Power to Persuade

There is an urgent need to improve commercial foods for infants and young children. And right now, there is a window of opportunity for regulatory action in Australia. I have written a short piece about this over at Power to Persuade. https://lnkd.in/g26NbdxM

It has been a busy few weeks on the blog, between #AntiPovertyWeek2024 and #ChildrensWeek2024 and we have had a lot of incredibly powerful content up on the blog. Here is a ‘round-up’ of what’s new on Power to Persuade. In the run up to #AntiPovertyWeek2024 the Antipoverty Centre published two pieces to spark some thinking and discussion about poverty: 'Crowing about a budget surplus? There are better ways for Chalmers to measure economic success'- ‘They Lie’ -https://lnkd.in/gDu9UDmZ Following on from #AntiPovertyWeek2024 and into #ChildrensWeek2024 the Life Course Centre published another three thought-provoking pieces, 'The Big Question: How can we help end child poverty in Australia?'-https://lnkd.in/gi7ZfMmQ 'How food insecurity is biting: Australians are going hungry'-https://lnkd.in/gjXYjZTE 'Unpacking why mealtimes matter in early childhood centres for disadvantaged communities'-https://lnkd.in/gTsb7j-h Thank you to the incredible moderators for making these timely pieces available to us! https://lnkd.in/ggsK7Kvj

This week on the blog moderator Cadhla O’Sullivan wanted to highlight the important work of Elise Klein, Janet Hunt, Zoe Staines, Yonatan Dinku, Dr Chay Brown, Kayla Glynn-Braun, and Mandy Yap. On the 10th September, they launched their report 'Caring about Care' In collaboration with the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice, The Australian National University and the The University of Queensland. This important work focuses on unpaid care work performed by First Nations women. Find the report and recording of the launch linked in the piece below. https://lnkd.in/g_3m8eiv

The online world is the best of us and the worst of us. It connects and divides; it informs and actively spews misinformation. It is a place where people of all ages find enjoyment, belonging and entertainment; and it is filled with dangerous holes that take us to dangerous and nasty places. It is little wonder that the division, misinformation, and dangers create real and appropriate concerns about the impacts on children - particularly when most children are far adept at using online spaces than many adults. In this context there have been proposals for banning children from the internet from political leaders across Australia. The reaction is understandable - and keeping children safe from harm is something we should, as a community, not simply strive for, but achieve. But is a social media ban the best way forward? Probably not! There are real questions about the practicalities of achieving a ban and around the additional data that would be placed in the hands of platforms. Rather than a ban on children, serious regulation of platforms to require that they uphold their responsibility to keep children safe would be a preferable approach, but that is another story.... Our story - just published in Power to Persuade - focuses on what children have told us about their lives, particularly when they are growing up in poverty - with too little, and with far too few opportunities. In such contexts, children do often have devices - often bought by parents who desperately want their children to be connected and to have what their peers do. Children tell us about the lack of time with their parents (often because of parents' work and time burdens), they tell us about the lack of places to play, and a lack of things to do (often because lots of things cost too much). The lack of places to play is not always about cost; it is also about poor planning, lack of infrastructure, and not feeling or being safe. Concerns about safety are not limited to online spaces - and very often children described feeling isolated and unconnected in their physical communities, of not knowing the adults around them, of not feeling respected or included. Little wonder they also talk about not feeling safe. The debates around banning social media raise important questions not only about the nature of online communities, but also real, in-person communities - and the extent to which they are failing to serve many children. In our Power to Persuade piece, my fabulous colleague Cadhla O’Sullivan and I ask not what we should ban, but what we need to put in place. Putting in place inclusive, supportive in-person communities for children, provides alternatives to online worlds, and has to potential to create relationships and webs of support that ensure children are no alone and isolated as they enter communities, either online or in-person. https://lnkd.in/gBqNwZRk

The online world is the best of us and the worst of us. It connects and divides; it informs and actively spews misinformation. It is a place where people of all ages find enjoyment, belonging and entertainment; and it is filled with dangerous holes that take us to dangerous and nasty places. It is little wonder that the division, misinformation, and dangers create real and appropriate concerns about the impacts on children - particularly when most children are far adept at using online spaces than many adults. In this context there have been proposals for banning children from the internet from political leaders across Australia. The reaction is understandable - and keeping children safe from harm is something we should, as a community, not simply strive for, but achieve. But is a social media ban the best way forward? Probably not! There are real questions about the practicalities of achieving a ban and around the additional data that would be placed in the hands of platforms. Rather than a ban on children, serious regulation of platforms to require that they uphold their responsibility to keep children safe would be a preferable approach, but that is another story.... Our story - just published in Power to Persuade - focuses on what children have told us about their lives, particularly when they are growing up in poverty - with too little, and with far too few opportunities. In such contexts, children do often have devices - often bought by parents who desperately want their children to be connected and to have what their peers do. Children tell us about the lack of time with their parents (often because of parents' work and time burdens), they tell us about the lack of places to play, and a lack of things to do (often because lots of things cost too much). The lack of places to play is not always about cost; it is also about poor planning, lack of infrastructure, and not feeling or being safe. Concerns about safety are not limited to online spaces - and very often children described feeling isolated and unconnected in their physical communities, of not knowing the adults around them, of not feeling respected or included. Little wonder they also talk about not feeling safe. The debates around banning social media raise important questions not only about the nature of online communities, but also real, in-person communities - and the extent to which they are failing to serve many children. In our Power to Persuade piece, my fabulous colleague Cadhla O’Sullivan and I ask not what we should ban, but what we need to put in place. Putting in place inclusive, supportive in-person communities for children, provides alternatives to online worlds, and has to potential to create relationships and webs of support that ensure children are no alone and isolated as they enter communities, either online or in-person. https://lnkd.in/gBqNwZRk

In this post, Power to Persuade moderator Simone Casey laments delays to reform of #employmentservices that mean fundamental changes to how people are treated when they are looking for work in Australia are still too far away. https://lnkd.in/gK33hAmM

New on the blog this week: 'We should be looking at what we can add to children’s lives instead of what we take away' New moderator Cadhla O’Sullivan alongside Sharon Bessell from the Children's Policy Centre speak about the government's plan to legislate to ban social media for younger teens. Cadhla O’Sullivan Sharon Bessell Crawford School of Public Policy ANU College of Asia & the Pacific The Australian National University https://lnkd.in/gQxkQtSR

The Australian Government’s first response to the Disability Royal Commission - Dr ⁦‪Raelene West from the Melbourne Disability Institute, University of Melbourne in InSight+ ⁦‪Medical Journal of Australia https://lnkd.in/gcA5RRKz

We have just put out our latest e-bulletin from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) Research & Impact team! Read up on some wonderful research outputs supported by VicHealth, including an information portal to support intergenerational social connection, a great read on a culturally responsive program for young African-Australians, and the latest thoughts from our postdoctoral research fellows. You can read (and subscribe!) here: https://lnkd.in/gF3s4zvC #research #publichealth #socialconnection #wellbeing

New on the blog: Katie Moon, Sophie Yates, Maureen Thompson and Corey Callaghan take a relational approach to understanding citizen science participation, drawing on interviews with keen FrogID users. They describe changes in several domains of relationships, including with frogs, with nature, with self, and with other people. They conclude by offering some insights for citizen science from the perspective of agential realism - covering intra-action, mattering and meaning, and responsibility - with the aim of helping program designers tap into the transformational potential of citizen science. https://lnkd.in/g3twp8PN