This morning I didn’t go for a run but I actually got up earlier than usual. We went out after breakfast looking for a dental technician’s place, supposedly situated on a small industrial complex round the corner from home. A noticeboard said it was in unit 13. Unit 13 did not exist. We were told it was in another section of the complex, a few hundred yards down the road. Off we went. No dental technician! Further enquiries sent us another few hundred yards down the road into yet another section. There it was. How do three apparently separate complexes all call themselves by the same name? Very confusing!
One consequence was that I did get something of a run after all, scuttling along the road trying to keep up with Phil who was striding out at top speed! Not quite how I planned to start the week.
On more than on occasion I have moaned and groaned about security measures which come into force when I try to access messages on the NHS app on my phone. Jumping through technological hoops to read a message that, for example, the GPs’ surgery is closed on such and such a day for training is one of life’s bugbears. However, I am aware that we need security measures.
So here’s a headline from this morning’s paper:
“Starmer says government will legislate if tech companies don't stop children using phones to take naked images”
The item went on to say that Keir Starmer has announced that tech companies must stop children from sending or receiving naked images of themselves. An admirable aim!
In his speech, he said:
“One issue is the ability for children with phones to send and receive nude images.
For too long, people have been told that is simply the price of modern tech, that nothing can be done, that government is powerless, that parents just have to accept it.
I reject that completely, because tech should adapt to the needs of society, not the other way around.
That is why today I am calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce device controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images.”
Various groups, such as Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties and privacy campaign group, are expressing concern and outrage at the UK possible ending up with he ‘one of the most auhoritatian internet regimes in the world’. “Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm. This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.
Put simply, the Labour Government is threatening ID checks for the internet. No one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online.”
Which brings me back to my moaning and groaning. A solution to the mobile phone and children has to be found, of course, but there’s a bit of me fears that this genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Some of those whom such a measure is intended to protect are precisely the ones who know how to circumvent the security checks. It’s the likes of me, and so many of my generation who will continue to have difficulty recognising the traffic lights on the grid intended to prove I’m not a robot!
Still on technology, I read that actors have been complaining about mobile phones and other such devices in theatres. Rosamund Pike got more than a little cross with someone sending text messages during her performance. Other actors have paused performances to remonstrate with people texting, massaging, taking photos and filming. Journalists have written about visits to the cinema or theatre spoilt by others in the audience chatting and seemingly having a party in the seats behind them. It’s all part of the odd modern phenomenon that says it’s normal to eat and drink through a film. It’s rather different from the days when ice-creams were sold dung the interval by an usherette with a tray suspended from their shoulders! Even watching a film on TV at home, my grandchildren expect popcorn!
Such is the modern world!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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