Youth

Axios- More than two-thirds of college students believe universities should protect free speech — even if it extends to physical threats or inciting violence, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. Free speech was students' third-most-cited concern about their institutions (32%), after tuition (50%) and safety (46%)....  A clear majority of students — 68% — argued for pushing the limits of speech on campus even if there's some risk of violence. ....77% of respondents said campus speech should be protected even if some feel the language is deeply upsetting... Students are worried. They increasingly view their colleges as hypocritical, and think administrators are prioritizing big donors over free speech.

Washington Post - An emerging international network of online groups[has] targeted thousands of children with a sadistic form of social media terror that authorities and technology companies have struggled to control, according to an examination by The Washington Post, Wired Magazine, Der Spiegel in Germany and Recorder in Romania. The perpetrators — identified by authorities as boys and men as old as mid-40s — seek out children with mental health issues and blackmail them into hurting themselves on camera, the examination found. They belong to a set of evolving online groups, some of which have thousands of members, that often splinter and take on new names but have overlapping membership and use the same tactics.  Unlike many “sextortion” schemes that seek money or increasingly graphic images, these perpetrators are chasing notoriety in a community that glorifies cruelty, victims and law enforcement officials say. The FBI issued a public warning in September identifying eight such groups that target minors between the ages of 8 and 17, seeking to harm them for the members’ “own entertainment or their own sense of fame.”

Roll Call - Adolescents are using an often unregulated, psychoactive derivative of cannabis, according to national data released Wednesday, as the Biden administration deliberates expanding access to marijuana at the federal level.  About 11 percent of 12th graders in the U.S. reported using Delta-8-THC in the past year, according to a new analysis supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. That number is still below the 30 percent of 12th graders who reported using marijuana, however.  Delta-8 is derived from the Cannabis sativa plant — varieties of which include hemp and marijuana. The substance is marketed as less potent than Delta-9, the compound responsible for the psychoactive effects of marijuana, but is often synthesized and concentrated at higher levels than what naturally occurs in the plant.