Sunday, September 24, 2023

30 years of the web down under: How Australians made the early internet their own

The internet is growing old. While the roots of the internet date back to the 1960s, the popular internet—the one that 99% of Australians now use—is a child of the 1990s.

In the space of a decade, the internet moved from a tool used by a handful of researchers to something most Australians used—to talk to friends and family, find out tomorrow's weather, follow a game, organize a protest, or read the news.

The popular internet grows up

This year marks 30 years since the release of Mosaic, the first browser that integrated text and graphics, helping to popularize the web: the global information network we know today.

Google is now 25, Wikipedia turned 21 last year, and Facebook will soon be 20. These anniversaries were marked with events, feature articles and birthday cakes.

But a local milestone passed with little fanfare: 30 years ago, the first Australian websites started to appear.

The web made the internet intelligible to people without specialist technical knowledge. Hyperlinks made it easy to navigate from page to page and site to site, while the underlying HTML code was relatively easy for newcomers to learn.

Australia gets connected

In late 1992, the first Australian web server was installed. The Bioinformatics Hypermedia Server was set up by David Green at the Australian National University in Canberra, who launched his LIFE website that October. LIFE later claimed to be "Australia's first information service on the World Wide Web."

Not that many Australians would have seen it at the time. In the early 1990s, the Australian internet was a university-led research network.

The Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) connected to the rest of the world in 1989, through a connection between the University of Hawaii and the University of Melbourne. Within a year, most Australian universities and many research facilities were connected.

The World Wide Web was invented by English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee and launched in 1991. At the time, it was just one of many communication protocols for creating, sharing and accessing information.

Researchers connected to AARNet were experimenting with tools like Gopher and Internet Relay Chat alongside the web.

Even as a research network, the internet was deeply social. Robert Elz, one of the computer scientists who connected Australia to the internet in 1989, became well-known for his online commentaries on cricket matches. Science fiction fans set up mailing lists.

These uses hinted at what was to come, as everyday Australians got online.

The birth of the public internet

Throughout 1994, AARNet enabled private companies to buy network capacity and connect users outside research contexts. Ownership of the Australian internet was transferred to Telstra in 1995, as private consumers and small businesses began to move online.

With the release of web browsers like Mosaic and Netscape, and the increase in dial-up connections, the number of Australian websites grew rapidly.

At the start of 1995, there were a couple of hundred. When the Australian internet went public just six months later, they numbered in the thousands. By the end of the decade there were hundreds of thousands.

Everyday Australians get connected

As everyday Australians went online, students, activists, artists and fans began to create a diverse array of sites that took advantage of the web's possibilities.

The "cyberfeminist zine" geekgirl, created by Rosie X. Cross from her home in inner-west Sydney, combined a "Do It Yourself" punk ethos with the global distribution the web made possible. It was part of a diverse and flourishing feminist culture online.

Australia was home to the first fully online doctorate, Simon Pockley's 1995 Ph.D. thesis Flight of Ducks.

Art students presented poetry as animated gifs, labeling them "cyberpoetry." Aspiring science fiction writers published multimedia stories on the web.

The Australian internet goes mainstream

Political parties, government and media also moved online.

The Age Online was the first major newspaper website in Australia. Launched in February 1995, the site beat Australia's own national broadcaster by six months and the New York Times by a year.

Though The Age was first, ABC Online and ninemsn—linked to the Hotmail email service—were the most popular.

During the 1998 federal election, ABC Online saw over two million hits per week. Political parties, candidates and interest groups were quick to establish a web presence, kicking off the era of online political campaigning.

The web also became big business. By the end of the decade, Australia had its own internet entrepreneurs, including a future prime minister. Established media companies dominated web traffic.

"Internet fever" was sweeping Australian businesses, leading to an "internet stocks frenzy." The internet had gone mainstream and the "dot com bubble" was rapidly inflating.

Looking back on the decade the popular internet was born

The public, open, commercial internet is now a few decades old. Given current concerns about the state of the internet—from the power of large digital platforms to the proliferation of disinformation—it might be tempting to look at the 1990s as a "golden age" for the internet.

However, we must resist looking back with rose-colored glasses. What is needed is critical scrutiny of the conditions that underpinned internet use and attention to how a diversity of people incorporated technology in their lives and helped transformed it in the process. This will help us understand how we got the internet we have and how we might achieve the internet we want.

Understanding online history can be particularly difficult because many sites have long-since disappeared. However, archiving efforts like those of the Internet Archive and the National Library of Australia make it possible to look back and see how much things have changed, what concerns are familiar, and remember the everyday people who helped transform the internet from a niche academic network to a mass medium.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Google bombards Australian search users as PR campaign intensifies

Predicting the sustainability of a future hydrogen economy

by Carnegie Institution for Science

As renewable energy sources like wind and solar ramp up, they can be used to sustainably generate hydrogen fuel. But implementing such a strategy on a large scale requires land and water dedicated to this purpose.

Recent research in Nature Communications led by Carnegie's Lorenzo Rosa and visiting scholar Davide Tonelli from ULB and UCLouvain analyzes the challenges involved in sustainably meeting different hydrogen demand scenarios on a country-by-country basis.

Electrolysis is a method for producing hydrogen that involves splitting water into oxygen gas and hydrogen gas, which can be stored and used as fuel or feedstock to produce useful chemicals. This process can be powered by fossil fuels like coal or natural gas, or by renewable energy sources like wind and solar—both of which require space to deploy.

"Today, hydrogen is mostly used in refineries and the production of chemicals," Rosa explained. "But in the future, demand for hydrogen could increase more than fivefold, due to adoption of hydrogen or hydrogen-derived products in transportation, industrial heating methods, and steel manufacturing techniques. There is an opportunity to meet this increased demand with sustainably produced hydrogen."

He and Tonelli—working with Carnegie visiting scholar Paolo Gabrielli (of ETH Zurich), Carnegie's Ken Calderia, Alessandro Parente of ULB, and Francesco Contino of UCLouvain—found that due to land or water scarcity, less than half of the projected 2050 demand for hydrogen fuel could be both produced and used locally using wind or solar power.

"If you look at how much water would be needed globally to produce enough hydrogen to meet humanity's needs in 2050, it's only 0.6 percent of the world's available water," Tonelli said. "But when you look at local production for local use, the picture can be different."

It turns out that in a net-zero world with no carbon emissions, some nations would need to rely on importing hydrogen, in pure form or in the form of hydrogen-derived products, from other countries that have greater abundances of land and more favorable solar and wind resources that could be deployed to sustainably produce it in mass quantities.

Rosa and Tonelli found that Southern Africa, Central-East Africa, West Africa, South America, Canada, and Australia have land and water availability that could make them potential leaders in exporting hydrogen. Conversely, Western Europe, Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea, and Japan would likely need to either import hydrogen fuel or downsize existing industrial output.

The researchers emphasize the importance of national assessments of resources that countries would be willing to expend on hydrogen production.

"Our work indicates countries that have the resources to ramp up sustainable hydrogen production for export," Tonelli said. "But, of course, social, political, and economic factors will determine the extent of installation of renewable technologies and hydrogen production from each nation, which may differ from what would be feasible on paper."

This research is part of Rosa's overall program to probe opportunities and challenges at the intersection of energy, water, and food production, all of which are affected by climate change and population growth.

"As we strive to mitigate greenhouse gas pollution and prepare for the ways that climate change will affect where we live, how we build and sustain communities, and how we feed ourselves, it is crucial that we robustly examine various climate solutions to understand the possibilities that they present, as well as any unintended consequences," Rosa concluded.

More information: Davide Tonelli et al, Global land and water limits to electrolytic hydrogen production using wind and solar resources, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41107-x

Journal information: Nature Communications

Provided by Carnegie Institution for Science

What is green hydrogen and why is it touted as a clean fuel?

Air pollution from fires hits world's poorest hardest: study

People in poorer countries are disproportionately suffering from air pollution spewed from the increasing scourge of fires in forests and fields around the world, according to new research published Wednesday.

Landscape fires include blazes in forests, shrub, grass, pastures and agricultural lands, whether planned or uncontrolled such as the wildfires that have ravaged countries including Algeria, Canada and Greece this year.

They generate smoke that can travel up to thousands of kilometers, creating public health risks, including increases in mortality and worsening of heart and lung-related illnesses.

Ambient air pollution caused some 4.5 million deaths in 2019, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health last year.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers used data, machine learning and modeling to estimate global daily quantities of fine particles called PM2.5 and surface ozone concentrations emitted by landscape fires between 2000 and 2019.

The annual air pollution from landscape fires in low-income countries was around four times higher than in rich nations, they found, with central Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and Siberia experiencing the highest levels.

Increasing temperatures linked to human-caused climate change are increasing the risk of fire.

Shandy Li, an associate professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia who co-authored the study, said warming meant that the pollution "phenomena might be worse in the future".

"Available evidence shows that fire smoke could increase health risks including mortality and morbidity, which means people should pay attention to reduce exposure to fire air pollution," she told AFP.

Some 2.18 billion people a year on average were exposed to at least one day of "substantial" air pollution coming from landscape fire sources between 2010 and 2019, an increase of almost seven percent on the previous decade.

That includes daily average PM2.5 levels above 2021 WHO guidelines of 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, where pollution from fire sources accounts for at least half of the total.

Africa had the highest average number of days of exposure to "substantial" fire-derived air pollution per person every year at 32.5, followed by South America at 23.1.

In contrast, Europeans were exposed to around one day of substantial pollution per year on average during the decade.

The five countries with the highest average annual number of days of exposure to substantial fire-sourced pollution per person were all African: Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon.

'Climate injustice'

In a separate study also published in Nature on Wednesday, scientists said wildfire smoke in the United States had eroded air quality progress achieved over decades.

Cities in rich countries also battle with poor air quality that breaches WHO guidelines, mostly due to pollution linked to transport, heating and industry.

Earlier this month, the UN World Meteorological Organization said climate change was driving more intense and frequent heat waves and a subsequent "witch's brew" of pollution.

Reducing extreme weather events by mitigating climate change would help limit the risk, Li said.

The researchers said their findings provided further evidence of "climate injustice" as those least responsible for human-induced climate change suffered the most from wildfires made more intense and frequent by it.

Changes to land management techniques, notably the burning of agricultural waste or blazes started deliberately to convert wildland for agricultural or commercial purposes, could also help reduce the extent of fires, they added.

More information: Marshall Burke et al, The contribution of wildfire to PM2.5 trends in the USA, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06522-6

Rongbin Xu et al, Global population exposure to landscape fire air pollution from 2000 to 2019, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06398-6

Journal information: Nature , The Lancet Planetary Health

Alarming results from world-first study of two decades of global smoke pollution

Why invasive ants are a silent threat to our ecosystems

by Maximillian Tercel, The Conversation

Invertebrates are often described by experts as the "little things that run the world," and ants are certainly one of the top contenders for this role. Ants help ecosystems to function normally and the total weight of all ants on Earth is roughly equivalent to 1.4 billion people, or 33 Empire State Buildings.

Unfortunately, some ants have become invasive species—organisms transported to a new ecosystem that cause damage. These introductions typically happen accidentally by people but can have dire consequences, as my team's new research shows.

Invasive species are thought to be the second largest threat to biodiversity after habitat destruction. They are a leading cause of animal extinctions, potentially leading to species extinction and ecosystem failure.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature includes five different ant species on its list of 100 of the world's worst invasive alien species. But while invasive ants have dramatically transformed some of the areas they have been able to invade, other areas appear to be far less affected, or even totally unaffected.

How bad are invasive ants, really?

My team's study draws from research conducted around the world to provide a measure of how bad or good invasive ants are for biodiversity loss. The results show us that invasive ants are every bit as bad as we had assumed.

We extracted data from 46 different research articles that studied how animal communities reacted to invasive ants, and combined the results. We only selected research that was done in relatively "undisturbed" natural environments, free from intensive human activity.

These are areas that invasive ants have dispersed to from more degraded habitats or urban environments. This allows us to more confidently claim that any negative or positive effects on animal communities are because of invasive ants, rather than other invasive species or some form of human disturbance such as agriculture or deforestation.

Our results show that animal communities respond overwhelmingly negatively to invasive ants. We found there were on average 50% fewer individual animals and species in areas invaded by ants, which is a dramatic fall in biodiversity. It is also important to remember these results are averages and, therefore, invasive ants may spell doom for some animal communities above and beyond these numbers.

We also found that certain animal types, such as birds, reptiles and beetles, reacted more strongly than others. Native ants were the most strongly affected group.

This makes sense because many native ants will not only be directly attacked by invasive ants but they will also need to compete with them for food and nest sites. This is also bad news because of the general importance of native ants to the wider ecosystem.

Other groups that were badly affected were birds, beetles, butterflies, moths and reptiles.

We also found that the number of individuals in one insect group—bugs such as scale insects, aphids and mealybugs—increased. This group forms "mutualisms" with ants, which is where each species has a net benefit.

These insects are sap-sucking and exude a sugary liquid called "honeydew," which ants love. Ants will defend these insects from their predators and parasites in return for this sugary secretion, enabling their populations to mutually increase. In some cases, these mutualisms can facilitate invasion—and to disastrous effect.

How can something so small cause such a big problem?

Although ants are small relative to how people perceive the world, they are numerous and tend to interact with a wide range of other organisms. This means they may be able to influence the ecosystem from multiple angles of attack. Invasive ants probably actively hunt down other species but competition for food or space is also important.

Ultimately, we need more research that can tease apart how ants are interacting with other species when they invade a location. What do they eat? Who do they compete with for food? Which habitats do they prefer and why? These questions urgently need answers so we can understand, prioritize and optimize how to minimize the negative effects of invasive ants.

Overall, our research is worrying. The reduction in animal diversity may have severe consequences for ecosystem functioning and the long-term future of rare species. Although there are crucial considerations to mitigate or reverse these effects, the conservation implications are not straightforward.

Ant eradication regimes are logistically complex and financially expensive, for example, and more than half fail. Early detection technology, as well as control measures such as toxic baits, can help conservationists prevent or reverse the effects of invasive ants on our ecosystems.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Research measures global impact of ant invasions on native species

A brief history of abortion—from ancient Egyptian herbs to fighting stigma today

by Alisha Palmer, The Conversation

You might be forgiven for thinking of abortion as a particularly modern phenomenon. But there's plenty of evidence to suggest that abortion has been a constant feature of social life for thousands of years. The history of abortion is often told as a legal one, yet abortion has continued regardless of, perhaps even in spite of, legal regulation.

The need to regulate fertility before or after sex has existed for as long as pregnancy has. The Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Ebers is often seen as some of the first written evidence of abortion practice.

Dating back to 1600BC, the text describes methods by which "the woman empties out the conceived in the first, second or third time period", recommending herbs, vaginal douches and suppositories. Similar methods of inducing abortion were recorded, although not recommended, by Hippocrates around the fourth century BC.

Part of the daily life of ancient citizens, abortion also found its way into their art. Publius Ovidius Naso, commonly known as Ovid, was a Roman poet whose collection of works Amores describes the narrator's emotional turmoil as he watches his lover suffering from a mismanaged abortion:

"While she rashly is overthrowing the burden of her pregnant womb, weary Corinna lies in danger of her life. Having attempted so great a danger without telling me. She deserves my anger, but my anger dies with fear."

Ovid's concern at first is with the risk of losing his love Corinna, not the potential child. Later, he asks the gods to ignore the "destruction" of the child and save Corinna's life. This reveals some important aspects of historical attitudes towards abortion.

While 21st-century abortion debates often revolve around questions of life and personhood, this was not always the case. The Ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, did not necessarily believe that a fetus was alive.

Early thinkers such as St. Augustine (AD354-AD430), for example, distinguished between the embryo "informatus" (unformed) and "formatus" (formed and endowed with a soul). Over time, the most common distinction became drawn at what was known as the "quickening", which was when the pregnant woman could feel the baby move for the first time. This determined that the fetus was alive (or had a soul).

As a delayed period was often the first sign something was amiss, and a woman may not have considered herself pregnant until much later, a lot of advice on abortion would focus on restoring menstrual irregularities or blockages instead of terminating a potential pregnancy (or fetus).

As a result, much of the abortion advice throughout history does not necessarily mention abortion at all. And it was often down to personal interpretation whether or not an abortion had even taken place.

Indeed, recipes for "abortifacients" (any substance that is used to terminate a pregnancy) could be found in medical texts like those from the German nun Hildegard von Bingen in 1150 and in domestic recipe books with treatments for other common ailments well into the 20th century.

In the west, the quickening distinction gradually went out of fashion over the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet women continued to have abortions despite changing beliefs about life and the law. In fact, some sources claimed, they seemed to be more common than ever.

'An epidemic of abortions'

In 1920, Russia became the first state in the world to legalize abortion, and in 1929, famous birth control advocate Marie Stopes lamented that "an epidemic of abortions" was sweeping England. Similar claims from France and the US also indicate a perceived uptick.

These claims accompanied a wave of plays, poems and novels that included abortion. In fact, in 1923, Floyd Dell, the US magazine editor and writer, published a new work of fiction, Janet March, where the main character complains about the number of novels that feature abortions, stating there "were dreadful things enough in novels, but they happened only to poor girls—ignorant and reckless girls".

But the literature of the early 20th century, with many stories based on women's real experiences, attests to a wider range of abortions than the stereotypical image of the poor and destitute backstreet operations of the 1900s.

For example, the English novelist, Rosamond Lehmann records a seductive "feminine conspiracy" of aborting women waiting with "tact, sympathy, pills and hot-water bottles", in her 1926 novel The Weather in the Streets.

These texts form part of a long tradition of abortion storytelling that is a predecessor to contemporary activism. For example, We Testify is an organization dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who have abortions. And Shout Your Abortion is a social media campaign where people share their abortion experiences online without "sadness, shame or regret".

Abortion has a long and varied history, but above all these texts—from the Egyptian papyri of 1600BC to the social media posts of today—show that abortion has been and remains central to our history, our lives and even our art.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The abortion pill at the center of a US court battle

India Islamophobia row: Member of Narendra Modi's party called Muslim MP 'terrorist and pimp' in parliament

Sky News
Fri, 22 September 2023

In this article:

A row has broken out in India after an MP from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party called a Muslim MP a terrorist in parliament.

Ramesh Bidhuri, an MP from the affluent area of south Delhi, called Danish Ali, an MP from Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim terrorist and a pimp.

He also called Mr Ali "circumcised" - a slur often used for Muslims in India.

The remarks were made by the MP from Mr Modi's BJP party while speaking at a special session of parliament to debate a bill that would see a third of seats in the lower house of parliament and state assemblies reserved for women.

A video of the incident circulated widely on social media, with other BJP members seen laughing beside Mr Bidhuri.

After an abusive tirade, which stemmed from an argument about the prime minister, an emotional Mr Ali threatened to leave parliament if no action was taken.

In a post on X, formally known as Twitter, MP Mahua Moitra said that "abusing Muslims [is] an integral part of BJP culture - most now see nothing wrong with it.

"Narendra Modi has reduced Indian Muslims to living in such a state of fear in their own land that they grin and bear everything. Sorry but I'm calling this out."

Omar Abdullah, a politician from Indian-administered Kashmir, said: "This shows what they [the BJP] think about Muslims. They should be ashamed."

The remarks were removed from the parliamentary record.

Defence minister and former BJP president Rajnath Singh also issued an apology.

"I express regret if the opposition is hurt by the remarks made by the member," Al Jazeera and other Indian news outlets reported him saying.

Mr Ali has requested the issue be referred to parliament's privileges committee.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in attacks on minority communities in India, including Muslims - who make up 14% of the country's population.

Mr Modi's party, often criticised for its nationalist ideology, has also come under fire for incidents of Islamophobia.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM

Opinion
The Observer view on Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing: Narendra Modi’s hubris is ill-judged

Observer editorial
Sat, 23 September 2023

Photograph: Ethan Cairns/AP

Political assassination is a practice as old as human society, although the term itself derives from the 12th-century Persian Order of Assassins, first described by Marco Polo. Julius Caesar, Thomas Becket, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, John F Kennedy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Olof Palme and Yevgeny Prigozhin were victims of notorious political assassinations. They had one thing in common: all were high-profile targets.

That is not a description that may be accurately applied to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen shot dead in June by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia. If Nijjar had any claim to fame, it was as a campaigner for Khalistan, a notional Sikh homeland in the Indian Punjab fiercely opposed by India’s government. His activism provides the only plausible motive for his murder. Little-known though he was, Nijjar’s death was a political assassination, too.

After failing to obtain a private explanation, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, went public last week, declaring that there were “credible reasons” to believe agents of the Indian government were behind the murder. His statement was immediately rejected by Delhi, which called the allegation “absurd”. That was a poor choice of word. A moment’s reflection should have told the prime minister, Narendra Modi, that it’s a very serious matter indeed.

Although Trudeau did not provide evidence for his claim, he would not have made it, in the formal setting of the Canadian parliament, unless he had firm grounds for believing it to be true. It has emerged that the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – may have provided Ottawa with incriminating information that allegedly points to the complicity of Indian officials and diplomats in Canada. If so, it would not be the first time India has been implicated in extra-territorial killings.

It is unclear where righteous indignation ends and purblind arrogance begins

A less haughty, quicker-thinking figure than Modi would also have understood that Nijjar’s murder, appalling in itself, raised significant matters of state that Trudeau could not ignore. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said. After the poisonings by Russian agents in Salisbury, Britain knows how that feels.

Public expressions of concern by the US and UK governments were followed up in person when Joe Biden and other western leaders met Modi at the recent G20 summit in Delhi. This, too, should have persuaded Modi that, whatever the truth of the matter, he faced a damaging diplomatic row. Yet, unwisely, he escalated, expelling a Canadian diplomat and suspending visa services and trade talks. At this point, it is unclear where righteous indignation ends and purblind arrogance begins.

It’s true, as Indian critics say, that Trudeau faces domestic political complications. Canada’s sizeable Sikh minority wields significant influence. It’s also true that India has long regarded the Khalistan movement as a destabilising separatist force supported by terrorism. Yet Modi, an authoritarian populist who tends to treat any opposition as a betrayal akin to treason, faces political complications of his own, principally a general election next year. Confronting Canada, a fellow Commonwealth country associated by some with the British imperial era, serves his Hindu ultra-nationalist agenda.

India is a rising power on the global stage that ostensibly shares western values. Britain and the US view it as an important ally in the wider contest with China. But the Modi government’s behaviour at home and abroad raise doubts about its commitment to democracy and India’s reliability as a partner. Nijjar’s assassination, like that of the Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, leaves a bloody stain that will be hard to wash away.

Men more likely to think sex between 16-year-old and older partner is okay: poll

Aine Fox, PA Social Affairs Correspondent
Sat, 23 September 2023

Men are more likely than women to think sexual relationships between 16-year-olds and a partner decades older are acceptable, new polling has suggested in the wake of concerns raised following allegations against Russell Brand.

Women were slightly more likely to support raising the age of consent than men and to feel that older men in relationships with at least a 10-year age gap hold more power, according to the exclusive Ipsos polling for the PA news agency.

The statistics show the “grave need” for more conversations with young people around issues such as consent, power imbalances within relationships and gender equality, campaigners said.

The survey findings of 1,077 adults across Great Britain this week come after a woman claimed she was in a relationship with Brand when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl and he was a 30-year-old BBC radio presenter.

Russell Brand has denied the allegations against him, saying that while he was ‘promiscuous’, all of his relationships have been “consensual” (Ian West/PA)

The woman, who is being referred to as Alice, has suggested consideration needs to be given to “staggered consent” in law “so that we don’t have adults exploiting a 16 (or) 17-year-old’s capacity for sexual determination”.

The polling for PA showed that almost a third (31%) of men said they feel it is somewhat or completely acceptable for a 16-year-old girl to have a sexual relationship with a man up to 30 years old, compared to 15% of women thinking this was acceptable.

While more than two thirds (68%) of women said this situation would be unacceptable, just over half (54%) of men felt this way.

More than a quarter (27%) of men said it was either somewhat or completely acceptable for a 16-year-old boy to have a sexual relationship with a woman aged up to 30.

This compares with just 9% of women thinking this is acceptable.

Some 52% of men said it was somewhat or completely unacceptable for a 16-year-old boy to have sex with a woman aged up to 30, compared with 73% of women feeling this way.

The trend continued with bigger age gaps – as almost a fifth (17%) of men said it was somewhat or completely acceptable for a 16-year-old girl to have sex with a man up to 40 years old, compared to just 4% of women feeling this way.

When it comes to a 16-year-old girl being in a sexual relationship with a man aged 50 or older, more than one in 10 men (13%) thought this was acceptable compared to 3% of women.

Overall, 48% of people said they either tended to or strongly supported the idea of raising the age of consent from 16 to 18, while 40% said they supported the idea of staggered consent, in findings similar to those from a YouGov poll earlier this week.

Women were slightly more likely to support the idea of staggered consent – where it is only legal for a 16 or 17-year-old to have sex with someone up to the age of 20 or 21 – than men, with a 41% and 38% split, according to the Ipsos polling.

Some 59% of all those surveyed said they believed that in relationships where the woman is 10 or more years younger than the man, he has more power.

Almost two thirds (64%) of female survey respondents were of this view, compared with just over half (54%) of men.

Speaking to BBC Radio Women’s Hour earlier this week, Alice said her mother had breakdowns because “there was nothing that she could do to protect me from being in that relationship” due to the fact the teenager was the legal age to consent to sex at the time.

Alice said: “People say ‘well, just call the police’. And then what? I was legally allowed to be there.”

Alice added: “He was 30. Now that I’m in my 30s looking at 16-year-olds, I can’t imagine finding them sexually attractive. I can’t imagine thinking of them as a potential mate in any way.”

She said there is a “reasonable argument individuals between the ages of 16 and 18 can have relations with people within that same age bracket” but that the law could do more to protect teenagers from much older adults.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “What is clear from these survey results is the grave need for more conversations and exploration through relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) for young people that deals with issues like consent, power imbalances within relationships and gender equality.

“This is absolutely critical for preventing violence against women and girls and tackling the cultural norms which underpin the epidemic of sexual abuse we see today.”

Anna Edmundson, head of policy and public affairs at the NSPCC, said: “While 16 and 17-year-olds are above the legal age of consent, we know from young people that reach out to Childline that they can still be vulnerable to grooming, exploitation and other forms of abuse, particularly from adults.”

Brand is facing allegations – reported in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 – of sexual assault, dating back to the height of his fame between 2006 and 2013, from four women including Alice.

The 48-year-old comedian vehemently denies the allegations, saying that while he was “promiscuous”, all of his relationships have been “consensual”.

A further separate allegation of sexual assault in Soho, central London, in 2003, was received by the Metropolitan Police after the Channel 4 Dispatches programme aired last weekend.

The BBC is also investigating a separate claim that Brand flashed a woman before laughing about it on his radio show.