Five Reads: Putting the Kids Online
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 22, 2019
Here’s our roundup of five compelling stories from around the internet in the last few days. Look for this column every week in this space.
Should Parenting Be Private?
At what age do you need to ask your children if it’s ok to post pictures of their skinned knees, tweet out their unintentionally funny comments or share videos of their big and small sporting moments? Do they ever deserve privacy? From their parents? In the Atlantic, Taylor Lorenz asks what happens when kids start to google themselves and realize how much of their life — often starting in the womb — is already online.
The Apple of Pot?
Or is it the Starbucks of Weed? California-based MedMen has big plans to make buying cannabis about as controversial as picking up a six pack. Even less so. As Justin Kirkland writes in Esquire, “MedMen’s color scheme, its newly announced clothing line, and its Millennial appeal all scream, ‘Cannabis isn’t something to fear.’”
Adam Bierman, MedMen CEO and co-founder will speak at SXSW 2019 on Cannabis, the New Normal.
British Parliament Blasts Fake News
Can the U.K. be a world leader in content regulation? An influential committee of the British parliament accused social media companies of acting like “digital gangsters” and called for a radical reassessment of responsibility for fake news, disinformation, and toxic content on their platforms. It challenged the concept of “platform” as a way of thinking about social media and proposed sweeping new regulations.
SXSW 2019 offers several discussions on fighting fake news as part of its Media and Journalism track.
Let’s Go Milk Bar
Christina Tosi’s bakery empire is rising like a fresh loaf of brioche. In a New York Times profile, the perfectionist talks about how she’s disrupting the market for satisfying your sweet teeth, figuring “how to maintain the Milk Bar magic while running a multimillion-dollar business.” She’ll speak at SXSW on “Innovation in Pursuit of the Unexpected.”
Fast Company released its list of this year’s 50 most innovative companies and the top spot goes to China’s Meituan Dianping, a super app across Southeast Asia that includes everything from food delivery to hotel bookings. Others in top spots include Grab, the NBA, The Walt Disney Company and Stitch Fix. Last year’s no. 1 Apple fell to no. 17.
Meet 50 other innovative companies at the 2019 SXSW Pitch.
Five Reads Archive
Feb. 15: After Parkland
Feb. 8: DeepMind Medicine
Feb. 1: Ready, Set AOC
January 25: CompSci Gets Way Cool
January 18: Spying on Crime
January 10: Taming Toxic Trolls
January 4: Big Tech = Big Trouble
December 28: Austin is Weird and Wired
December 22: The End of Traffic
December 15: Guarding the Truth
December 5: Becoming an Obama
November 30: The Trouble for Juul
November 21: Life Is Good
November 16: Whither Facebook
November 9: Why Does the US Love Guns?
November 2: Esther Perel Knows Love
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
