Simply telling teenagers ‘just don’t send nudes’ does not work and can deepen shame, researchers warn

Blunt warnings telling teenagers not to share sexual images are failing to protect them and can make victims of image-based sexual abuse feel blamed, ashamed and unable to seek help, according to new research from the University of Surrey

University of Surrey

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Blunt warnings telling teenagers not to share sexual images are failing to protect them and can make victims of image-based sexual abuse feel blamed, ashamed and unable to seek help, according to new research from the University of Surrey. 

The study, published in Sexualities, found that current responses from schools, safeguarding services and the justice system are often fragmented, punitive and poorly equipped to address rapidly evolving threats such as sexual deepfakes and sextortion (blackmail involving sexual images). 

Researchers argue that blanket ‘just say no’ messages ignore the reality that image-sharing can form part of young people’s relationships, intimacy and social lives. By treating all sharing in the same way, these approaches can shift responsibility onto victims rather than those who violate consent. 

The research reviewed existing evidence alongside insights from a 2025 workshop involving 38 professionals from education, law enforcement, frontline services, academia, policy and the technology sector. 

Participants reported that institutions can focus more heavily on confiscating devices, preserving evidence or protecting their reputations than addressing the emotional and social harm experienced by young people. Confusing legal and safeguarding frameworks can also mean the same incident could betreated as a consensual exchange, a safeguarding concern or a criminal offence depending on who handles it. 

Dr Emily Setty, Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Surrey, said: 

“Telling young people to ‘just don’t send nudes’ is no longer a credible safeguarding response. It ignores how digital intimacy actually works and places the burden of preventing abuse on potential victims. With AI-generated images, a young person can now be targeted even when they have never created or shared an intimate image.” 

Researchers propose an approach called ‘safe uncertainty’, which allows professionals to act decisively while considering the circumstances, relationships and needs involved in each case. Rather than relying only on rigid rules or checklists, schools and safeguarding services would examine issues such as coercion, breached trust, shame, peer pressure and the young person’s emotional safety. 

Dr Setty continued: 

“Young people who disclose abuse need to be met with care, not suspicion or a lecture about their choices. Schools and safeguarding professionals must be able to respond to the harm in front of them, even when a case does not fit neatly into an existing category. The priority should be restoring safety, dignity and trust.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

• For interviews with Dr Emily Setty, please contact: mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk  

• The full study has been published in: Sexualities 

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Journal

Sexualities

DOI

10.1177/136346072614672

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Beyond ‘just say no’: Safe Uncertainty and rethinking responses to image-based sexual abuse among young people

 

Science or strategy? Researchers call for transparency over the Anthropocene rejection

Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

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image: 

Members of the Crawford Lake team working on the lake, with PI Francine McCarthy and Martin Head (previous Chair of the Subcommission on the Quaternary) looking on

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Credit: Photograph by Brenna Bartley, courtesy Conservation Halton. All rights reserved.

Since its introduction in 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene – the idea that human activities are the major driver of Earth systems – has become highly influential throughout society, including in culture, science, and law. Yet despite decades of research revealing humanity’s influence on the planet, the Anthropocene Working Group’s (AWG) proposal of an Anthropocene epoch was ultimately rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in 2024.

Now, a new commentary paper by authors from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology calls on the IUGS to fully disclose the relevant documentation, as well as for an independent procedural review of the decision.

The paper documents procedural violations that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the IUGS’ decision, the authors argue.

“Our main concern isn’t the rejection itself. A proposal can legitimately be rejected,” says Georg Schäfer, lead author of the paper. “The issue is that no adequate scientific justification for it was ever published, and serious allegations on procedural inconsistencies remain unaddressed.”

Those procedural concerns include a compromised evaluation, in which the Anthropocene Working Group could not address comments or make revisions, and an invalid voting process, in which the majority of votes cast were invalid under the body’s rules. An internal ethics report investigating these violations, which the IUGS executive committee did not act upon, remains publicly inaccessible.

“The Anthropocene epoch proposal demands transparency and procedural legitimacy,” says Professor Jürgen Renn, founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. “If decisions regarding a humanity-induced planetary crisis can be made behind closed doors, with key documents withheld and public communication vague or contradictory, then geoscience's capacity to inform societal understanding of Earth system change is diminished.”

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A drill core from Crawford Lake was chosen by the AWG as candidate site demarcating a proposed Anthropocene epoch. In this Canadian lake, calcium and carbonate ions from the surrounding rocks combine and crystallize into small calcite crystals when the water is warm. These crystals gradually sink and form a distinct white layer at the lake bottom each summer. This natural phenomenon provides researchers with a precise chronological marker, allowing them to determine the specific year being examined. Around the year 1950, there is a notable increase in the concentration of plutonium particles. This significant change serves as one of many clear indication of human impact and, consequently, provides evidence of the Anthropocene

Credit

Tim Patterson

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Journal

Earth's Future

DOI

10.1029/2025EF007638

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Article Title

Science or Strategy? The Rejection of the Anthropocene Epoch Demands Transparency

Article Publication Date

1-Oct-2026

 

Mining fragmented data for antibiotics and cancer treatments

American Society for Microbiology

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Washington, D.C.—Researchers have developed a practical strategy for recovering biosynthetic information from fragmented metagenomic data. Through this work, the researchers identified and prioritized promising natural-product candidates with potential antibacterial or anticancer activity. The study was published in Microbiology Spectrum, an ASM journal.

Microorganisms produce many natural products that have become important medicines, including antibiotics and anticancer drugs. “The biosynthesis of these natural products is encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), which are groups of neighboring genes that work together to produce a specific compound,” said corresponding study author Lei Zhang, Ph.D., a pharmaceutical engineering professor at Jining Medical University in China. “However, most microorganisms in the environment cannot yet be cultured in the laboratory, and BGCs recovered from metagenomic assemblies are often fragmented across contigs (a series of overlapping DNA sequences). This makes it difficult to reconstruct complete biosynthetic pathways and determine which clusters are most likely to produce medically useful compounds.”

To develop their new strategy for recovering biosynthetic information from fragmented metagenomic data, the researchers started with biosynthetic gene clusters whose products had already been experimentally characterized and used them as reference “maps.” They searched large metagenomic datasets for related pieces of biosynthetic information. When these pieces were fragmented, they used the known clusters as guides to help reconstruct the missing pathway and predict what kinds of molecules it might produce. They then chemically synthesized selected predicted compounds and tested their biological activity. “We connected computational mining of metagenomic data with experimental validation,” Zhang said.

The researchers found that fragmented metagenomic data can contain valuable biosynthetic information that would be missed if each fragment were analyzed separately. By using known biosynthetic gene clusters as guides, they were able to piece together candidate pathways and identify potential bioactive products.

“Importantly, we went beyond computational prediction. We chemically synthesized 6 candidate compounds and tested them across 7 cancer cell lines. The compounds showed different patterns of cytotoxic activity, with compounds D and E showing the most notable activity and clear differences among cancer cell lines,” Zhang said.

The main significance of this work is that it offers a route for turning incomplete or fragmented BGCs into testable natural-product hypotheses. Instead of treating partial BGCs as unusable, the approach uses experimentally characterized BGCs as guides for reconstruction and then focuses experimental resources on candidates with a stronger basis for further study.

At the same time, the study makes clear that computational reconstruction and product prediction are prioritization steps: chemical structures, biological activities and therapeutic value must still be established through appropriate experiments.

“Fragmented metagenomic data should not simply be treated as incomplete or unusable,” Zhang said. “Our study shows that, by using known biosynthetic pathways as guides, we can recover hidden biosynthetic information, prioritize promising natural-product candidates and move them from computational prediction toward experimental testing. This provides a practical way to explore the enormous chemical potential of microorganisms that we cannot yet cultivate in the laboratory.”

Zhang added that a central feature of the work is its integration of computational discovery and experimental validation. “The workflow identifies candidates for reconstruction, product prediction, chemical synthesis, and biological testing, as demonstrated by the 6 compounds evaluated across seven cancer cell lines,” Zhang said. “Further experiments are still needed to confirm their biological mechanisms, activity profiles and therapeutic potential, as well as whether predicted products are produced naturally by the corresponding microorganisms.”

 

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ASM is a global community shaping the future of the microbial sciences to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Established in 1899, ASM connects scientists across disciplines, sectors and borders to advance discovery, foster collaboration and drive innovation.

With more than 38,000 members and a global network that reaches millions, ASM accelerates scientific progress through publishing, convening, advocacy and professional development. From climate change and antimicrobial resistance to industrial, basic and applied microbiology, ASM empowers the microbial sciences community to create solutions that benefit society and build what’s next.

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Journal

Microbiology Spectrum

 

In Alaska, soil in permafrost regions is warming the fastest

Washington State University

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PULLMAN, Wash. — Soils are warming quickly and at considerable depth across Alaska, with temperatures rising fastest in the state’s permafrost region, a trend that could accelerate climate change and undermine the stability of roads, buildings and other infrastructure built on the continuously frozen ground.

That’s a central finding of new research from Washington State University that provides a comprehensive look at soil temperatures from 1997 to 2023 in a state where the effects of climate change are pronounced. The warming permafrost comes with particular concern, because when that ground thaws it releases carbon dioxide and methane, driving even faster warming.

Alaska’s air temperatures are rising at twice the pace of the Lower 48, a key sign of the “polar amplification” of climate change at the Arctic latitudes. The new research details how and where the ground is warming, compares that to air temperatures, and shows that snow cover plays a key role in regional differences.

“In the Lower 48 or further south you would expect that soil temperatures and air temperatures would change at the same rate,” said lead author Erin Oliver, a post-doctoral research associate for WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Science who is based in Alaska. “Those warmer air temperatures warm the soil. But in Alaska, over half the year, our soils are covered in snow. So how would that affect things?”

In short, her study found that soil warming is almost keeping pace with air warming, particularly in the central and maritime parts of the state. In high-latitude permafrost regions, soil warming is lagging behind air warming, but even so she saw “polar amplification” in soil temperatures too.

Over the 27 years of the study, air and soil temperatures increased across the state, but were most pronounced in the permafrost regions, where air temperatures rose at a rate of 1.15 degrees Celsius per decade and soil temperatures rose at 0.64 degrees Celsius per decade.

The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Climate, offers one of the most comprehensive studies of relationship between air and soil temperatures in Alaska. The collection of such data is challenging in the state due to its vast size and challenging geography.

“It’s hard to get around in Alaska,” Oliver said. “Most of the state is very remote, it’s very expensive to put in these weather stations, and they really only started putting them in the late 1990s. So comparatively, we don't have as much of a record as other places.”

For the study, the researchers synthesized air and soil temperature data from 43 weather stations across Alaska, and tracked soil temperatures at several different depths over 27 years. To evaluate the effects of snow cover, they divided the state into three regions: one with continuous permafrost; one with some areas of permafrost; and one without permafrost. In the latter two categories, soil temperatures rose at roughly half the rate of the permafrost regions.

That suggests that snow cover, which is deeper at lower latitudes compared to higher latitudes, during the winter slows the rate of warming, providing a buffer to changes in air temperature.

“A neat result was that soil warming rates weren’t slowing down deeper in the soil,” said Oliver’s co-author, Claire Phillips, a research soil scientist at WSU. “People tend to think that soil temperatures are more stable as you go deeper. The seasonal fluctuations do drop out, but the long-term warming trend was actually more obvious at depth.”

In the permafrost region, they found 100% of weather stations had a warming trend at 4 feet depth, while only 65% of them had warming at 2 inches, where temperatures swing more from year-to-year.

“When you go through the numbers and you find permafrost soils showing 2 to 3 degrees Celsius per decade warming at 4 foot depth in the winter months, that’s upsetting,” says Phillips. “But I also look at it as one of the ways this amazing planet is buffering us. The soil is storing a lot of heat that would otherwise all be held in the atmosphere.”

The findings can be used to help inform planning and policymaking in Alaska as the climate changes and brings about a range of different effects. 

“In the permafrost region most of the warming was in winter, and that will have obviously big effects on infrastructure,” Oliver said. “But in lower latitudes most of the warming was in the summertime, and could lead to an increase in our growing season. So knowing the seasonality of it can help Alaskans to adapt.”

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Journal

Frontiers in Climate

DOI

10.3389/fclim.2026.1887902

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Article Title

Significant soil warming across Alaska permafrost and non-permafrost regions from 1997 to 2023

 

Flock cameras put cities at a crossroads. New research offers a roadmap

UMass Amherst researcher says ‘public value mapping’ can help communities weigh security benefits against privacy and other concerns

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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As communities across the U.S. grapple with the rapid spread of Flock cameras and questions about who can access the data they collect, a new study from a University of Massachusetts Amherst public policy researcher reframes the debate to ask a more basic question: Does the technology serve the public?

The study, published in the journal Cities, examines facial recognition technology in Portland, Oregon and autonomous vehicles in Tempe, Arizona to show how communities can weigh the promised benefits of emerging technologies against risks to values such as privacy, equity, transparency and civil liberties. The researchers employ “public value mapping”—a way for governments and the people they serve to look at what a technology is designed to accomplish and weigh it against what else it may change.

The approach takes on added significance as Flock cameras—automated license plate readers used by law enforcement and communities—have become a flashpoint over privacy, surveillance and policing.

Study senior author Thaddeus Miller, professor of public policy at UMass Amherst, says the technologies they investigated in the research were emerging more slowly when the work began before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the pace has accelerated.

“These technologies, like facial recognition and Flock, were emerging in baby steps then, and the pace has only ramped up,” Miller observes.

That acceleration, he says, can put cities and towns in a difficult position. Municipalities face pressure from technology companies and law enforcement to adopt systems that promise improvements in public safety, efficiency or other goals, in many cases, without the staff or expertise to understand the trade-offs.

“Those local governments often do not have the capacity or sometimes the expertise to think through how emerging technologies might affect a whole set of values that the community may have,” Miller explains.

A city might adopt a surveillance system to fight crime, for example, without fully considering its implications for privacy, freedom of expression, racial equity or how information could be shared beyond the agency that collected it.

The Portland case illustrates those tensions. Researchers found that facial recognition cameras could offer public-safety benefits, but there was significant uncertainty about the extent of those benefits in an urban environment. At the same time, there were documented concerns about racial and gender bias, the accuracy of the technology and a lack of transparency about how data would be collected, managed and shared.

Ultimately, Portland’s response was to ban facial recognition technology in public spaces. The case demonstrates that technologies marketed as inevitable can be constrained when the community evaluates them through the lens of public values.

Miller cautions that public value mapping is not a scorecard that automatically tells a community whether to approve or reject a technology. Instead, it is intended to bring government officials and residents together to identify what they value, examine potential benefits and harms, and consider what policies could produce a better outcome.

In the Flock debate, that could mean asking questions before debating the pros and cons of the cameras themselves. For instance: What public safety problems exist? What privacy sacrifices are people willing to accept? Who controls the data? How long is it retained? Who can access it? And, do the answers align with the community’s stated values?

The study asserts that those conversations should take place across government silos and with the public before a controversy erupts.

Miller says the goal is not to reject innovation, but to approach it in a deliberate manner, where there’s time to ensure technological advancements do not come at the expense of values a community is trying to protect.

Technology, he says, is not destiny. Communities can have a say in how it is adopted, regulated and used.

“We shape technologies every day in all sorts of ways,” Miller adds. “The question is, can we do so with more intention?”

The paper was co-authored by Farah Najar Arevalo, of Arizona State University, and Devon McAslan, of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

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Journal

Cities

DOI

10.1016/j.cities.2026.107491

Article Title

Public value mapping in the smart city: Assessing emerging urban technologies