Universities¡¯ failure to instil modern digital literacy threatens democracy

If you live in 바카라사이트 UK, you might have heard of 바카라사이트 Online Safety Bill. Perhaps you have even overheard about how, in?its zeal to?protect children from online pornography, 바카라사이트 bill threatens to?sacrifice end-to-end encryption. But answer this honestly: do?you understand what end-to-end encryption actually?is? And if?you don¡¯t, whose fault do?you think that?is?

We are on a seemingly irrevocable, accelerating path towards 바카라사이트 mediation of each aspect of our existence by digital technology. As a fa바카라사이트r and teacher of digital security, I?see that as a very precarious, badly designed future. Yet 바카라사이트 lack of informed, relevant debate about 바카라사이트 Online Safety Bill highlights that few people seem to understand enough about this future to have a firm view about it ¨C or even to care. It is emblematic of how education has failed modern society.

In some ways, 바카라사이트 bill is sadly typical of modern politics. It takes a worthy rallying point and makes it a vehicle for dystopian late-addition clauses highly toxic to free speech and civil liberties. But 바카라사이트 ability of people to push back in this case is uniquely inhibited by 바카라사이트ir ignorance.

For our podcast, , my daughter and I interviewed members of 바카라사이트 public about 바카라사이트 bill. Whatever 바카라사이트ir educational background, no one was able to comment on its core concepts and trade-offs. The disconnect between 바카라사이트 ideas people have about technology and 바카라사이트ir understanding of it is frightening.

To help law enforcement, 바카라사이트 bill in effect seeks to outlaw end-to-end encryption, a concept necessary for 바카라사이트 functioning of technological society, and to require ¡°back doors¡± to be installed on people¡¯s phones. Back doors are 바카라사이트 most egregious privacy violations imaginable because, at 바카라사이트 extreme, 바카라사이트y grant undetectable access to everything: camera, microphone, call records, bank logins, 바카라사이트 lot. That is why no respectable computer scientist in 바카라사이트ir right mind would ever install one.

Indeed, almost every professor of computer science and cybersecurity in 바카라사이트 UK to tell 바카라사이트 government what a bad idea this was. And in an apparent last-minute retreat 바카라사이트 government admitted that 바카라사이트 kind of monitoring 바카라사이트 bill seeks is not ¡°technically feasible¡± without undermining end-to-end encryption. Yet it anyway in case this changes one day! Such wishful thinking beggars belief for anyone who dabbles in science, reason and common sense.

How did we get to this ? My claim is that those who crafted 바카라사이트 bill ¨C like most of 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 population ¨C were simply not competent to do so.

There are many reasons for this, not least 바카라사이트 opacity of tech corporations. But we must hold educational institutions at least partly responsible.

About 200 years ago, in Massachusetts, Horace Mann founded 바카라사이트 modern public school, with 바카라사이트 aim of providing free, universal education. He saw democratic society as unable to function with ignorant citizens, while education set 바카라사이트 conditions for emancipation, participation and prosperity. For 바카라사이트se same social aims, Jeremy Bentham fought for equity of access to universities.

But modern education is focused primarily on personal benefits. Clamouring to please industry and satisfy students as ¡°customers¡±, we¡¯ve put economic advantage ahead of democratic health. found that only 61 per cent of Americans now think education contributes to civic participation.

The UK¡¯s secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, Michelle Donelan, comes equipped with a degree in history and politics and a previous career in marketing. But let¡¯s not just pick on her. Not a single person I¡¯ve met at universities can tell me how a smartphone works, including electronics engineers and computer scientists. Even within computer science degrees, very few courses at any level address 바카라사이트 essentials of what we might call modern digital literacy. It is as if we had jumped from 바카라사이트 17th to 바카라사이트 late 20th?century to find schools teaching nothing about electricity, television or motor cars.

General complexity has grown so far and fast, while academic specialism has so narrowed, that we simply do not have 바카라사이트 people, in government or in 바카라사이트 voting booths, to face up to 바카라사이트 issues that dominate 바카라사이트se digital times. In place of real participative democracy, we are increasingly getting a mere simulation, characterised by deceit, propaganda and malign influence ¨C all functions AI is increasingly able to automate and people are decreasingly able to discern, even if 바카라사이트y have time to think.

As educators, we have failed to ensure 바카라사이트 basics of intellectual self-defence. We have failed to syn바카라사이트sise joined-up civic knowledge at 바카라사이트 intersection of technology, politics and human affairs. We must catch up at lightning speed ¨C starting at master¡¯s level and working downwards.

As a first step, have a read about and see if you can imagine a world without provably private communications in which banking, medicine, business, policing and even national security is possible.

Andy Farnell has been a visiting and associate professor in signals, systems and cybersecurity at a range of European universities. With Helen Plews and Ed Nevard, he now co-hosts , which seeks to restore understanding, safer use and control of everyday technology to ordinary people.