, fainting and even death by hypoxia (oxygen deficiency). </p>
<p>Chronic, regular heavy use is very rare, but can lead to a vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 is essential for good brain functioning and if left untreated can lead to irreversible <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/vitamin-b12-deficiency-can-be-sneaky-harmful-201301105780">neurological problems</a>.</p>
<h2>How widespread is its use?</h2>
<p>Given its easy availability as whipped cream bulbs, the drug seems to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/weekly-dose-from-laughing-parties-to-whipped-cream-nitrous-oxides-on-the-rise-as-a-recreational-drug-83573">growing in popularity among young people</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-australias-changing-drug-and-alcohol-habits-78597">Three charts on: Australia's changing drug and alcohol habits</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/flares-fistfights-and-debauchery-as-schoolies-rampage-on-mornington-peninsula/news-story/f5efe7f638ec1fad637e7d2c565e9bd3">Recent media stories</a> have reported a “nang epidemic”. One newspaper claimed schoolies have been spending <a href="https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/schoolies/schoolies-on-gold-coast-claim-they-spent-thousands-on-nangs-and-alcohol/news-story/52f56ad580b33eed16b6dc8d89704aa5?memtype=anonymous">thousands of dollars</a> on nitrous oxide. But the story seems to be based on a single Facebook post in which one alleged school leaver said they had spent “A$49,000 on nangs”, which equates to about 49,000 bulbs. It’s likely he was embellishing for his Facebook audience.</p>
<p>We don’t know for sure how many young people use this drug, or how often. Our best data source for population drug trends in Australia, the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/ndshs-2016-detailed/contents/table-of-contents">National Drug Strategy Household Survey</a>, doesn’t specifically ask about nitrous oxide use.</p>
<p>Respondents to the <a href="https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com">Global Drug Survey</a> put nangs as the seventh most popular drug worldwide, excluding caffeine, alcohol and tobacco.</p>
<h2>Should we ban this drug?</h2>
<p>Concern about the behaviour of youth is not new, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/wont-somebody-think-of-the-children-five-reasons-why-drug-panics-are-counterproductive-50078">moral panic</a> about drugs, in particular, is often part of this perennial worry about young people.</p>
<p>It is well documented that the <a href="https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/19-media-reporting-illicit-drugs-australia-trends-and-impacts-youth-attitudes-illicit-drug">media can influence</a> perceptions and interest in drug use, and poor media reporting can work as an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234699279_Kronic_hysteria_Exploring_the_intersection_between_Australian_synthetic_cannabis_legislation_the_media_and_drug-related_harm">advertisement for drugs</a>, piquing curiosity and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11121-008-0098-5">normalising use</a>. </p>
<p>The concern is that media-driven panic about drugs can create a perception that more people are using the drug than they actually are, and when teens think “everyone” is doing it, they are more likely to want to do it too.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weekly-dose-from-laughing-parties-to-whipped-cream-nitrous-oxides-on-the-rise-as-a-recreational-drug-83573">Weekly Dose: from laughing parties to whipped cream, nitrous oxide's on the rise as a recreational drug</a>
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<p>Research has shown that interest in a drug peaks after <a href="http://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/portal/files/2747368/Mephedrone_news_article_2012.pdf">widespread media coverage</a> and that <a href="https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/47053/191828_191828.pdf">restricting the availability</a> can lead to increased use. </p>
<p>Prohibiting drugs does not prevent people using them, and more harmful unregulated products can emerge. Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, for example, merely led to demand for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/bootlegging">illicit supply</a> that had high alcohol content and contained impurities that caused blindness, paralysis and death.</p>
<p>So banning nangs could cause more harm than it prevents. And it could lead to some very disgruntled whipped cream fans as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108019/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Lee works as a paid consultant in the alcohol and other drug sector. She has previously been awarded grants by state and federal governments, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Bright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Media-driven panic about drugs can create a perception more people are using the drug than they actually are, and when teens think ‘everyone’ is doing it, they are more likely to want to do it too.Stephen Bright, Senior Lecturer of Addiction, Edith Cowan UniversityNicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986902018-06-27T10:43:18Z2018-06-27T10:43:18ZWhat’s leisure and what’s game addiction in the 21st century?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224753/original/file-20180625-19416-pgeul7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are these people suffering from a disorder – or just having fun?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/France-Paris-Games-Week/6d22585c2222458c81e98588e31692ac/74/0">AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The World Health Organization’s description of <a href="http://www.who.int/health-topics/international-classification-of-diseases">“gaming disorder” as an “addictive behavior disorder”</a> includes a <a href="http://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/">vague description</a> of <a href="https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f1448597234">how much digital gaming is too much</a>. The WHO warns that “people who partake in gaming should be alert to the amount of time they spend on gaming activities.” At what point does a leisure activity turn into an addiction?</p>
<p>Games researchers are no strangers to complaints about the dangers of too much game playing. Video games have been blamed for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(97)00055-4">causing aggression</a>, <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/03/30/the-link-between-video-games-and-unemployment">unemployment</a> and even the vitamin D deficiency called <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/video-games-blamed-for-return-of-rickets/">rickets</a>. Games have also, of course, been championed for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.142.2.181">improving surgical skills</a>, encouraging <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209333045">pro-social behavior</a>, aiding in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/24/tech/gaming-gadgets/cancer-video-game/index.html">cancer treatment</a> and helping develop <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foldit-gamers-solve-riddle/">new AIDS medications</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-smartphones-for-kids-is-just-another-technology-fearing-moral-panic-74485">New forms of popular media</a> are often targets of public concern, going back to dime-store novels, comic books and jazz, all the way through rock ’n’ roll and rap. But those fears eventually wane, and society embraces work like “Maus,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/">the first graphic novel to be a National Book Award finalist</a> and rapper Kendrick Lamar, who won a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-pulitzer-prize-damn.html">Pulitzer Prize earlier this year</a>. </p>
<p>Digital video games can be exceptionally enticing and engaging. Regarding the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-1353">risk of addiction</a>, it is interesting to analyze the WHO’s warnings about excessive gaming in the wider context of leisure. As part of the <a href="http://festival.gamesforchange.org/">Games for Change conference</a>, I and others who study psychology, serious games and youth advocacy will be <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_8XOQRoAAAAJ&hl=en">talking about the myths of games</a>, media and <a href="https://theconversation.com/debunking-the-6-biggest-myths-about-technology-addiction-95850">technology addiction</a>. </p>
<h2>Leisure in history</h2>
<p>Development psychologists and educators bemoan the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/211688/summary">overscheduled itineraries</a> of American children, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/busyness-status-symbol/518178/">“being too busy” can be a status symbol</a> oddly juxtaposed with the idea of ultra-luxury leisure and globe-trotting vacations. Indeed, the average medieval peasant only worked 150 days a year, giving them <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/culture-design/americans-work-more-than-medieval-peasants">more leisure time than the average U.S. worker today</a>.</p>
<p>Historically, social leisure has evolved with society. Before sports were ubiquitous, the Puritans and other political leaders <a href="https://www.si.com/vault/1962/01/08/590449/the-bizarre-history-of-american-sport">fought their popularity on moral grounds and as a threat to social fabric</a>.</p>
<p>Later, the Industrial Revolution yielded new leisure pastimes that seemed decadent to prior generations – most notably travel. The new urban working class had the remarkable opportunity to temporarily escape their everyday surroundings and routine. Yet at the dawn of the tourism industry, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Leisure-in-the-Industrial-Revolution-c-1780-c-1880/Cunningham/p/book/9781138638648">leisure travel was considered a threat to contemporary politics and society</a> specifically because it helped expand travelers’ experiences.</p>
<h2>Contemporary downtime</h2>
<p>In the modern developed world, the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/berlin/42675407.pdf">dominant leisure activity is watching television</a>, followed by other leisure activities like sports and entertaining friends. There’s no evidence that game playing is more dangerous than these other leisure activities. In fact, the academic research provides much more evidence about the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00787.x">dangers of television viewing</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.526.5954&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Since the 1960s</a>, researchers have been emphasizing television’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26059563?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">potential for addiction</a> and detriments to quality of life. Beyond investigating how TV viewing supplants other leisure activities, researchers have found watching TV <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1981.tb01211.x">drains productivity</a>, <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/75/5/807.short">encourages obesity</a>, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/h0033721">boosts violent or aggressive behavior</a> and can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2007.02.001">lower life satisfaction and higher anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>People watch television for far more time than they play video games. In the U.S., people watch an <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/276748/average-daily-tv-viewing-time-per-person-in-selected-countries/">average of 4.5 hours of TV every day</a>. That’s more time than they spend reading, relaxing, socializing, participating in sports, playing digital games and using computers – <a href="https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/LEISURE.HTM">combined</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="ZMbkr" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ZMbkr/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Television and games</h2>
<p>The WHO seems unconcerned about the effects of TV. This is especially clear when it comes to televised sports. Consider a person who skips household and professional Sunday responsibilities to sit on the couch for hours watching pre-game shows; screaming at referees, coaches and players; and following post-game analysis – or who calls in sick to catch a game or breaks friendships over team rivalries. By the WHO’s criteria, this could qualify as “<a href="http://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/">gaming disorder</a>” – except that it’s about sports on TV, rather than video games. (That doesn’t even consider tens of thousands of <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/gallery/notable-sports-riots-gallery-040212">sport-focused rioters</a>.) </p>
<p>But sports fans aren’t players, the way gamers are. For athletes, the time commitments far exceed even the most devoted fans’ dedication. The average college athlete in the U.S., for example, spends more than <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-athletes-spend-40-hours-a-week-practicing-2015-1">40 hours a week practicing their sport</a>. Many student-athletes say they <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/08/college-athletes-say-they-devote-too-much-time-sports-year-round">lack the time to be students</a>, but we wouldn’t identify them as addicted to their sport. </p>
<p>There’s another way to view dedicated video-game players, too: With <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-esports-the-next-major-league-sport-74008">the rise of esports</a>, professional gamers <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2018/01/30/esports-is-the-new-college-football/#7d5809911855">net millions in performance payouts</a>, <a href="http://www.espn.com/espn/photos/gallery/_/id/11903755/image/3/dota-2-future-bright-esports-pro-gamers">attract arena-sized audiences</a> and even earn <a href="https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college-scholarships/sports-scholarships/esports-scholarships-scholarships-for-gamers/">college scholarships</a>. What’s the point at which a person with “gaming disorder” turns from mental patient or social pariah into a varsity star with serious professional prospects?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224756/original/file-20180625-19390-uf8i9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Crowds gather to watch top gamers play.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/samchurchill/14857571158">Sam Churchill</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>The challenge of measuring game addiction</h2>
<p>It can be hard to identify addiction to an activity. Though the WHO warns against spending too much time gaming, that is not the way to measure addiction. Some studies demonstrate that some people who spend more time gaming actually <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03104.x">exhibit fewer addictive behaviors</a> than people who play less. In a 2009 paper, the drafters of a game addiction scale for adolescents explicitly wrote, “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213260802669458">Time spent on games should not be used as a basis for measuring pathological behavior</a>.” And as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christopher-j-ferguson-279771">leading researcher into games and behavior</a> put it, “Some people who are depressed stay in bed all day, but we <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1705077114">wouldn’t say that they have a bed addiction</a>.”</p>
<p>In the end, humans with leisure time seek escape through weekend trips to the country, a visit with the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050032/">Cleavers’ 1950s America</a>, or exploring the vast desert of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_(2012_video_game)">“Journey”</a>. What people are looking for in their leisure time is a break, and just because they enjoy that break – and spend a fair amount of time doing it – doesn’t mean it’s an addiction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsay Grace does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just because people enjoy a recreational activity doesn’t mean they’re addicted to it, even if they spend lots of time doing it.Lindsay Grace, Associate Professor of Communication; Director, American University Game Lab and Studio, American University School of CommunicationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/796552017-08-03T01:03:21Z2017-08-03T01:03:21ZStigma and stereotypes about sex work hinder regulatory reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178601/original/file-20170718-22052-1s4kh60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2016, a UK Home Affairs Committee report highlighted that street-based sex work has diminished significantly over the last two to three decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Although sex workers around the world lobby for decriminalisation, sex work law remains controversial. This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sex-work-series-41416">series</a> exploring sex work and regulatory reform.</em></p>
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<p>Mention the word “prostitution” and there’s more than a fair chance that most people will automatically think of a drug-dependent female in high heels and a mini-skirt shivering on a cold and darkened street in a dodgy part of the city.</p>
<p>This stereotypical image is largely informed by popular cultural and media representations of sex workers and red-light districts. Socially conservative politicians, religious organisations, and certain branches of radical feminism also <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098016674903">play an instrumental role</a> in perpetuating this stereotype and reinforcing the stigma endured by sex workers.</p>
<p>However, sex work is much <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/prostitution/book232295">more complex and nuanced</a> in terms of the types of people who offer commercial sexual services, the types of sex work they perform, where sex work takes place, and why people engage in it.</p>
<p>To be clear, “sex work” is used here to refer to consensual sexual encounters between two or more adults for some form of payment. Sex work includes different types of erotic labour such as street work, brothel work, in-calls, lap-dancing, web-camming and pornography. Sex work may involve direct and indirect sexualised interactions between provider and client.</p>
<p>People forced or coerced into providing commercial sex against their will by a third party can in no way be viewed as performing sex work. Such acts constitute labour/sexual explotiation and even, depending on the circumstances, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/sex-workers-rights-are-human-rights/">human trafficking</a>. </p>
<p>Consensual sex work and human trafficking for sexual exploitation are wrongly conflated, by certain <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0002716214521562">political, religious and feminist groups</a>, as being one and the same thing.</p>
<h2>Why people engage in sex work</h2>
<p>It is important to acknowledge that people do in fact <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/insider/the-everyday-faces-of-sex-workers.html">choose to do sex work</a>. This is not to say that these decisions are easy or without challenges to the individual because of wider social taboos and stigma that surround sex and sex work.</p>
<p>For many people, economic expediency or necessity is a key factor. For example, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/brothels-say-welfare-cuts-push-mums-to-sex-work-20130120-2d19x.html">The Sydney Morning Herald</a> reported in 2013 that an increasing number of single mothers were turning to sex work and lap-dancing in order to make ends meet, due to cuts in parenting welfare payments.</p>
<p>People in other <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814794630/">vulnerable or precarious situations</a> such as drug or alcohol dependency, abusive relationships, homelessness, unemployment, or coming to terms with their sexual and gender identity may also engage in sex work for <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/male-sex-work-and-society/9781939594013">survival, experimental and/or lifestyle purposes</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thestudentsexworkproject.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TSSWP-Research-Summary-English.pdf">A 2015 study</a> in the UK found that one in 20 students were involved in sex work. As students find themselves facing increased debt burdens by the time they graduate, sex work has become a means of mitigating this issue and also covering costs while living away from home and attending university.</p>
<p>Other people <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/insider/the-everyday-faces-of-sex-workers.html">choose sex work</a> because it offers them economic opportunity. It is seen as a form of labour they can exploit for material gain because they have a certain mix of attributes in terms of sexuality, looks, skills, personality and attitude.</p>
<p>Sex work also offers flexible working hours that suit peoples’ lifestyles. </p>
<h2>Sex work spaces</h2>
<p>It is often assumed that only women are sex workers. While it is the case that the majority of sex workers are women, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/male-sex-work-and-society/9781939594013">men</a> plus <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/transgender-sex-work-and-society/9781939594228">trans and gender-diverse</a> individuals also engage in sex work. </p>
<p>The complex legal arrangements and stigma that surround sex work means it is impossible to ascertain the number of sex workers in Australia. Estimates put the overall number at around <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/121-140/rpp131/05_aus_industry.html">20,000 people</a>. The gender profile of sex workers varies across different sex work scenes. </p>
<p>Street-based sex work tends mainly to comprise women with a predominantly male client base. For some, this mode of sex work offers greater labour flexibility, autonomy, and lower overheads compared to indoor work.</p>
<p>There are small street-based scenes in cities like <a href="http://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/files/100681556/Ellison_ARTC_172.pdf">Manchester, London, Dublin and Berlin</a> involving young queer-identifying males who often have older heterosexual-identifying male clients. There is also an <a href="http://www.aboutmaleescorting.com/women-who-buy-sex/">emerging body of research</a> showing that an increasing number of women are now booking the services of male and female sex workers. </p>
<p>Street-based sex work is often imagined to be the most visible and prominent form of sex work. This is far from true. It is estimated that the street-based scene in Australia accounts for between <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/121-140/rpp131/05_aus_industry.html">5-10%</a> of sex work. Street-based sex work is illegal in all states and territories with the <a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/laws/nsw/">exception of New South Wales</a>, where it is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… lawful as long as it is not near or within the view of a school, church, hospital or dwelling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2016, the <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/26/26.pdf">UK Home Affairs Committee</a> highlighted that street-based sex work had diminished significantly over the last two to three decades, with research suggesting it accounts for less than 5% of all sex work.</p>
<p>The majority of sex work in Australia now takes place off-street and/or online. Off-street sex work spaces include brothels, saunas, massage parlours, private apartments or homes, BDSM dungeons, strip clubs and lap-dance bars. Most of these tend to be female-dominated work spaces. The vast majority of male, trans and gender diverse sex workers offer their services online. </p>
<p>Online sex work generally refers to websites or social media platforms that sex workers use to advertise their services, where clients can make bookings, and where some form of live or recorded sexual performance can be viewed. <a href="https://theconversation.com/webcamming-the-sex-work-revolution-that-no-one-is-willing-to-talk-about-69834#comment_1170010">Webcam performers</a> can market anything from conversation to explicit sex acts. </p>
<p>All manner of people, in terms of gender, age, sexuality, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and body shape can be found on cam websites. For some sex workers, web-camming might be their primary form of erotic labour and source of income. For others, such as adult performers, web-camming may be an additional or supplementary form of income.</p>
<h2>Time to decriminalise consensual sex work</h2>
<p>Consensual sex work takes multiple forms and takes place in a variety of spaces. The actual practice of sex work, like non-commercial sex, predominantly takes place behind closed doors; it is discreet, private and out of view.</p>
<p>When sex workers experience exploitation or violence at the hands of clients, employers, the police or others, these crimes must be be dealt with promptly and justly. </p>
<p>For Australian sex workers and peer-led sex work organisations, decriminalisation is seen as the only model of regulation because it affords protection of their human and labour rights. </p>
<p>Decriminalisation is supported by a number of highly respected international organisations including: <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/4062/2016/en/">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2014_web_0.pdf">Human Rights Watch</a>, the <a href="http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/sex_work/en/">World Health Organization</a>, and <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2017/june/20170602_sexwork">UNAIDS</a>.</p>
<p>The Legislative Council in the South Australian parliament recently passed a bill <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-06/sa-sex-work-decriminalisation-marathon-debate/8682738">supporting the decriminalisation</a> of sex work. If the Legislative Assembly passes the bill then South Australia will be the second state to do so, after NSW which decriminalised sex work in 1995.</p>
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<p><em>Read the rest of the articles in this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sex-work-series-41416">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79655/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> Nothing to disclose</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Consensual sex work, like non-commercial sex, mostly happens behind closed doors. Yet stigma toward and ignorance about sex workers makes people panic when we try to talk about reform.Paul J. Maginn, Associate Professor of Urban/Regional Planning, The University of Western AustraliaEmily Cooper, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/744852017-07-11T01:05:18Z2017-07-11T01:05:18ZBanning smartphones for kids is just another technology-fearing moral panic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176098/original/file-20170628-31312-zulp95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should children under the age of 13 be given access to smartphones?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-little-girl-hiding-behind-white-452166370">Africa Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If a few concerned parents have their way, Colorado will be among the first states to ban the sale of smartphones for use by children under the age of 13. After witnessing what he called a “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/19/health/colorado-preteen-smartphone-initiative/index.html">dramatic, very violent outburst</a>” from one of his sons when taking away his smartphone, a Colorado father (and medical professional) helped create a new lobbying group, called <a href="http://www.pausamerica.com/">Parents Against Underage Smartphones</a> (PAUS). The group <a href="http://www.pausamerica.com/research.html">provides links to a wide range of research</a> into the negative effects of smartphone use on children.</p>
<p>The effort appears to be well-meaning and supportive of healthy childhood development. But from my perspective as a media psychologist, informed by research into the uses and effects of communication technology, I see that the group’s concerns fit a common historical pattern of undue alarm over new technology. Human innovation advances rapidly, but most people’s <a href="http://www.bus.umich.edu/KresgePublic/Journals/Gartner/research/115200/115274/115274.pdf">understanding of new items and capabilities can’t keep up</a>. The result is a sense of moral panic over what we fear will be negative effects on us all, and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.113.128652">even on society at large</a>.</p>
<p>As we know from research on sex education, teaching fear and avoidance of something can’t always protect people from negative consequences: Sexual abstinence instruction doesn’t prevent teen pregnancies, but rather <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024658">increases their frequency</a>. Moral panics about technology similarly encourage people to withdraw from, rather than engage with and understand, the tools of today and tomorrow. The concerns of parents and groups such as PAUS are valid, but they shouldn’t be dealt with by banning technology. Rather, children and adults should work together to understand new innovations and learn to use them in productive ways.</p>
<h2>A history of technology and panic</h2>
<p>One of the earliest examples of a moral panic related to information technology can be found in <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/482/482readings/phaedrus.html">Socrates’ concerns about writing</a>. In the lecture later, ironically, recorded in writing as “Phaedrus,” the ancient Greek philosopher said written words divorced information from its original spoken source, and said writing things down would irreversibly weaken people’s memories. These may seem quaint worries today, but they were notable critiques in a time where systematic reasoning and oral debate were bellwethers of intelligence. </p>
<p>In the 1790s, the printing of adventure novels raised concerns that children were compulsively <a href="https://clarin.bbaw.de/en/objects/dta:2340/">reading at the expense of their chores</a>. In the 1920s, people feared that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2011/dec/15/crosswords-meow-meow-1920s">crossword puzzles would contribute to illiteracy</a>. In the 1970s, the video game “Death Race” was <a href="http://gamestudies.org/1201/articles/carly_kocurek">labeled by critics as a “murder simulator,”</a> sparking an <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-video-games-and-real-violence-theres-a-link-but-its-not-so-simple-63038">ongoing debate</a> about whether video games <a href="https://theconversation.com/playing-at-torture-a-not-so-trivial-pursuit-63982">encourage violence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176099/original/file-20170628-31312-348sfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Innovations such as the crossword puzzle were at one time thought to lead to addiction and illiteracy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waffleboy/35109063700">waffleboy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Social attitudes regarding technology are not usually formed by <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Diffusion-of-Innovations-5th-Edition/Everett-M-Rogers/9780743222099">direct experience</a>. Rather, they most often come from media reports, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10967516/31">parents and teachers</a> or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000052">Hollywood films</a>. As a result, many of our perceptions of technological threats are based on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/27/moral-panics-of-the-year">often-sensationalized anecdotes</a> rather than actual interaction and understanding. </p>
<p>Smartphones may be particularly difficult to evaluate, because one device has so many capabilities – for both good and ill.</p>
<h2>Distinguishing panic from problem</h2>
<p>Skepticism toward technology is important, so we can avoid misusing technology in harmful ways – such as using <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/11/vintage-shoe-fitting-x-ray-machines-will-zap-your-feet/">X-ray machines to figure out what size shoes</a> a person needs to buy. Indeed, philosopher Philippe Verdoux argues that technological advances <a href="http://jetpress.org/v20/verdoux.htm">increase the chances</a> of any one invention destroying us all. But as worrying as Verdoux’s warning might be, he doesn’t suggest avoiding innovation. Rather, he says the most productive response is to develop a deep understanding of what a given invention’s uses are, including its potential for good and bad consequences.</p>
<p>Moral panics, by contrast, tend to suggest people not use new technologies at all. Abstaining does avoid the costs, but also deprives people of the technology’s benefits. For example, <a href="http://influence-central.com/kids-tech-the-evolution-of-todays-digital-natives/">kids and teenagers with smartphones</a> can use them to <a href="http://www.nea.org/tools/56274.htm">support their educational efforts</a>. And they can <a href="https://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf">help kids’ social lives</a>, keeping them in touch with friends. Safety also comes into play: Concerned about school shootings, many school districts are <a href="https://www.seeker.com/cellphones-are-changing-school-emergency-plans-1766312503.html">reversing bans on smartphone access</a> during school hours, allowing and even encouraging students to use them for emergency communication.</p>
<h2>Using technology safely</h2>
<p>Engaging with new technologies cautiously – and, for children, under adult supervision – is a better approach than banning the unknown. The <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/american-academy-of-pediatrics-announces-new-recommendations-for-childrens-media-use.aspx">American Academy of Pediatricians</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-we-teach-our-kids-to-use-digital-media-67446">suggests limiting children’s access</a> to computer, smartphone and TV screens. But rather than banning screen time entirely, the group recommends parents and kids work together to figure how how best to use smartphones and other devices.</p>
<p>By discouraging learning, moral panics fuel <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-885-7.ch057">misunderstanding and unfamiliarity</a>. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x">Millennials don’t actually understand technology</a> as well as people often assume, which could help explain why they <a href="http://www.rasmussen.edu/resources/digital-literacy-in-america/">feel less safe online</a> than older adults do. The connection comes from established research about how fear affects social beliefs: Focusing too much on threats <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637759209376276">without also discussing skills</a> leads to panic rather than progress.</p>
<p>When it comes to smartphones, it would be odd – and wrong – to ban kids from using the <a href="http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf">digital devices that help define their entire generation</a>. And it wouldn’t help prepare them for jobs and lives in the <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519465.pdf">information-saturated 21st century</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Bowman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teaching fear and avoidance of technology may protect people from negative consequences. But it also prevents them from finding, and benefiting from, productive uses of new innovations.Nicholas Bowman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/792502017-07-05T04:05:00Z2017-07-05T04:05:00ZSuburbs ‘swamped’ by Asians and Muslims? The data show a different story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174132/original/file-20170616-519-1flmii7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only one Australian suburb, Lakemba in Sydney, has a population that is more than half Muslim.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Jane Dempster</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Population growth has profound impacts on Australian life, and sorting myths from facts can be difficult. This article is part of our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/is-australia-full-39068">Is Australia Full?</a>, which aims to help inform a wide-ranging and often emotive debate.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In her <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/1996/09/10/pauline-hanson-maiden-speech.html">maiden speech</a> to federal parliament in 1996, Pauline Hanson claimed Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”. At her re-election to the Senate on 2016, Hanson <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-15/pauline-hanson-maiden-speech-2016/7847136">expanded her claim</a> to also being “swamped by Muslims”. But is this factually correct?</p>
<p>Using data from the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2071.0">2011 Census</a>, we analysed the distribution of Asians and Muslims at four spatial scales (neighbourhood, suburb, district, and region) within Australia’s 11 largest urban areas. We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2017.1329383">found no evidence</a> of any “swamping” by Muslims, or of ultra-segregation into “ghettos”.</p>
<p>There are concentrations of Asians, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne. But they are mostly neighbourhoods and suburbs where they form only a small minority of local populations.</p>
<h2>The geography of Asians and Muslims</h2>
<p>Asians form small minorities in about half of the more than 33,000 local neighbourhoods (average population of 430) across Australia’s 11 cities.</p>
<p>In another 40% of neighbourhoods, Asians comprise between 10% and 25% of local populations. In only 2% overall do they make up more than half the local population.</p>
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<p>The geography of Muslims is very different, and much less segregated. They are a much smaller proportion of Australia’s 11 metropolitan and major urban areas. But they are almost entirely absent from many neighbourhoods and suburbs.</p>
<p>In only 82 of the 33,337 neighbourhoods and in just one suburb – all in Sydney and Melbourne – do Muslims constitute half the local population. This amounts to 0.025%.</p>
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<p>In only four Sydney neighbourhoods and one in Melbourne (0.015% combined) is the Muslim population as high as 70%.</p>
<p>A figure of 70% or more is regarded in the international literature on Western cities as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00579.x/abstract">indicating a ghetto situation</a>.</p>
<h2>Which cities stand out?</h2>
<p>So, one point stands out: local neighbourhoods where Asians and Muslims form a majority are almost entirely concentrated in Australia’s two major cities – Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane and, less so, Perth also have very small pockets where Asians form half of neighbourhood populations.</p>
<p>In none of the other nine places is there even a single neighbourhood where Muslims form a majority of local neighbourhood populations. </p>
<p>In three of them – Newcastle, Geelong and Darwin – there are no neighbourhoods where Asians are a majority.</p>
<p>In Sydney, just under 8% of neighbourhoods contain one-quarter of the city’s Asian population. In Melbourne there are fewer Asian neighbourhoods, with 12% of the city’s Asian population.</p>
<p>The Sydney suburb of Hurstville, which Hanson <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-14/pauline-hanson-maiden-speech-asian-immigration/7645578">has identified</a> as somewhere “swamped by Asians”, has 63% of its population Asian. And nine other Sydney neighbourhoods are home to 13% of the city’s total Asian population.</p>
<p>But such a concentration is rare elsewhere. Melbourne has four districts (groups of suburbs) with Asian majorities.</p>
<p>Sydney and Melbourne also have the largest Muslim populations. But few are concentrated in areas – even at the smallest, neighbourhood level, where they form as much as half of local populations. </p>
<p>In only one suburb, Sydney’s Lakemba, is more than half the population Muslim (predominantly Lebanese). But even in a suburb like Lakemba, these concentrations are scattered across different neighbourhoods.</p>
<h2>Why the moral panic?</h2>
<p>Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that populist political parties like One Nation promote their causes <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509512160.html">by creating</a> “moral panics”, or fears of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… some evil [that] threatens the wellbeing of society. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this situation, multiculturalism is presented as creating such fears where many of the immigrants are seen as “strangers”, culturally different from everybody else.</p>
<p>For some, known as “mixophiles”, the presence of such strangers in their midst is a positive aspect of city life. But not so among “mixophobes”, whom Bauman saw as concentrated among those who:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… lack the capacity to cut themselves off from [what they see as] … all too often unfriendly, distrustful and hostile urban environments. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This latter situation provides “highly fertile and nourishing meadows tempting many a political vote-gatherer to graze on them”. This, Bauman argues, is an opportunity:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a growing number of politicians [not to mention certain media elements] would be loath to miss.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Is Australia Full? series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/is-australia-full-39068">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Forrest does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local neighbourhoods where Asians and Muslims form a majority are almost entirely concentrated in Australia’s two major cities – Sydney and Melbourne.James Forrest, Associate Professor of Geography and Planning, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/749952017-03-29T06:23:10Z2017-03-29T06:23:10ZBeauty and the Beast censorship attempt shows the good, the bad and the ugly of LGBT rights in Malaysia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162869/original/image-20170328-21258-2nk9aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Originally scheduled for release on March 16 in Malaysian cinemas, Walt Disney Studio’s live-action version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Beauty and the Beast</a> was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/world/asia/beauty-beast-gay-character-malaysia.html">initially banned in the country</a> due an outcry over a short scene of two men dancing. </p>
<p>Despite continuing objections from conservative NGOs that this “gay scene” goes against Malaysian values, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/03/21/world/asia/ap-as-malaysia-beauty-and-the-beast.html">the film will now be screened uncut</a>. Many Malaysians believe that the country’s Film Censorship Board relented in part due to tourism minister Nazri Aziz’s comment that the ban was “<a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/03/13/nazri-blanket-ban-on-movies-ridiculous/">ridiculous</a>”. </p>
<p>Objections from certain sectors of Malaysian society to the film neatly illustrates both the fear and lack of understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country. A prevailing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Policing-Sexuality-Sex-Society-State/dp/1848138970">moral panic</a> means <a href="http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/she-brother-pastor-edmund-smith-real-love-ministry-rlm-malacca/">gay men</a> and <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1959238/meet-nisha-ayub-who-survived-years-suffering-become">male-to-female transgender people</a> have been particular targets of discrimination, conversion therapies and even violence. </p>
<p>Opposition to LGBT people is part of a larger framework of hostility towards and the policing of Malaysians who are considered immoral. </p>
<p>Secular and religious police have raided hotels in search of unmarried Muslim couples who are considered guilty of <a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/12/17/khalwat-raids-make-malaysia-tougher-than-saudi-arabia/"><em>khalwat</em></a> – close proximity between unwedded people. And sex workers have been routinely <a href="http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/05/144468/police-raid-sex-den-jalan-silang-52-prostitutes-detained">rounded up</a> and sent to police stations for illegal activities.</p>
<h2>Criminalising sexualities</h2>
<p>Homosexual <em>identities</em> are not illegal in Malaysia, but there are secular and religious laws that criminalise sexual <em>expressions</em> between men, such as the <a href="http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Penal%20Code%20%5BAct%20574%5D2.pdf">Malaysian penal code</a> and <a href="http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/syariah-laws-in-malaysia/34923/14"><em>Syariah</em> (Islamic) laws</a>. Some sections of the the Code outlaw oral and penetrative sex, for instance. And while such laws are applicable to all citizens, they have targeted primarily gay men. </p>
<p>Former deputy prime minister <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/asia/malaysian-court-upholds-anwar-ibrahim-sodomy-conviction.html?_r=0">Anwar Ibrahim</a> is probably the most prominent Malaysian to be prosecuted for homosexual acts. He has been subject to a series of arrests, convictions and acquittals since 1998. </p>
<p>In 2015, he began <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/anwar-ibrahim-guilty-in-sodomy-case">a five-year sentence</a> on the charge of sodomy. Although Malaysian academics argue that these are obviously <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/270329/pdf">political ploys</a> against him, Anwar’s case is symbolic of the vulnerability of gay men in Malaysia.</p>
<p>Male-to-female transgender people – known as <em>mak nyah</em> in Malay – are often seen as men who shamelessly imitate women. <em>Mak nyahs</em> often experience social <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/transcending-tribulations-malaysian-mak-nyahs-joseph-goh">stigma</a> familial rejection and workplace discrimination, which causes some of them to resort to sex work for a living. </p>
<p>Apart from the penal code and <em>Syariah</em> laws, <em>mak nyahs</em> can also be arrested under the <a href="http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20336.pdf">1955 Minor Offence Act</a> for indecent behaviour. Malaysian transgender activists, such as <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/4611">Sulastri Ariffin</a>, have shared stories of ill treatment in public areas as well as in prison. </p>
<p>And although the police have denied it, the recent murder of transgender woman Sameera Krishnan is seen by some in the LGBT community as a <a href="http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/netizens-fume-over-sameeras-murder-as-laid-to-rest-on-birthday/">hate crime</a> against <em>mak nyahs</em>.</p>
<h2>The role of religious belief</h2>
<p>The vulnerability of LGBT people in Malaysia particularly affects Muslims and those at the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. </p>
<p>Organised religions continue to play an important role in the daily lives of Malaysians. LGBT citizens have been labelled as <a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/malaysia-will-not-protect-un-islamic-gay-rights-says-pm/">enemies of Islam</a> and compared to <a href="http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1523466">terrorist groups</a> in the Muslim-majority country.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162875/original/image-20170328-21267-18bhvng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actors Josh Gad and Luke Evans dancing together caught the eye of Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Studios</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mainstream Christian churches have stated that they do not condone violence against LGBT people, but they continue to resort to the Bible to condemn homosexual expressions as <a href="http://www.necf.org.my/newsmaster.cfm?&menuid=2&action=view&retrieveid=930">going against divine law</a>. </p>
<p>Other religious groups in Malaysia have mostly been silent on the issue, but the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism has officially <a href="https://harmonymalaysia.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/mccbchst-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98rights-to-life-liberty-the-right-to-the-dignity-of-the-person-and-the-right-to-privacy-for-all-persons/">spoken against</a> discrimination and violence towards LGBT people.</p>
<h2>Largely unprotected</h2>
<p>In 2012, deputy minister in the prime minister’s department, Mashitah Ibrahim, stated that the Malaysian Federal Constitution <a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/06/19/lgbt-not-protected-by-federal-constitution/">does not provide protection</a> for LGBT people. And during the signing of the <a href="http://www.asean.org/storage/images/ASEAN_RTK_2014/6_AHRD_Booklet.pdf">ASEAN Human Rights Declaration</a> at the <a href="http://asean.org/21st-asean-summit-in-phnom-penh-in-november-2012-asean-today/">21st ASEAN Summit in 2012</a>, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak deliberately <a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2012/11/19/asean-leaders-ink-declaration/">excluded LGBT rights</a> on the premise that the country has its own moral norms and values.</p>
<p>In 2016 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/malaysia">Human Rights Watch</a> noted the steady increase of human rights violations in Malaysia. Topping the list were curtailments of free speech and freedom of expression, police abuse, detention without trial, human trafficking and the lack of protection for LGBT people. In fact, the human rights NGO considers Malaysia one of the <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/275706">worst places</a> in the world for transgender people. </p>
<p>The fight for LGBT rights in Malaysia has faced and continues to encounter various forms of resistance. Islamic federal and state government agencies have even claimed that <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/195130">sexual minority rights</a> do not constitute human rights. </p>
<p>Efforts to foster community spirit among LGBT Malaysians have also been prohibited, as <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/180438">evident in the banning</a> of the sexuality rights festival <em>Seksualiti Merdeka</em> in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur in 2011.</p>
<p>In short, LGBT rights do not officially exist in Malaysia.</p>
<h2>Fighting the good fight</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, LGBT activists continue to fight for recognition. Grassroots organisation <a href="https://humanrightsinasean.info/content/justice-sisters.html">Justice for Sisters</a>, for instance, is actively advocating for the rights of Malaysian transgender men and women. </p>
<p>Community-based organisations such as the <a href="http://www.ptfmalaysia.org/">PT Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.klass.org.my/en/home.html">Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services Society</a> deal mainly with issues of sexual health. But they also recognise the need to educate government departments and the general population on related issues of gender and sexuality. </p>
<p>Numerous groups in the country are discreetly creating strategies on how best to canvass for the rights of LGBT people. For many of them, working behind the scenes is the safest and most effective way. </p>
<p>Malaysian LGBT activists have also <a href="https://www.outrightinternational.org/content/claiming-lgbt-rights-asean-community">linked up</a> with their international counterparts. In 2011, the <a href="http://aprrn.info/report-on-the-2011-asean-civil-society-conference-asean-people-e2-80-99s-c2-a0forum-2011/">ASEAN Civil Society Conference and ASEAN People’s Forum</a> was held in Kuala Lumpur. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.outrightinternational.org/">International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission</a> and the <a href="https://aseansogiecaucus.org/">ASEAN SOGIE Caucus</a> organised workshops and set up booths to educate the masses on LGBT rights. Many Malaysian LGBT activists were involved in these events, and took the opportunity to speak to politicians about their issues, needs and concerns.</p>
<p>Despite these efforts, LGBT rights in the country continue to face uncertainty, disapproval and opposition. Activists experience a certain measure of the good – a sense of community and camaraderie – as they work towards their goals. But they are also subject to a lot of the bad and the ugly in their fight for the legal, social, cultural and religious recognition and appreciation of LGBT people. They too are, at the end of the day, Malaysians in their own right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph N. Goh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Objections from certain sectors of Malaysian society to the film neatly illustrates both the fear and lack of understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.Joseph N. Goh, Lecturer in Gender Studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University MalaysiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709172017-01-12T13:19:23Z2017-01-12T13:19:23ZMusic has the power to rock the state, but youth movements will find the state always bites back<p>Among records recently released to the National Archives is a file from the 1980s entitled “<a href="https://hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/policing-acid-house-parties-in-1989-what-the-new-thatcher-government-papers-reveal/">Acid house parties</a>” which details the government’s disquiet over the growing phenomenon of raves, the large, open-air dance events in which thousands of young people, guided by organisers using new technologies such as pagers and mobile phones, descended upon fields to party. </p>
<p>The response was a series of laws imposing strict conditions and harsh penalties, with the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/part/V/crossheading/powers-in-relation-to-raves">Criminal Justice Act 1994</a> infamously outlawing music “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jul/21/criminal-justice-bill-protests">characterised by a series of repetitive beats</a>”. While many at the time may have felt immediate action was required to prevent the collapse of civilisation as we knew it, in fact this was merely the latest in a long line of moral panics over popular music through the 20th century. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/2014/01/unspeakable-jazz-must-go-strong-opinions-impact-jazz-american-culture-1921/">cultural mixing pot of jazz</a>, and even traditional music and ballads or bawdy songs in music halls had at some point caused anxiety among the powers that be. But it was during the rock’n’roll era that this process of music putting the fear into the state was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgx4k83zzc">turned up to 11</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/85-19PxC17o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Slash the seats</h2>
<p>Even before the arrival of Elvis Presley’s gyrating pelvis, fears about rock’n’roll were brewing from the transgressive collision of Afro-American rhythm and blues, white youths, and sex – all during the fraught racial politics of 1950s America. Crossing cultural boundaries and national borders, rock’n’roll became a global phenomenon, with fears for the youth of the day gripping almost every nation. The United Nations even <a href="https://www.unodc.org/congress/en/previous/previous-02.html">convened a special conference</a> in London in 1960 to discuss the problem of juvenile delinquency.</p>
<p>In Britain, the arrival of rock’n’roll in 1955 collided with a pre-existing panic over the Teddy Boy youth movement, sparked by a notorious gang-related murder in Clapham in 1953. The Teds embraced the new music and the press was filled with reports of Teds slashing cinema seats while dancing to Bill Haley and the Comets’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgdufzXvjqw">Rock Around the Clock</a>” from the closing credits of Blackboard Jungle – an American movie about, ironically, juvenile delinquents.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HA0_NRjx9KQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But rock’n’roll cleaned up – Elvis joined the army, and squeaky clean crooners and apostate rockers like Cliff Richard took the edge off pop music. The next moral panic came with the <a href="http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=libraries_facpub">British Beat boom</a> in 1964, when <a href="http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_real_quadrophenia_mods_vs._rockers_fight_on_the_beaches">running battles broke out between mods and rockers</a> in seaside towns. Rockers were the descendants of the Teds, who had abandoned Edwardian frock coats for leather jackets. The mods were associated with bands like The Who, The Yardbirds and the Small Faces, with a sharp dress sense favouring suits, a clear collective identity, and an often undeserved reputation for misbehaviour. </p>
<p>The out-of-touch Conservative government under Alec Douglas-Home passed in 1964 The Malicious Damages Act and The Misuse of Drugs Act, banning the amphetamines that it was claimed fuelled the mod scene. This was the first time an explicit association was made between narcotics and pop music subcultures. From now on, the two would regularly be grouped together. </p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<h2>Busted</h2>
<p>Fifty years ago this year, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/10/newsid_2522000/2522735.stm">police raided the home</a> of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and arrested him, singer Mick Jagger and gallery owner Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser. The trial was a global media event, not least for the behaviour of the judge at the trial who constantly chided and condemned the “petty morals” of the band before jailing them.</p>
<p>The response to the convictions was extraordinary. As well as the expected vocal protests of Rolling Stones fans, the editor of The Times – an “establishment” newspaper – published an incendiary editorial, <a href="https://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1755802,1756208">Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?</a>, attacking the judge for seeking to make examples of the two bandmates. Ultimately Jagger and Richards successfully appealed against their sentences, although clearing his name was a Pyrrhic victory for Richards, in the light of his subsequent life dogged by heroin addiction and many brushes with the law. </p>
<p>A cascade of music celebrity raids followed, and by 1967 a backlash had emerged against youth counter-cultures on both sides of the Atlantic, with the likes of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/763998.stm">Mary Whitehouse campaigning for a return to “traditional values”</a>. Medical and psychiatric professionals added their voices to those of the reactionaries, as there were legitimate concerns about the proliferation of drugs: 1967 was the first “<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lsd-drugs-summer-of-love-sixties">Summer of Love</a>”, when the music and art of the era was laced with LSD. Although not all favoured prohibition there was clear evidence of harm that had to be addressed.</p>
<p>Questions linger over the establishment’s targeting of groups such as the Beatles and the Stones, and others such as Jimi Hendrix. The press almost certainly tipped off the police over drug use at Richards’ home, and there is evidence of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323236/The-Acid-King-confesses-Rolling-Stones-drug-bust-set-MI5-FBI.html">police collusion with the media</a>. And the establishment itself was not innocent: the Metropolitan Police’s drugs squad later had to be gutted of corrupt policemen after it was discovered that <a href="https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/the-fall-of-scotland-yard/">senior officers had committed perjury</a> to defend a known drugs dealer. Were pop stars targeted to deflect attention from serious criminals who had the police in their back pocket?</p>
<h2>The moral minority</h2>
<p>Sometimes the problem was not drugs but obscenity. Even if it seems absurd today, The Beatles song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19sAewJH22I">I am the Walrus</a> was struck from BBC playlists due to the lyric: “Boy you have been a naughty girl and let your knickers down”, while The Sex Pistols were forced to argue the precise meaning of the word “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/vb8c/">bollocks</a>” in court. Elsewhere, anarcho-punks The Anti-Nowhere League and Crass also <a href="http://www.nme.com/photos/the-songs-they-tried-to-ban-1413829">found themselves in the dock for the use of obscene language</a>. </p>
<p>The most notorious attacks on popular music on grounds of obscenity was undoubtedly the <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/oral-history-tipper-gores-war-explicit-rock-lyrics-dee-snider-333304?rm=eu">Parents Music Resource Center</a> in the US during the 1980s, who demanded warnings on record sleeves alerting parents to explicit lyrical content. Their list of what they regarded as the most egregious examples of obscenity, known as the “<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/pmrcs-filthy-15-where-are-they-now-20150917">filthy fifteen</a>”, contains both heavy rockers and comparatively tame pop acts.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152250/original/image-20170110-29003-c7lxn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The result of a congressional enquiry was an agreement by the Recording Industry Association of America and manufacturers to add the now iconic “Parental Discretion Advised” sticker on certain records. Not only did this often act as an incentive to adolescent purchasers rather than a warning, but there is significant evidence that the industry agreed not as a sop to the moral lobby but <a href="http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=younghistorians">in return for a levy on blank cassette tapes</a>, ensuring the industry could profit from the practice of home taping records. </p>
<h2>Folk devils</h2>
<p>Sometimes it was not the musicians but their fans that worried the authorities. The skinhead, punk, rasta and raver scenes have all been viewed as, <a href="http://www.underground-england.co.uk/news/mods-v-rockers-traditional-english-seaside-entertainment-2/">in the words of the sociologist Stanley Cohen</a>, “<a href="https://infodocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stanley_cohen_folk_devils_and_moral_panics.pdf">folk devils</a>”: those who seemed to champion disorder. Authorities struggled with the question of whether bands are responsible for the actions of their fans. </p>
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<p>Two famous cases from the 1980s saw heavy metal legends Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest blamed for the suicides of several fans. It was claimed that Judas Priest had inserted a subliminal message into the track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqAPVB4u9Zs">Better you than me</a>, and that Ozzy’s track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UoPYv0Kq-0">Suicide solution</a> was an incitement to suicide – something Osbourne denied. Both court cases failed, but raised important questions about the relationship between fans and bands. Even after the end of the conservative-dominated 1980s, the 1997 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6moDcEkSnY">blamed on Marilyn Manson’s music</a> in much the same way.</p>
<p>The last decades of the 20th century were the high tide of moral panics over popular music, with almost every development in musical subcultures generating unease and outright hostility from the authorities, morality campaigners, and opportunistic newspapers editors looking for the next trend to decry and sensationalise. </p>
<p>In recent years the potential for music to shock or generate controversy seems to have lessened. Even members of boyband <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2637722/ONE-DIRECTION-EXCLUSIVE-Joint-lit-Happy-days-Watch-Zayn-Malik-Louis-Tomlinson-smoke-roll-cigarette-joke-marijuana-way-tour-concert.html">One Direction escaped largely unscathed</a> from tabloid exposure about recreational drug use, which a generation earlier had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,461173,00.html">ended the careers of the likes of East 17</a>. </p>
<p>Certainly, there is greater toleration or acceptance of the harder edges of musical cultures. But the passing of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-the-mind-boggling-new-drugs-bill-make-it-through-parliament-53612">Psychoactive Substances Act 2016</a> shows that anxieties about youth culture and behaviour are still part of the political landscape. And it takes only a fraught atmosphere, the search for a scapegoat, and ill-judged responses from popstars to turn a headline into the next moral panic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clifford Williamson works for Bath Spa University.</span></em></p>The 20th century saw battle lines drawn between music-driven youth movements and the state like none before.Clifford Williamson, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British and American History, Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639822016-08-24T01:58:36Z2016-08-24T01:58:36ZPlaying at torture, a not so trivial pursuit<p>From 2003 to 2009, Camp Bucca was a detention facility used by the U.S. military to house prisoners from the Iraq War. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7561952.stm">As early as 2004</a>, news reports surfaced that the camp was the site of prisoner abuse and torture. Some military experts have linked this abuse and torture to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/04/how-an-american-prison-helped-ignite-the-islamic-state/">the formation of the Islamic State, or ISIS, group</a>. </p>
<p>By the end of 2016, gamers might have the chance to step into Camp Bucca and <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/26/video-game-featuring-torture-of-prisoners-being-developed-in-pittsburgh/">torture a few detainees of their own</a> virtually, playing a new game under development in Pittsburgh.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135182/original/image-20160823-30216-1j9t3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In ‘Medal of Honor: Allied Assault’ (EA Games, 2002), the first mission is a somber reenactment of the storming of Omaha Beach, in World War II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ea.com/medal-of-honor-anniversary/images/b20d1fbf23641210VgnVCM100000ab65140aRCRD">EA Games</a></span>
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<p>War-themed video games are many, varied and successful. Games from the “<a href="https://www.callofduty.com/">Call of Duty</a>” franchise have sold <a href="https://blog.activision.com/t5/Call-of-Duty/Call-of-Duty-Infographic-Over-300-Billion-Grenades-Thrown/ba-p/9909305">more than 175 million copies</a> since 2003. These games are usually focused on fast-paced action or precise strategy, involving game play that might be morally questionable but is usually contextualized as “good guys” fighting “bad guys.” </p>
<p>The “Camp Bucca” game breaks from this, because <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/08/a-video-game-that-lets-you-torture-iraqi-prisoners/493379/">it doesn’t frame the player</a> as one of the “good guys.” It follows a lead set by games such as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”: In that game’s “<a href="http://kotaku.com/5931235/the-designer-of-call-of-dutys-no-russian-massacre-wanted-you-to-feel-something">No Russian</a>” campaign, players are asked to brutally massacre an airport full of civilians. The best-selling “Grand Theft Auto V” also features an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8R73tbJtNA">interactive torture scene</a>. </p>
<p>Does including torture or other human rights violations in video games trivialize the actions? Or might it force us to think more critically about them? To answer this question, we have to understand video games and their connection to moral behaviors.</p>
<h2>(Very) brief history of gaming and moral panics</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134850/original/image-20160820-30403-z6139f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Players in ‘Death Race’ (Exidy Games, 1976) had to drive over gremlins, killing them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/08/23/death-race">IGN.com</a></span>
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<p>One of the first public debates about <a href="http://gamestudies.org/1201/articles/carly_kocurek">the antisocial impact of video games on players</a> centered around the 1976 release of “Death Race” – an arcade driving game in which players earned points by running over human-like figures called “gremlins.” The fact that “Death Race” required players to use an actual steering wheel and gas pedal magnified the concerns: <a href="http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/2012/05/death-race-and-video-game-violence/">Psychiatrist Gerald Driessen suggested that the game amounted to a murder simulator</a>.</p>
<p>Gaming scholar Carly Korucek argues that the public controversy surrounding this game cemented a link in the public mindset between video games and violence – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-JzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=in+%5BDeath+Race%5D,+a+player+takes+the+first+step+to+creating+violence.+The+player+is+no+longer+just+a+spectator.+He%E2%80%99s+an+actor+in+the+process">a debate that has continued</a> with games such as “Mortal Kombat,” “DOOM” and “Grand Theft Auto” providing commentators plenty of fodder. </p>
<p>Yet one of the simplest and most enduring descriptions of video games comes from noted game designer Sid Meier (of “Civilization” fame), who argued that the best ones are “<a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015756/Interesting">a series of interesting decisions</a>.” One way in which game developers are making games more interesting for players is <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36968970/ns/#.V7tSVZgrJhE">by presenting them with a range of options of varying moral consequence</a>. Some criticize these games <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/black-or-white-making-moral-choices-in-video-games/1100-6240211/">for being too simplistic</a> in how they portray “good” and “evil.” But some studies are starting to show that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0658">committing moral atrocities in video games can trigger authentic guilt reactions</a>, which might result in causing players to reconsider their decisions, both in the game and in real life.</p>
<h2>Gaming and moral disengagement</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135036/original/image-20160822-18690-8tzol6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original box art from ‘DOOM.’ (id Software, 1995)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/02/06/nobody-likes-the-terrible-awful-no-good-doom-box-art/">Erik Kain/Forbes.com</a></span>
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<p>On its face, playing games that feature and simulate torture might be incredibly dangerous. Taking a basic interpretation of noted psychologist Albert Bandura’s <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1985-98423-000/">social cognitive theory</a>, many scholars argue that video games encourage players (notably, children) to model the behaviors they perform on-screen. Simply put, scholars such as psychologist and communication researcher L. Rowell Huesmann assert that violent video games are a public health threat <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018567">because they encourage both short-term and long-term aggression</a>.</p>
<p>Other scholars have argued that playing video games with antisocial messages (usually focused on aggressive actions) encourages players to morally disengage from actions in the real world, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1948550613509286">such as cheating and hostility</a>. Related to this, some have suggested that video games can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.10.005">desensitize players’ reactions to the content</a>, especially after <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2016.1142382">repeated exposures</a>. </p>
<h2>Gaming and moral reflection</h2>
<p>This paints a rather grim picture of video games featuring antisocial themes. Yet directly linking violent gaming to violent reaction is an oversimplification of what can happen when human players encounter inhuman actions. And some of these findings have been challenged <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691615592234">in recent reviews of research</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134849/original/image-20160820-30366-3bve3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In ‘The Torture Game,’ players are given a human to torture with a variety of weapons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from The Torture Game 2</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Game designer and scholar Ian Bogost suggests that video games <a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/how-to-do-things-with-videogames">have matured past a simple focus on entertainment</a>, and our understanding of gaming uses and effects has to mature as well. One of his more provocative arguments focuses on the role of gaming as a source of disgust and disinterest. </p>
<p>Bogost argues that when players experience games such as “<a href="http://www.silvergames.com/the-torture-game-2">The Torture Game 2</a>,” they are often repulsed by the gruesome violence that typifies human torture. In a sense, <a href="http://onmediatheory.blogspot.com/2012/03/disinterest-as-media-effect.html">this disgust reaction is a pro-social one</a>: It encourages the player to reject rather than embrace the on-screen behavior. A real-world example of Bogost’s claims, the Coney Island “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/arts/design/06wate.html?_r=0">Waterboard Thrill Ride</a>,” an animatronic exhibit demonstrating what waterboarding was really like, operated from June to September of 2008 as activist Steve Powers’ way of showing the harsh realities of a practice that people have often heard about but rarely seen.</p>
<h2>Gaming and moral meaning</h2>
<p>Video games can elicit reactions that are introspective, reflective and somber, <a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017980/We-Are-Not-Heroes-Contextualizing">especially when players are focused on the increasingly complex narratives in gaming</a>. Unlike film and television, gamers are active <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781453916292/9781453916292.00010.xml">coauthors of their experiences</a>, and have been shown to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0235">actively avoid committing moral violations when given the choice</a> – especially if those moral concerns <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.727218">were particularly important to the player</a>. Just as we rarely lambaste Stephen Spielberg’s classic movie “Schindler’s List” for encouraging pogroms, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2013.11679155">it is inaccurate to assume</a> that the only reaction that players can have to questionable video game content is an antisocial one. </p>
<p>As argued by game designer and writer Walt Williams, <a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017980/We-Are-Not-Heroes-Contextualizing">not all video games frame the player as a hero</a>. Williams’s own “Spec Ops: The Line” is one such example. In the game (a third-person shooter), the player takes control of Captain Martin Walker as he leads an elite Delta Force through a post-war Dubai under rebel military command. A key narrative mechanic of the game hinges on a series of morally gray decisions that players must make in order to advance the story. </p>
<p>One such decision is the infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7TaLjdXMc">“White Phosphorous”</a> episode, in which players are forced to use a chemical weapon on an invading force, only to find out after the fact that the “enemies” were largely civilian refugees under military escort. After using the weapon, <a href="http://66.media.tumblr.com/cbc1e0705be188a399bfc9eff8526e39/tumblr_msszwpGCQm1qi76rpo1_1280.jpg">the player encounters in graphic detail the horrors of chemical warfare</a>, losing the support of his troops and slowly falling into mental decline. Such a game uses intense and interactive violence to decry warfare, rather than celebrate and glorify it. </p>
<h2>What will we learn from playing ‘Camp Bucca’?</h2>
<p>As a way of testing how games affect our feelings, I’ve shown my students “The Torture Game 2” and asked them to view game play from the “White Phosphorous” episode – I keep both games in my office for play as well. At the risk of providing small-sample anecdote as scientific argument, their reactions range from anger to shock to repulsion. Few if any seem to enjoy the content, and most are quick to denounce it. Of course, these are students enrolled in college courses aimed at discussing the complexity of media effects. </p>
<p>We don’t know, for example, if somebody who has less ability or interest in contextualizing the game’s torture might have a different reaction: Someone with very strong and negative opinions toward ISIS might relish the opportunity to torture a terrorist. The Red Cross has even asked game developers to <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/10/12/232480753/red-cross-wants-video-games-to-get-real-on-war-crimes">prevent players from violating the Geneva Conventions in video games</a>, or at least to punish such violations. Not to mention, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.10.049">an individual with psychopathic tendencies might respond very different to this content</a>.</p>
<p>The context in which a game is played can have an important influence on whether antisocial game content has negative effects. In the case of “Camp Bucca,” the developers seem to be contextualizing torture as a root cause of terrorism, rather than situating it as an achievement or mark of success. In fact, <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/26/video-game-featuring-torture-of-prisoners-being-developed-in-pittsburgh/">they point out</a> that their game has a “deliberate message” – even if that message is as simple as encouraging players to Google “Camp Bucca.”</p>
<p><a href="http://remeshed.com/2016/torture-game-even/">Media commentator Amanda Jean wrote that</a> “‘Camp Bucca'’s level of stark, intimate violence and its basis in reality will be a hard pill for many gamers to swallow. For me, I know I won’t be swallowing that pill at all.” Jean is likely right that “Camp Bucca” is hardly an enjoyable game, but as media psychologist Mary Beth Oliver and I discussed, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/340qvj/science_ama_series_we_are_dr_mary_beth_oliver/">not all games are meant to be enjoyed</a> and not all gamers are motivated by enjoyment. In under 100 years, film evolved from <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Muybridge_race_horse_animated.gif">technical demonstrations</a> to <a href="http://www.afi.com/100Years/movies.aspx">emotionally gripping and serious storytelling</a>. Game developer Jesse Schell similarly argues that <a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018026/The-Future-of-Storytelling-How">video games are evolving into a serious storytelling medium</a>. </p>
<p>On this trajectory, games such as “Camp Bucca” might not be a fun pill to swallow, but it could be an incredibly meaningful one for players, albeit a little jagged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Bowman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Does including torture or other human rights violations in video games trivialize the actions? Or might it force us to think more critically about them?Nicholas Bowman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595812016-06-01T20:16:09Z2016-06-01T20:16:09ZTastes like moral superiority: what makes food ‘good’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124753/original/image-20160601-1925-d7v6ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We talk about food with moralising – and judgemental – language. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Food choice has become a moral morass. Discussions about food production and consumption are increasingly loaded with moral language. We’ve witnessed burgeoning debates over which agricultural practices and foodstuffs are “sustainable”, what counts as “clean” or “green” living and eating, and who is “responsible” for obesity, to name just a few. </p>
<p>Consumers are increasingly encouraged to seek out a range of ethical foodstuffs, which variously include: local, made in Australia, seasonal, non-genetically modified, humanely-produced, free range, organic, palm oil free, and fair trade.</p>
<p>There’s also increasing emphasis on reducing meat consumption, or even finding substitutes for all types of animal products. </p>
<p>Our research on food values has shown that consumers are increasingly confused by the multitude of food choices available to them. People feel pushed by labelling or peers to buy products when they feel they have inadequate information, or which fail to fulfil certain values. </p>
<p>We’re bombarded with messages about what makes food “good” and “bad”. These categories can tend to reinforce other social distinctions, like race, class, and education level. </p>
<h2>Information overload</h2>
<p>Our qualitative research as part of a broader <a href="https://arts.adelaide.edu.au/history/food-values/">food ethics project</a> has shown that parents in particular are increasingly overwhelmed by pressure to eat “ethically”, and feel judged. </p>
<p>They ask how they possibly can do the “right” thing on a restricted budget and in extremely limited time: not everyone can grow vegetables and fruit or raise their own chooks, only shop at expensive farmers’ markets, or go to many outlets in order to buy only “ethical” products.</p>
<p>The sheer amount of information available can cause paralysis. As one participant noted, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s a lot of people who point out different things about, you shouldn’t buy this, you shouldn’t buy that, but then you can’t keep up with what’s good for what and what’s bad for what. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As another said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It gets to the point where it’s just too hard, you just buy it, and you turn into a creature of habit … I just can’t find myself analysing all this stuff. I just want a couple of steaks and you give up, it’s just too much information.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Religious ideas about ‘good’ food</h2>
<p>Using moral language in reference to food is not a new phenomenon: nearly every religion has certain food prohibitions. Pork is forbidden in Judaism and Islam and Catholicism bans meat on certain days; the Bible specifically cautions us against gluttony. </p>
<p>Even with declines in organised religion in some Western countries, these distinctions are deeply ingrained in our culture. As with many religious and cultural traditions, what’s improper or forbidden often creates a separation between members and non-members of a group.</p>
<p>Identity claims associated with various contemporary food categories can serve a similar purpose. Consider not only vegetarian, vegan, and other more established labels, but also newer categories such as locavore, freegan, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/7222088/Kangatarians-emerge-in-Australia.html">kangatarian</a> (eating vegetables and kangaroo meat only), and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/21/flexitarianism-vegetarianism-with-cheating">flexitarian</a> (eating mostly vegetarian with occasional meat). </p>
<p>Attaching moralising labels to our food such as “good” and “bad”, and to ourselves as eaters can create troubling binary categories. </p>
<h2>Expensive, ‘exotic’, and unclear</h2>
<p>Food labelling also can bewilder consumers as much as inform them. Labels provide nutrition, provenance, and safety information (for example, “best by” dates and allergen warnings); serve as advertisements; and increasingly include information about ethical issues such as production methods and animal welfare.</p>
<p>The new Australian code for <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-31/free-range-egg-definition-chickens-welcomed/7286772">free range egg labelling standards</a> created as much confusion as clarity. While transparency in labelling has been welcomed, many producers and consumer organisations claim that the maximum stocking density is far too high and eggs from hens that never actually go outside could be called “free range”. They emphasise that <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/03/31/consumers-urged-boycott-19-egg-brands-after-free-range-definition-announced">consumers should boycott what they call “bad eggs”</a>, perhaps in an intentional contrast to what some companies label as “happy eggs”.</p>
<p>“Superfoods” can be confusing too. Rhetoric and marketing emphasises various health claims, but also exoticises their origins, no doubt in part to rationalise their relatively high cost. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fPGnBkH3fBg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Emphasising less familiar and often more expensive ingredients in the context of dietary advice can foster an elitist message, and even fuel food anxieties. </p>
<p>In similar ways, our snobbery toward frozen and processed foods may well be blinding us to their potential advantages. Depending on issues like season and storage and transport methods, some frozen foods might in fact be more nutritious (as well as more convenient) than their fresh counterparts. </p>
<p>As the food historian Rachel Laudan argues, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HbgKDkUrDEM2NjOThkZjAtYTUyNS00NDYxLWI0NDMtMDUwYzcwODQyOWY1/view?ddrp=1&authkey=CP2XufED&hl=en&pli=1">processed and industrialised foods are not automatically bad</a>, although quality matters: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we unthinkingly assume that good food maps neatly onto old or slow or homemade food…we miss the fact that lots of industrial foodstuffs are better.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>We think in black and white</h2>
<p>Humans love to divide things into categories and attach labels: this tendency allows to us organise often overwhelmingly complicated amounts of information and develop shortcuts. </p>
<p>However when we divide humans into categories, it’s usually in terms of self/other or us/them. The language associated with food can do the same.</p>
<p>Critics of this moralising language have proposed using phrases like “growing foods” versus “fun foods”. They’re much less grounded in concepts of right and wrong, or good and bad, and emphasise a healthier relationship with food.</p>
<p>We may wish to make particular food choices for ourselves and our families because of deeply held values associated with supporting our local economy, trying not to damage the environment, not contributing through our choices to cruelty to non-human animals or promoting unfair or unhealthy working conditions. </p>
<p>But not everyone has the same values or interprets them in the same way. Nor do we weight them identically: choosing food reflects a complex calculus and there are few simple decisions. </p>
<p>Let’s eliminate judgemental language from our conversations about food policy, but most importantly, let’s stop bringing it to the kitchen table.</p>
<p><br></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Rachel will be online for an Author Q&A between 3:30 and 4:30pm AEST on Thursday June 2, 2016. Post any questions you have in the comments below.</em></p>
<p><em>This is the fifth article in our ongoing series on food and culture Tastes of a Nation. You can read previous instalments <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/tastes-of-a-nation">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Do you have a story idea for this series? If so, please contact <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/team">Madeleine De Gabriele</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel A. Ankeny receives funding from the Australian Research Council for projects relating to food ethics.</span></em></p>Locavore, freegan, kangatarian, flexitarian … what we eat has become a moral minefield. Religions have long enforced food-related prohibitions, but in a secular context we could do with a little less moralising at the kitchen table.Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546392016-02-23T23:23:32Z2016-02-23T23:23:32ZOnslaughts against gays and lesbians challenge Indonesia’s LGBT rights movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112083/original/image-20160219-1274-1nv9ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite challenges, Indonesia's LGBT community continues to fight for its rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">esfera/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent onslaughts against <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/world/asia/indonesia-antigay-sentiment.html?_r=0">gays and lesbians in Indonesia</a> are a sign of a fresh wave of moral panic on homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim country.</p>
<p>Following a month-long anti-gay campaign on traditional and social media, an association of mental health specialists in Indonesia <a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/3146736/dokter-jiwa-indonesia-kaum-homoseks-adalah-orang-dengan-masalah-kejiwaan">declared on Sunday</a> that homosexuality was a mental disorder.</p>
<p>Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Indonesia are not cowering in silence in response. Despite the challenges, they continue to fight for their rights. </p>
<h2>Homophobic outcry</h2>
<p>The mental disorder verdict is the latest in a series of homophobic statements and actions by high-level officials, conservative media and Indonesian netizens in the past month. </p>
<p>Pronounced anti-gay sentiments surfaced in late January when the minister for technology, research and higher education, Muhammad Nasir, called for gay and lesbian groups to be banned from university campuses.</p>
<p>His statement came as a reaction to the existence of a counselling group for gays and lesbians, the Support Group and Resource Centre on Sexuality Studies (SGRC), at the University of Indonesia. He was quoted as saying the group was a threat to Indonesian <a href="http://news.detik.com/berita/3125654/menristek-saya-larang-lgbt-di-semua-kampus-itu-tak-sesuai-nilai-kesusilaan">“values and standard of morality”</a>. The minister later <a href="http://www.rappler.com/world/regions/asia-pacific/indonesia/bahasa/englishedition/120353-lgbt-ban-campus-minister-nasir">retreated from his statement</a>, but it has put the organisation and the LGBT community in the hot seat. </p>
<p>Indonesia’s conservative media, such as the Islamic daily Republika and the country’s active social media users, started to denounce the counselling group for destroying morals and spreading the LGBT “virus”. </p>
<p>The messaging app LINE has also removed LGBT-themed emojis <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/12/indonesia-bans-gay-emoji-and-stickers-from-messaging-apps">from its store</a>, after coming under pressure from the Communications Ministry. </p>
<p>The attacks against the SGRC have reached members of the LGBT community in their everyday lives. They are being <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/fear-haunts-lgbt-community.html">disowned by their families</a>, bullied by friends and questioned by campus officials.</p>
<h2>Moral panics</h2>
<p>The hatred and threats directed at gays and lesbians are manifestations of moral panic over homosexuality. </p>
<p>Attacks against the LGBT community in Indonesia are not new. In 2000, the Ka’bah Youth Movement, a radical Islamic youth group, stormed the commemoration of World AIDS Day attended by 350 transgender women in Kaliurang, Central Java. Ten years later, in March 2010, the Islamic Defenders Front <a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/homophobia-on-the-rise">attacked a regional meeting</a> of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association in Surabaya. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the recent debate on the so-called “LGBT threat” surfaced just days after the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Jakarta. Comparing the quick and often lighthearted response to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indonesia-needs-more-than-hashtags-to-defy-terror-53299">Jakarta attacks</a> to the longevity and hostility of the “LGBT threat” discourse on social media, Indonesia seems to be more troubled by sexual matters than terrorism.</p>
<h2>Preserving structural violence</h2>
<p>Moral panics can serve as an indicator of what a society categorises as good and bad. It exposes power relations in the society. Those who can label what is evil hold supremacy over the “evils”. </p>
<p>Moral panics also serve as an important tool to maintain structural violence. This recent anti-gay uproar shows the social and political standing of LGBT people in Indonesian society is still extremely vulnerable. </p>
<p>The dominant heterosexist and homophobic society still holds a belief that homosexuality is a social pathology that must be abolished. Hence, LGBT people in Indonesia cannot enjoy their rights as full citizens. </p>
<h2>LGBT rights activism</h2>
<p>Except for <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34612544">sharia-ruled Aceh province</a>, there is no law on homosexuality in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Indonesia has a growing number of NGOs and civil movements that focus on LGBT issues. They have so far responded to the onslaughts with dignity and courage. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>A gay rights group in Indonesia, the LGBTIQ forum, has <a href="http://www.rappler.com/indonesia/121324-komunitas-lgbtiq-somasi-republika">filed a summons</a> – the first step towards a libel suit – against Republika for its January 25 front-page headline “LGBT a serious threat”. </p></li>
<li><p>The chairman of gay rights organisation Suara Kita, Hartoyo, has written an open letter <a href="http://www.suarakita.org/2016/02/letter-to-indonesian-president-joko-widodo/">to Indonesian President Joko Widodo</a> demanding that the government protect LGBT rights to freedom of expression. </p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="http://aliansiremajaindependen.org/tag/aliansi-satu-visi">Aliansi Satu Visi</a>, a coalition of 22 rights organisations, declared its objections to any forms of discrimination and violence against LGBT people. </p></li>
<li><p>Organisations working on issues of sexual reproductive health, such as the <a href="http://pkbi.or.id/">Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association </a>, and women’s organisations, such as the <a href="http://www.koalisiperempuan.or.id/">Indonesian Women’s Coallition</a>, have also shown support for LGBT rights. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>A test for LGBT movement</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/29/milestones-indonesian-lgbt-movement.html">struggle for LGBT rights in Indonesia</a> still has a long way to go. For the movement to succeed in getting the state to protect LGBT people and promote their rights, LGBT groups need to build alliances with state and political institutions. </p>
<p>This is far from easy, especially with the rise of Islamic conservatism, which is reflected in the way numerous “Islamic” online media promote homophobic attitudes. </p>
<p>But if the government is serious about creating a tolerant and caring society, it should work with the LGBT community, human rights activists and the media to campaign for tolerance and respect for diversity.</p>
<p>It should strengthen law enforcement in relation to LGBT rights protection. The government should also investigate and prosecute perpetrators of violence against LGBT people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Teresa Pakasi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent onslaught against gays and lesbians in Indonesia shows a fresh wave of moral panic over homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim country.Diana Teresa Pakasi, Research Associate, Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.