Children01
What Do We Mean by Social Media?
A blanket label conceals important differences between public feeds, video libraries, messaging services and school communities.
Article · 3 min read↗
Edition 02 The Invisible Programme Controller
The Invisible Programme Controller.
How recommendation systems organise attention, shape exposure and influence children, politics and public life.
Read the edition
From the Editor
“The interesting questions are often around the model.”
The debate about social media often begins with content and ends with bans. This edition asks a different question: who decides what appears next? Recommendation systems now perform a role once held by programme controllers, but they make millions of individual choices continuously and with limited public accountability. The articles that follow examine what these systems demonstrably change, what they may influence and where the evidence does not support a causal claim.
Dr Gary Marrs PhD Editor, Beyond the Model
Inside Edition 2
Follow the questions.
Children02
What Would an Under-16 Ban Actually Require?
Age restrictions sound simple until identity, privacy, proportionality and circumvention become part of the design.
Article · 3 min read↗
Children03
When Online Video Is Developmental Support
Some children use repeated language, songs and situations as material for communication and learning.
Article · 3 min read↗
Recommender systems04
The Algorithm Has Become the Programme Controller
Recommenders perform an editorial function at immense scale, but their choices are governed differently from a broadcast schedule.
Article · 3 min read↗
Recommender systems05
Engagement Should Be the Tool, Not the Goal
Attention can serve learning, creativity, connection and entertainment without becoming the final measure of value.
Article · 3 min read↗
Recommender systems06
Does Your Algorithm Make You More Like Yesterday?
Feedback loops can make inferred preferences increasingly influential without proving that the person underneath has changed.
Article · 3 min read↗
Extremism07
Can a Recommendation Path Become a Radicalisation Path?
Online systems can assist discovery, repetition and community formation, but the leap from exposure to extremist violence is not a settled causal chain.
Article · 3 min read↗
Framework08
A Public Interest Framework for Recommender Systems
Eight questions for governing systems that organise attention across childhood, politics and public life.
Framework · 3 min read↗