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Children should be seen and not heard, or so the old saying goes. A new version of this adage is now playing out across the United States, as more states are passing laws about how children and teens should use social media.

In 2024, approximately half of all U.S. states passed at least 50 bills that make it harder for children and teens to spend time online without any supervision.

Some of the new laws in places such as Maryland, Florida, Georgia and Minnesota include provisions that require parental consent before a child or teenager under the age of 18 can use a social media app, for example. Other new laws prevent targeted marketing to teens based on the personal information they share online. Others recognize child influencers who have active social media followings as workers.

In 1998, long before the age of Instagram or TikTok, the federal government set a minimal baseline for internet safety for children under the age of 13 with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. This law, known as COPPA, prevents websites from sharing children’s personal information, among other measures.

As law professors who study children’s online lives and the law, we are tracking state governments that are providing new protections to children when they use social media.

So far, almost all of these new protections are happening at the state level – it remains to be seen how the Trump administration will, if at all, weigh in on how children and teens are spending time on social media.

Almost half of all teens ages 13 to 17 said in 2024 that they are ‘constantly’ online.
iStock/Getty Images Plus

Risk of social media use for kids and teens

Almost half of teens ages 13 to 17 said in 2024 they are “almost constantly” online and virtually all of them use the internet every day.

And approximately 40% of children ages 8 to 12 use social media on a daily basis.

Research shows that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media have an increased risk of anxiety and depression.

Almost half of teens have faced online bullying or harassment, with older teen girls most likely to have experienced this. Social media use has been linked to self-harm in some cases.

In 2023, 41 states and the District of Columbia sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, claiming that it was harming children. Although Meta tried to have the case dismissed, it is still moving forward.

States’ attempts to make social media safer for teens

States including New York and California have made a number of legal changes since 2023 that make it safer for adolescents to spend time online.

California, for example, has expanded information protection for young social media users by limiting apps from collecting kids’ and teens’ geolocation data.

Utah and Florida have raised the age for social media use. Children under the age of 14 cannot open their own social media account, and the platforms are supposed to shut down any such accounts used by children in those states.

In 2024, the Utah Legislature determined that social media was similar to regulated “products and activities” like cars and medication that create risks for minors.

Utah’s new law requires social media platforms to verify a user’s age, such as by requiring a photo ID.

A 2024 Tennessee law allows minors to open their own accounts but requires that social media companies ensure that anyone under the age of 18 has parental consent to do so.

Some states, including Texas and Florida, are trying to create a different experience for minors once they have an account on a social media platform. They are blocking apps from sending targeted advertisements to minors or, in states such as New York, curating social media feeds based on an algorithm instead of based on the minors’ own choices.

A growing number of states have also focused on creating more protections for children influencers and vloggers, who regularly post short videos and images on social media and often have other young people following their content. So far, California, Illinois and Minnesota have passed child digital entertainer laws since 2023.

All of these laws set up financial protections for child influencers. Illinois’ law requires child influencers to receive a portion of the profits they make from their content. Minnesota’s law includes privacy protections: forbidding children under the age of 14 from working as influencers and giving them the right to later delete content, even when their parents have created the post or video.

These laws face different legal challenges. For example, some private industry groups claim these laws restrict free speech or the rights of parents. The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering – for the first time since 1997 – the constitutionality of age restrictions for social media usage.

States across the political spectrum, as well as social media companies themselves, are creating more protections for kids whose online activity might suggest that federal law reform will finally happen.

Members of a dance group in Times Square on Jan. 14, 2025, record videos to be used for social media.
Adam Gray/Getty Images

Federal action on social media

Congress has considered new online privacy legislation for children in the past 25 years, including banning targeted ads. But nothing has been enacted.

There is no clear indication that the Trump administration will make any substantial changes in existing law on children and internet privacy. While federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, could take the lead on protecting children online, there has been little public discussion of issues involving children and media access.

Trump’s choice for surgeon general, Janette Nesheiwat, said in 2024, “Social media has had a tremendous negative impact on all aspects of society, especially our younger generations.” It’s unclear how widely this view is shared within the new administration.

On other social media issues, such as the future of TikTok, Trump’s nominees and advisers have been divided. Particularly in an administration in which “the president owns a social media company, and one of his main associates owns another,” the future scope of federal action to protect children online is uncertain. This is likely to prompt states to advance laws that create more protections for children on social media.

Even though social media platforms have national and global reach, we believe that state-by-state leadership might be the best way to make laws in which the needs and rights of children and their families are seen, heard and protected. Läs mer…

This article was first published as World Affairs Briefing from The Conversation UK. Click here to receive this newsletter every Thursday, direct to your inbox.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians returned to the northern Gaza Strip this week after checkpoints were reopened in line with the ceasefire agreement. Many will have found their homes destroyed after months of heavy fighting and bombardment – something the new US president, Donald Trump, has pointed out.

In an exchange with reporters last weekend, Trump said: “I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess.” He then went on to suggest Palestinians there should be “evacuated” to Egypt and Jordan where “they could maybe live in peace for a change”. “You’re talking about a million and a half people … we just clean out that whole thing,” he continued.

Trump is seemingly no stranger to airing whatever thoughts come into his head. At his inauguration he claimed – without providing evidence – that “China is operating the Panama canal”. And he has since called Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine “ridiculous”. But even by these standards, his suggestion to evict Gazans from their land is brash to say the least.

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As Karin Aggestam of Lund University reports, Trump’s proposal has been met with disbelief across the Middle East. It has been widely criticised throughout the region as a potential “second Nakba” – referring to the displacement of Palestinians after Israel’s unilateral declaration of statehood in 1948.

Read more:
Donald Trump’s suggestion of ’clearing out’ Gaza adds another risk to an already fragile ceasefire

The proposal has also been rejected outright by Egypt and Jordan. Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs released a statement on Sunday objecting to any forced displacement of Palestinians. And Jordan’s minister of foreign affairs, Ayman Safadi, said his country was committed to “ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land”. The Arab League regional bloc has accused Trump of advocating ethnic cleansing.

Aggestam says it’s not yet certain if moving Palestinians out of Gaza will become an official US policy position, or whether it is yet another example of Trump speaking his mind. But, in her view, Trump’s latest pronouncement will further complicate the already fragile ceasefire.

Palestinians walk among the rubble of destroyed buildings in northern Gaza.
Mohammed Saber / EPA

The idea of relocating Palestinians to other countries has thrilled Israel’s extreme ultra-nationalist parties. The Israeli finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich, and the former national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, have both previously encouraged the return of Israeli settlers to the Gaza Strip.

Ben Gvir, who recently resigned from his ministerial position in protest at the Gaza ceasefire, asserted in October that “encouraging emigration” of Palestinian residents of Gaza would be the “most ethical” solution to the conflict.

According to Leonie Fleischmann of City, University of London, the pair share an anti-Arab ideology and a messianic belief in the Jewish people’s right to what they call “Greater Israel”. This refers to a Jewish state that would also include the West Bank, which they referred to as “Judea and Samaria”, as well as Gaza and part of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

As Fleischmann explains, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were the sites of many key events in biblical times and were the home of a number of Israelite kingdoms. In the Bible, God even promises this land to the descendants of Abraham – the Jewish people. This, Fleischmann writes, is the reason behind Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s belief that the Jewish people have the God-given right to settle the whole of Greater Israel.

Read more:
The growing influence of Israel’s ultranationalist settler movement

This is not a position held by the majority of Israelis. But Israel’s ultra-nationalists wield considerable political power, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government dependent on their support to remain in power. Indeed, days after Trump suggested clearing out Gaza, Smotrich spoke of turning it into an actionable policy.

Speaking with reporters on Monday, he said: “There is nothing to be excited about the weak opposition of Egypt and Jordan to the plan. We saw yesterday how Trump [imposed his will on] Colombia to deport immigrants despite its opposition. When he wants it, it happens.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with his minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, during a cabinet meeting in January 2024.
Ronen Zvulun / Pool / EPA

The events Smotrich was referring to in Colombia were certainly extraordinary. Outraged at the repatriation of Colombian migrants in military planes, Colombian president Gustavo Petro refused to allow the flights to land.

Trump immediately vowed tariffs on Colombian goods and sanctions on government officials, which drew a furious social media response out of Petro and the start of a (very brief) trade war. But within a few hours, Petro had backed down and Colombia announced it would start receiving migrants, including on US military aircraft.

The White House hailed the agreement as a victory for Trump’s hardline immigration strategy. However, according to Amalendu Misra of Lancaster University, Trump’s punishing tariff threats and foul rhetoric toward illegal immigrants may only damage the power and position of the US in the region.

His willingness to wage a trade war with countries in Latin America could encourage others to speed up their search for alternative trade partners. And, worse still, he may even push them towards closer relations with governments and ideologies that are inimical to US interests, writes Misra.

Read more:
Trump’s method for repatriating migrants risks undermining US interests in Latin America

Choppy waters ahead

Back in the Middle East, the ceasefire in Gaza has offered the region a break from war. This has included a pledge by Houthi militants in Yemen not to attack commercial ships travelling through the Red Sea.

These attacks have halved the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal, a crucial route for goods moving between Asia and Europe, with many diverting around the southern tip of Africa.

This route adds thousands of miles to the journey, so supply chains have had to deal with higher shipping costs, product delivery delays and increased carbon emissions. In the view of Gokcay Balci, a logistics expert at Leeds University, this disruption is likely to continue.

The situation in the Red Sea remains unpredictable, he writes. The leader of the Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Monday that the group was “ready to return to escalation again alongside our brothers, the fighters in Palestine”, and warned: “We have our finger on the trigger.” Shipping companies have, unsurprisingly, announced that they will continue to prioritise alternative routes.

The Houthis seem unconvinced that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold. But, at least for now, it is providing civilians with some much-needed respite after more than a year of relentless violence.

Read more:
Red Sea crisis: supply chain issues set to continue despite Gaza ceasefire

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Antidepressants are typically prescribed to manage depression. But this isn’t the only reason you may be prescribed an antidepressant. In fact, they can have a broad range of effects, which makes them suitable for managing a range of other health conditions that aren’t necessarily related to mental health.

Here are five health conditions you may be prescribed an antidepressant for.

1. Chronic nerve pain

Many antidepressants are believed to work by increasing the levels of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters – although the exact science is still unknown. In particular, they increase levels of serotonin and noradrenaline, which are linked to mood.

These neurotransmitters are also linked to pain pathways. It’s for this reason that some people who experience nerve pain may be prescribed a tricyclic antidepressant – such as amitriptyline and nortriptyline.

Studies show that low doses of these drugs may be effective in treating nerve pain. This pain is often described as a shooting, burning pain, which may radiate outwards.

Sometimes patients also experience tingling and numbness. This type of pain is typically caused by nerve damage. Nerve pain can occur in people with diabetes (diabetic neuropathy), trigeminal neuralgia (facial pain) and multiple sclerosis.

Studies show these antidepressants are more likely to relieve nerve pain compared to traditional painkillers such as ibuprofen or paracetamol. Duloxetine is another antidepressant that may be used.

Amitriptyline is also sometimes used to prevent migraines, chronic tension headaches and to treat abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome.

2. Urinary incontinence

Antidepressants may also be helpful in managing urinary incontinence (unintentionally passing urine) and stress incontinence (passing urine when there’s pressure on the bladder from coughing, jumping, laughing or sneezing).

In clinical trials of the antidepressant duloxetine (a serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, or SNRI), the drug is shown to be useful in treating severe urinary incontinence in women. However, duloxetine is usually only prescribed by a specialist as a second-choice treatment after surgery.

It’s thought duloxetine increases serotonin and noradrenaline in the spinal cord. This helps contract the muscle that regulates urine flow from the urethra to the bladder.

An SNRI is typically only prescribed as a second-line treatment option for incontinence.
CrizzyStudio/ Shutterstock

In children who experience bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), studies show a tricyclic antidepressant, such as imipramine, may be used. Similarly to duloxetine, this is only used if other treatments have been unsatisfactory.

Imipramine may help with bedwetting as it relaxes the bladder muscle so children are less likely to release urine.

3. Eating disorders

Bulimia is an eating disorder characterised by purging (for example, making themselves vomit) and binge eating. As it’s a complex mental health disorder, the first-choice treatment is psychotherapy. But fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), is the only antidepressant licensed for bulimia. It’s normally prescribed alongside psychotherapy if psychotherapy by itself hasn’t worked.

A small study showed that fluoxetine was more effective than a placebo in treating some bulimia symptoms. It’s unclear what the exact mechanism is, but some research suggests fluoxetine reduces depressive symptoms which may be associated with bulimia in some patients – making it easier for them to engage in psychotherapy.

4. OCD, panic and anxiety disorders

Antidepressants may also be useful for treating other mental health conditions – including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder.

Research has shown SSRIs, such as fluoxetine and sertraline, may improve OCD symptoms in some patients. Both SSRIs and SNRIs have proven to be effective in managing symptoms of panic and generalised anxiety disorders.

The exact mechanism that enables antidepressants to work for these conditions is unknown. But it may be due to the increase in serotonin levels or changes in brain pathways which regulate mood, anxiety and compulsions.

5. Menopause

Although antidepressants are not licensed for this condition, they are sometimes used to treat menopausal symptoms.

Several studies show the SSRIs paroxetine and citalopram and the SNRI venlafaxine can help women. In particular, they reduce the frequency and severity of hot flushes – one of the most common menopause symptoms women seek help for. One review found that hot flushes can be reduced by up to 65% when using these antidepressants.

In menopause, a woman’s oestrogen level drops. This is a hormone that stimulates the production of serotonin. But some studies suggest the lower levels of serotonin may be linked to hot flushes. This may explain why antidepressants are useful in managing hot flushes as they are thought to increase serotonin levels in the brain.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the most effective option for managing menopause symptoms such as hot flushes. But antidepressants may be useful for women who are unable to use HRT. But as there is limited research on using antidepressants to manage menopause symptoms, more studies will be needed.

For many of these conditions, antidepressants are the last treatment option. But for some, such as those with nerve pain, antidepressants are the most effective options. Antidepressants may not work for everyone – and they may cause side-effects in some people. This is why it’s important to talk with your pharmacist or doctor if you have questions about taking an antidepressant you’ve been prescribed. Läs mer…

Satellite-derived Earth observation (EO) data helps researchers like me unlock new insights into monitoring both environmental and human health.

I’m working with the European Space Agency’s EO4Health Resilience project to integrate information about different types of disease into one digital platform. Due to launch in summer 2025, this project aims to improve accessibility to EO data for medical professionals, support more informed decision-making in public health and hopefully prevent more deaths from disease in the future.

Environmental and animal health are both closely linked to human health. Climate change has a huge influence on these connections, as it can make disease outbreaks such as the 2003 Sars virus and the recent H5N1 bird flu more likely.

By increasing the chance of human-wildlife contact, disruptions like deforestation can increase the risk of disease (like COVID-19) transferring from wildlife to people. Many other factors beyond medicine also determine health, such as sanitation, water supply and farming practices.

The World Health Organization adopted the One Health approach to inspire a joint response to health threats by connecting efforts by veterinary, public health and environmental sectors.

At a time when governments are struggling to come to grips with the growing costs of healthcare, avoiding outbreaks of infectious diseases is crucial. So, the importance of identifying and monitoring areas of high risk, and of communicating the means of avoiding risks to the public rise to the fore.

Satellite data can improve environmental and human health monitoring for three different categories of disease:

1. Waterborne diseases

There is growing concern about the impact of climate change and human migration. This intensifies the global spread of major bacterial waterborne infectious diseases. EO technology plays a key role in tracking climate change by monitoring big areas over long periods, often in enough detail to spot changes clearly.

Many bacteria, like Vibrio cholerae which causes cholera, thrive in stagnant water. My team worked with the European Space Agency to show that its presence can be modelled using the concentration of chlorophyll found on the surface of bodies of water. Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that helps them use sunlight to make their food and grow.

Risk maps for an entire lake can be created using satellite-derived chlorophyll data. Zoonotic diseases that spread from animals to humans such as leptospirosis (a disease caused by Leptospira bacteria) have an animal origin, but reach humans through contaminated floodwater in cities.

Bacteria such as Escherichia coli are often present in sewage pollution and can cause of diarrhoea and gastrointestinal illness. These infections typically occur through activities like drinking or swimming in contaminated water.

A recent study predicts that US cases of non-cholera Vibrio infections could rise by 50% by 2090 compared to 1995. That’s because sea surface temperatures are increasing due to climate change and bacterial populations can grow and spread at warmer temperatures. Satellites could help monitor those temperature changes and therefore identify places most prone to outbreaks.

One recent report highlights the value of satellites studying waterborne diseases. The ability to measure and monitor water quality across large areas makes it much easier and quicker to deliver near real-time information.

Harmful blooms of blue-green algae can be spotted from space.
Ray Hugo Tang

2. Vector-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases, such as the West Nile virus and malaria, pose
significant global health threats. They are transmitted by
mosquitoes and can lead to severe neurological diseases. Vector-borne diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in tropical regions.

My colleagues in Italy used EO data to unlock new insights about the transmission of West Nile virus. Models based on satellite data that showed temperature, humidity and vegetation – all of which influence mosquito populations and disease transmission patterns – can help forecast the next outbreak.

The malaria atlas is a collaborative project that involves scientists from around the world. By collating EO data, mosquito breeding sites can be mapped, while climate change can be tracked as it affects the habitats that disease-carrying mosquitoes live in. Maps like this enhance the effectiveness of public health strategies by pinpointing where best to focus efforts and resources to control and prevent the spread of these diseases.

3. Non-communicable diseases

Non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases
exacerbated by heatwaves, rank among the top global causes of death. Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can strain the heart, increasing risks of heart attacks and strokes. So, isolating locations most at risk of heatwaves could help target aid and reduce the risk of widespread heatstroke and other conditions.

Environmental factors like urbanisation, climate change and air pollution amplify health risks. Several EO projects funded by the European Space Agency use AI and satellite data to map land surface temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions, green spaces, rivers and lakes.

For example, poor air quality caused by high levels of emissions in urban areas can lead to respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Long-term exposure to pollutants like fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide may increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and even premature death.

Read more:
Why ocean pollution is a clear danger to human health

Mapping air quality using satellite data helps identify particulate pollution hotspots. This supports targeted interventions to improve public health.

In the future, satellites could track plastic pollution in oceans. Marine life consumes plastic particles that humans ingest through seafood. Chemicals present in plastics can lead to hormone disruption in humans and may increase cancer risk or immunity, for example. So tracking pollution distribution around the globe could identify sources and the places where people and wildlife are at most risk of exposure to chemical contaminants like those in plastic.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
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The AI revolution is well under way and two companies – DeepSeek and Nvidia – stand out among those competing to lead it. Outside the financial world, the story might seem distant – but it really does have consequences for everyone. It comes down to why investors are paying so much attention to AI, and how this competition could affect the technology we use daily.

Developments in AI investment will shape the capabilities of the next generation of apps, smart assistants, self-driving technology and business practices.

DeepSeek, the new player on the scene, is a Chinese company that has been making huge waves in AI development. Its powerful technology could change things such as healthcare, finance – and even the way we interact with the internet. Investors are excited because they see DeepSeek as a potential leader in shaping the next generation of AI tools.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has long been a giant in AI hardware, producing the graphics processing units (GPUs, or chips) that power many AI applications. However, the rise of DeepSeek has made some investors rethink their bets, leading to a sell-off in Nvidia shares, and wiping almost US$300 billion (£242 billion) off the company’s value.

Why does this matter? To put it simply, the AI race isn’t just about corporate profits. The technology developed by companies such as DeepSeek and Nvidia is what powers voice assistants, recommendation systems on streaming platforms, self-driving car software and even medical breakthroughs. As investment flows into AI, it means that innovation could become more advanced and accessible – much faster than we previously expected.

When investors hear about a new company like DeepSeek making big advances, they often react by shifting their investments. This is what happened with Nvidia. Some investors sold their shares, fearing that DeepSeek might take away some of Nvidia’s dominance in AI. This does not necessarily mean the company is struggling – only that markets move based on expectations, rather than just current success.

Speculation – where investors accept uncertainty and high risks in return for potentially big returns – plays a key role in these shifts. Investors do not always wait for solid proof that a company will succeed, instead they often act based on excitement, predictions or just fear of missing out. This can cause rapid changes in stock prices, even before new technology is widely available.

Read more:
Why Donald Trump’s election win fuelled a stock market surge

Speculation can sometimes lead to instability, but it also helps to drive innovation. When investors put money into AI companies, it allows those companies to develop technology that could improve people’s daily lives. This has happened before – during the dotcom boom of the 1990s, investment rushed into internet startups. While many companies failed, others like Amazon and Google became global leaders.

Similarly, cryptocurrency investment surged in the past decade. While the hype led to many failures, blockchain technology – one of its key innovations – has since become a major part of modern finance and security systems.

Is it a bubble?

With so much excitement around AI, some experts worry that the industry is experiencing a speculative bubble. A bubble happens when investors pour money into a sector too quickly, driving up prices beyond their real value. This happened in the early 2000s with the dotcom crash that followed the boom years of the previous decade. Many internet companies received huge investments, but when they failed to deliver on their promises markets crashed.

Could the same happen with AI? It’s possible – but unlike some past bubbles, AI is already being widely used in everyday life. The key question is not whether AI is important, but whether current investments reflect realistic long-term growth or over-optimistic speculation.

AI is already a big part of people’s lives.
Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

The sell-off of Nvidia shares does not necessarily mean it is losing its place in AI. Instead, it could reflect investors trying to hedge their bets, moving some of their money to newer companies such as DeepSeek while still keeping Nvidia in their portfolios.

In other words, investors are looking into the potential “next big thing” (Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, for example, is touting a new AI model that claims to be superior to those of DeepSeek and Meta). Savvy investors often shop around like this to spread risk to avoid relying too much on a single company to bring them returns.

Beyond Nvidia and DeepSeek, there is a larger global race for AI dominance. Countries, including the United States, China and some European states, are investing heavily in AI research because they recognise how much power and influence this technology could bring. Governments are funding AI initiatives, and businesses are pouring resources into being the first to create groundbreaking AI systems.

But while speculation and innovation drive growth, regulation is needed to prevent market and financial instability. The history of economic crashes shows that unchecked hype can lead to over-investment and eventual collapse. Regulators need to ensure that AI companies and investors operate responsibly, balancing growth with stability.

For example, regulators should provide clear AI investment guidelines, endorse transparency around the financial risks of investing, and be on the lookout for possible AI investment bubbles. Importantly, they should also introduce consumer protection policies to shield retail (non-professional) investors. And they should encourage international cooperation around regulation, working towards common principles.

The battle between DeepSeek and Nvidia is a sign of how AI is transforming the world. Investors, regulators and everyday consumers all have a stake in how this technology develops. While financial speculation can be unpredictable, it is also one of the driving forces behind the innovation that’s shaping the future. Läs mer…

Many of us have witnessed unusual and even anti-social behaviour at an airport or on a flight. These may range from benign acts such as sleeping on the floor or doing yoga in front of the flight information display system to serious incidents like early morning drunken arguments or even trying to open the aeroplane doors mid-flight.

These more sinister problems appear to have worsened over recent years, with increasing air rage incidents and flight diversions. Such incidents have led to calls to reduce or even ban the sale of alcohol at airports and on planes. RyanAir, for example, has called for a two-drink limit at airport bars to stop drunken incidents on planes.

But what is it about airports that make us behave differently? Let’s take a look at the psychology.

Many holidaymakers feel that the adventure begins at the airport, putting them in a different frame of mind to normal. They are eager to begin their one or two weeks’ of relaxed hedonism with a flourish.

Others, however, are anxious about flying, which may make them act out of character or take refuge in alcohol. The noise and crowds of airports doesn’t help either. As the field of environmental psychology has demonstrated, human beings are very sensitive to our immediate surroundings, and can easily become “overloaded” by stressors such as crowds and noise.

Stress and anxiety produce irritability, both on a temporary and ongoing basis. People who are generally anxious are more prone to anger. And a temporary anxious mood often triggers angry outbursts.

In my view, we also need to look at the airport from a psychogeographic perspective. Psychogeography studies the effect of places on people’s emotions and behaviour, particularly urban environments.

In Celtic cultures, there is a concept of special “thin places” – often sacred groves or forests – where the veil between the material and spiritual world is thin. In thin places, we are between two realms, neither fully in one place nor another.

In the modern technological world, airports can also be seen as “thin places”. They are liminal zones where boundaries fade. On a literal level, national borders dissolve. Once we pass through security, we enter a no man’s land, between countries. The concept of place becomes hazy.

In a similar way, time becomes a hazy concept at airports. About to step on a plane, we are in a liminal space between two time zones, about to leap forward in time, or even head back into the past. Some flights across the US – such as Atlanta to Alabama – land earlier than departure time, as they cross time zones. Being able to manage our time gives us a sense of control over our lives. Losing this may be another source of anxiety.

In another sense, airports are a zone of absence, where the present moment is unwelcome. Everyone’s attention turns towards the future, to their flights and the adventures ahead of them when they arrive at their destination. This intense future focus often brings frustration, especially if flights are delayed.

Personal boundaries also become fluid. As well as anti-social behaviour, airports may play host to pro-social behaviour, where strangers share their travel and holiday plans, speaking with unusual intimacy. In no man’s land, normal social inhibitions don’t apply. And alcohol can further lubricate this social cohesion.

Many people drink alcohol at airports.
Shutterstock

Due to the haziness of time and place, airports create a sense of disorientation. We define ourselves in terms of time and place. We know who we are in relation to our daily routines and our familiar environments. We also define ourselves in terms of nationality. Without such markers, we may feel adrift. Whether caused by psychological or environmental factors, and even if only temporary, disorientation can have detrimental effects.

Liberating effects

On the plus side, all of this may have a liberating effect for some of us. As I point out in my book Time Expansion Experiences, we normally view time as an enemy that steals the moments of our lives and oppresses us with deadlines. So to step outside time sometimes feels like being let out of prison.

The same applies to identity. A sense of identity is important to our psychological health, but can become constricting. Like actors who are stuck playing the same character in a soap opera week after week, we enjoy the security of our roles but long to test and stretch ourselves with new challenges. So to step outside our normal routines and environments feels invigorating. Ideally, the freedom that begins at the airport continues throughout our foreign adventures.

Ultimately, whether we feel anxious or liberated, we may end up acting out of character.

In line with the theories of psychologist Sigmund Freud, this could be interpreted as a shift from our normal civilised ego to the primitive, instinctive part of the psyche, which Freud called the id. According to Freud, the id is the site of our desires and drives, our emotion and aggression, and it demands instant gratification. The id is normally held in check by the ego, but is always liable to break through, especially when our inhibitions are loosened by alcohol or drugs.

Outside normal restraints, some holidaymakers allow their id to express itself as soon as they pass through security. And once they become intoxicated, the id is completely dominant, and liable to cause mayhem.

Banning alcohol from airports may sound draconian. But given that there are so many factors that encourage anti-social behaviour, it is difficult to think of any other solution. In a situation when boundaries break down, leading to possible chaos, a legal boundary may be the only solution. Läs mer…

Japan, 2009. It is a morning in August and, in a parking lot in Saitama – a regional centre about 30kms north of Tokyo – a rental car is spotted with a man lying in the back seat. His name is Yoshiyuki Oide. But it turns out that he’s not having a quick nap – he’s dead.

The cause of death is carbon monoxide poisoning and is initially thought to be a case of suicide. But the police are not convinced, so they knock on the door of the woman Oide had been dating, 35-year-old Kanae Kijima. This marks the beginning of the investigation into what would become known in the media as the “Konkatsu killer” case. The name derives from konkatsu, meaning marriage hunting.

The investigation uncovered evidence that suggested Kijima had killed three men she met on dating sites. The three deaths were initially considered as suicides but were all deemed to have been staged. The court agreed and Kijima – who has always maintained her innocence – was found guilty in 2012, based on what was widely held to be largely circumstantial evidence, and sentenced to death. The decision was upheld in subsequent appeals, and she is now on death row awaiting execution.

Kijima’s case was similar to the of Chisako Kakehi who died in prison on December 26 2024 while under sentence of death. She had been found guilty of murder and fraud and given the death penalty after a court found she had entrapped and swindled money from three men (including her husband) before killing them using cyanide.

But there was also a distinct aspect to Kijima’s case. From the start much of the media focused on the defendant’s appearance rather than the heinous nature of the crime. Popular forums, newspapers, and magazines buzzed with variations on the same question: how could a woman described as “ugly and fat” manage to attract these men?

There was speculation that her success lay in her “homely” qualities – the stereotype of chubby women being cheerful, nurturing and excellent cooks. It was suggested that men might prefer such a woman’s warmth and hospitality over a stylish woman’s “air of superiority”.

In Japan, when somebody is sentenced to death, they tend to disappear from the public eye. But Kijima maintained a blog where she detailed her life and relationships – and continued to write on it during and after the trial, probably through her lawyers. She still publishes on various issues: from the kind of cookies available in the detention house to the conditions in the death row, from dietary advice to reflection on the lay assessor trial in Japanese criminal procedure.

The media eagerly mined her posts to reinforce stereotypes about gender roles and appearance, but Kijima pushed back. She has sharply criticised the focus on her looks and gender over the legal evidence, using her reflections to spotlight these biases.

Telling the story

Novelist Asako Yuzuki took inspiration from Kijima’s case to create a fictional narrative for her novel Butter. It’s a story in which a journalist covering the story of a woman murderer is sucked into her swirling obsession with butter and indulgent food, exposing fat-phobia and sexism in Japanese society.

The fictionalised account of the case challenges steretypes about Japanes women.
google/books

Kijima, who has published a memoir and a novel of her own, expressed her deep discontent with the publication of the novel on her blog: “What Yuzuki and the publisher are doing is nothing short of theft. If they interfere with external communication rights, they are not just thieves but complicit in murder. They continue to use my name without permission … I truly think it’s a vulgar book, BUTTER.”

But, when I interviewed her, Yuzuki insisted that she was interested in the implications of her case, in how Japanese media often sensationalises stories, rather than the details of the crime.

Japanese media … often reflect the perspective of powerful men. … This realisation was a turning point for me. Until then, I hadn’t really questioned much or paid close attention to politics or media bias. But when it came to something I love – cooking – it struck a nerve.

Stereotypes and social expectations

In her book, Yuzuki questions some deep-seated Japanese stereotypes – particularly around women and cooking. She says that the concept of “marriage hunting” is still popular in Japan, and women who love cooking are often labelled as “domestic” or “obedient”.

But, in her experience, someone passionate about cooking is far from submissive. On the contrary, cooking is powerful, and a woman skilled in the kitchen could just as easily harm someone as she could nourish them. “There’s a fine line between nurturing and dangerous precision,” she told me.

Social media has become a powerful tool for activists and writers like Yuzuki to connect with others and amplify their voices. She has joined other authors in advocating for marginalised groups, including sexual minorities, highlighting the intersectionality of issues such as gender, class, and criminal justice.

The Kijima case, through the facts, her blog posts from prison, and through the work of writers including Yuzuki, invites a deep reflection on the weight of societal expectations on gender and appearance. Beyond the question of guilt or innocence, it illustrates how female criminals are judged not only for their actions but for defying norms of femininity.

This dual scrutiny aligns with historical biases in Japan, where women who challenge societal norms are often framed as dangerous outliers. Kijima’s portrayal as an unconventional femme fatale evokes the 19th-century “poison women” trope – known as dofuku. This casts women as destructive forces who upend the lives of those around them.

The severity of Kijima’s punishment — the death penalty was not used at all in 2023 and only once in 2022 — seems designed to deliver exemplary justice. In the minds of many Japanese people she was guilty not only of murder but of manipulating societal expectations of femininity while failing to conform to conventional standards of beauty and behaviour.

The case has reinforced the narrative that her transgressions extended beyond the courtroom and into the realm of societal betrayal. Läs mer…

Teachers at a school in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, are planning industrial action – not over pay but the behaviour of their pupils.

It’s not the first time school staff in Scotland have taken this step. Teachers at a school in Glasgow took strike action in 2022 over “violent and abusive” pupil behaviour. A 2024 survey of staff in Aberdeen found that many had experienced violence and more than a third had been physically assaulted.

Pupil behaviour is one factor – among others – severely affecting the wellbeing of teachers, as shown in my recent research with colleagues.

Our national research project on teacher workload is a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Birmingham City University. We asked 1,834 teachers in primary, secondary and special schools in Scotland to fill out online diaries, logging how they spent their time over one week in March 2024.

We found that long hours and high pressure were putting significant strain on teachers’ personal and professional lives.

Time pressures

Our study found that nearly a quarter of teachers’ lesson time was spent on low-level and serious behaviour interruptions. They spent time dealing with distressed behaviour and incidents of verbal and physical aggression, settling the class and working with pupils on individual plans to help them engage better with school.

In 2023, research commissioned by the Scottish government on behaviour in schools found 67% of teachers experienced general verbal abuse, 59% physical aggression and 43% physical violence between pupils in the week preceding the survey.

On average, our research found that teachers in Scotland worked 46 hours in a typical week. That is 11 more than their contracted hours. The reasons are complex, but we found patterns that repeated regardless of the kind of school teachers were in, their location or their experience. Teachers’ workload intensified when the demands made of them exceed the support and resources available.

Teachers face increased levels of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom, as well as rising numbers of children with additional support needs. Schools’ access to specialist support is falling while pupil needs are rising. Child poverty and poor mental health are contributing to increasing social, emotional and behavioural issues.

We found that teachers spent 58% of the non-teaching time in their contracted hours on planning and preparation to meet the diverse needs of their pupils.

Preparation and planning takes up a lot of teachers’ time.
Chiarascura/Shutterstock

The remaining 42% was consumed with administrative activities, data management and reporting, communicating with colleagues, parents and external agencies. These demands left teachers with just 35 minutes a week, on average, for professional learning.

High stress and low job satisfaction are driving people out of teaching. Over 75% of the teachers in our study said they were considering leaving the job prior to retirement.

Inclusive education

Another issue affecting teachers in Scotland is the country’s approach to the education of children with additional needs, which differs from the rest of the UK. The default position in Scotland is that all children should be educated in mainstream schools, unless there is compelling evidence that a specialist setting would better serve a child’s educational needs.

But our research identifies growing disquiet among teachers regarding the capacity of Scotland’s education system to fully support this “presumption to mainstream”.

The number of pupils with recorded additional needs in Scottish schools rose by 84% between 2014 and 2023. In 2024, pupils with additional needs in mainstream classes reached a record high of 284,448 pupils. This is 40% of all pupils – a rise from 28.7% in 2018.

Among Scotland’s 2,445 publicly funded schools, 107 are special schools, down from 133 in 2018. A reduction of 392 additional support needs teachers between 2013 and 2023 means a single teacher may now have a caseload of more than 80 pupils.

Worsening conditions

Unfortunately, the pressure on teachers looks set to increase as funding challenges affect teacher numbers.

Scotland’s 32 councils face an overall total budget gap of £585 million in 2024-25. Audit Scotland estimate that this shortfall in funding will increase to £780 million by 2026-27.

A Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto pledge to recruit 3,500 more teachers and reduce teachers’ contact time remains unfulfilled. In 2023-24, 26 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities reduced teacher numbers while the ratio of pupils to teachers rose.

Pressures are particularly acute in Scotland’s largest local authority, Glasgow, and are set to intensify. In 2024, Glasgow City Council employed 5,492 full time equivalent teachers, compared to 5,725 in 2022. In spring 2024, the city proposed cutting 450 teaching posts over three years as part of an “education service reform” to address a £100 million funding shortfall.

In November 2024, parental volunteer group Glasgow City Parents Group failed to secure a judicial review of the council’s education budget cuts. Reducing the teaching workforce across the city by nearly 10% is unlikely to be without consequence for teachers’ workload and the quality of education.

A resilient education workforce requires highly skilled professionals and a supportive professional environment. As the demands made of teachers intensify, they risk being reduced to institutional “shock absorbers” rather than nurturing leaders of learning.

Systematic reform of the school curriculum, national assessment and school inspection is under consideration in Scotland. But this will take place against a backdrop of service demands and budgetary pressures that are deeply affecting teaching staff. This must be addressed in order to avoid compromising learning in Scottish schools. Läs mer…

South Africa’s fiscal trajectory paints a concerning picture. Public expenditure exceeds revenue. As a result sovereign debt is building up and interest on this debt is increasing.

This raises concerns over the South African government’s financial sustainability. The debt-to-GDP ratio has skyrocketed from 23.6% in 2008/09 to a projected 74.7% in 2024/25. The International Monetary Fund has recommended that, over the long term, South Africa should reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 60% of GDP, in line with that of peers.

Arguably more important than the debt level is how quickly debt has accumulated. Debt servicing costs, which consist of the interest on government debt and other costs directly associated with borrowing, have been the fastest-growing line item in the national budget. Rising interest payments have been crowding out critical expenditures on services such as health, education and infrastructure.

As I argue in a recently published report titled “A fiscal anchor for South Africa: Avoiding the mistakes of the past”, establishing a credible fiscal anchor (or fiscal rule) could be step towards avoiding a debt spiral and regaining fiscal sustainability and credibility.

Fiscal rules are constraints on fiscal policy, designed to impose numerical limits. For example, a limit on the allowable debt-to-GDP ratio, or the allowable balance after accounting for government expenditure and revenue. Fiscal rules are widely used – 105 countries have adopted them so far.

Failing to address the country’s fiscal challenges risks plunging South Africa into a debt trap. This happens when a country finds it difficult to escape a cycle of debt and has to borrow more to pay off old debt. If debt-servicing costs continue to rise, essential public services will come under even greater strain.

Several emerging markets have experienced the severe consequences of unchecked debt accumulation and debt servicing costs. Argentina is one example. Without a credible plan to stabilise and reduce debt and debt servicing costs, the risk of economic stagnation and financial instability grows quickly.

Fiscal erosion and credibility concerns

The roots of South Africa’s current predicament lie in years of mistakes. These include:

spending beyond its means
questionable political decisions like bailing out state-owned entities
poor governance and oversight at municipal and local government level, which led to inefficient public spending.

These factors were underpinned by an underperforming economy, unrealised forecasts and arguably weak institutional checks.

For the last 15 years South Africa’s National Treasury has undertaken to stabilise the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio. This would have required keeping the ratio constant. But these commitments have consistently been deferred. Debt stabilisation targets have been revised upwards 13 times, from 40% in 2015/16 to the current 75.5%. The stabilisation year has been pushed back 10 times, from the initial year of 2015/16 to the current target of 2025/26. This has created a perception of inconsistent policy.

Over-optimistic macroeconomic forecasting has undermined credibility. Over the last ten years, GDP growth projections have routinely overshot actual performance by an average of 0.5 percentage points in the first year of forecasts and even more in subsequent years. In defence of the National Treasury, the South African economy has performed worse than more forecasters expected in recent years.

Adding to the fiscal strain are rising social expenditures, the public sector wage bill and repeated bailouts of state-owned enterprises. This spending relieves short-term political and social pressures, but undermines the country’s long-term fiscal health.

Without credible mechanisms to constrain spending, South Africa’s fiscal framework lacks the discipline needed to ensure sustainability, and to restore credibility.

Why fiscal rules matter

Fiscal rules are there to promote discipline, ensure that debt can be paid and enhance credibility. The experience in the 105 countries that have adopted them suggests that strong, well-designed rules can signal a government’s commitment to fiscal prudence.

It’s difficult to establish whether there is a causal relationship between fiscal rules and fiscal performance. But there’s at least a correlation. As a practical example of enforcing fiscal rules, in November 2023, the German constitutional court overruled a budget that was passed in the Bundestag but breached Germany’s fiscal rules.

However, fiscal rules are not a panacea. Poorly designed or inadequately enforced rules can make the problems worse. For South Africa, this risk is acute.

Political commitment and strong institutional frameworks are needed too. Also, a shift in how fiscal policy is conceived and implemented.

Designing new rules

Drawing lessons from global best practices, South Africa’s fiscal rules must be enforceable, flexible and simple. A well-designed rule should:

stabilise and eventually reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio
target government spending as a share of GDP, emphasising consumption spending like salaries and goods and services, rather than capital expenditure
have political buy-in
be overseen independently
be legally binding and enforceable.

Context

South Africa’s low economic growth rate is a complication. Average interest rates on government debt are higher than the nominal GDP growth rate. But reining in spending too much could stifle growth, creating a vicious cycle.

That’s why stabilising debt first would make more sense than aiming to reduce debt too rapidly.

South Africa’s fiscal rules must also have some flexibility. For instance, they could allow for shocks such as natural disasters or global economic crises.

Fiscal rules could follow a phased approach to initially focus on stabilising debt, and then to move towards reducing debt. Both of these phases would entail expenditure rules to guide annual budget processes and to place limits on spending.

The benefits

Credible fiscal rules could have a number of benefits.

Firstly, they could improve South Africa’s credibility by signalling to markets and international institutions that South Africa is committed to fiscal discipline.

Secondly, fiscal credibility is associated with reduced sovereign risk premiums, which translates into lower debt-servicing costs. In turn this would free up resources for critical development priorities.

Third, they can foster a more stable economic environment for investment and growth.

Fourth, they would help coordinate policies. South Africa enjoys rule-based monetary policy in the form of inflation targeting but lacks the same for fiscal policy. This can lead to sub-optimal outcomes. For example, the central bank can keep interest rates too high, not necessarily because it thinks the treasury’s policies are inflationary, but because it cannot predict the treasury’s actions.

The way forward

Adopting fiscal rules in South Africa comes with risks. Weak institutional capacity, especially in oversight bodies like the Parliamentary Budget Office, could undermine rule enforcement.

To shield against these risks, South Africa should have stronger institutions. It could create an independent statutory fiscal council, possibly falling under Parliament, the National Treasury or as an independent constitutional advisory body.

Oversight bodies would also need to build their capacity. Läs mer…