ACHES ‘Weekly Picks’ Substack
ACHES has been set up to promote, enhance, and protect human and environmental wellbeing. ACHES provides a forum to raise awareness and advance the truth about legal, medical and scientific information relating to current and emerging technologies. ACHES “Weekly Picks” highlight the most relevant news pieces from our partners and collaborators to raise awareness of the health harms caused by such technologies, and offer much-needed solutions to enhance our health.
Something Changed in 2010: Now Revealed in Kids Brains
Our children are less cognitively capable than we were at their age. Dr Jared Coney Horvath, a former teacher turned neuroscientist who focuses on human learning has measured cognitive development since the late 1800s. Every generation he has studied has outperformed their parents, mainly because each generation spent more time in school and this helps develop their cognition. That is until Gen Z, which is the first generation in modern history to underperform compared with their parents in every cognitive measure. This includes basic attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, and general IQ.
What happened in 2010 that decoupled schooling from cognitive development? The answer is the tools used in schools. Assessment of the data across 80 countries, revealed that in those countries that adopted digital technology widely in schools, performance went down significantly. Children who used computers for 5 hours per day for learning purposes, had a cognitive score two thirds of a standard deviation less than children who rarely or never use technology. The conclusion is simple: when technology enters education, learning goes down. The reason is biological: we have evolved biologically to learn from other human beings – not from screens. We have to practice real connection in our everyday lives. Put down the screens, laptops and phones and have conversations with people: this is our biological wiring!
Meta Found Liable of Causing Harms in Landmark Trial
It is not often the BBC covers something of truth to the general public, however, they could not avoid covering the huge story this week: that Meta and Google have been found liable in a US landmark social media trial about the harms caused by social media addiction. The verdict of the jury was that Meta violated child safety laws owing to the intentional addictive design of their platform, which has serious implications for social media. The fact that Meta knowingly harmed children’s health in this ruling, is a step forward in addressing social media harms. Now, in the UK, hundreds of teenagers will trial a social media ban, as part of a government test. This latest film is gaining global reach and the team attended the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, where Ian Russell received a standing ovation. It is now Social Media that is on trial.
Shrinking Brains Being Online: 60 Minutes Australia
New medical evidence shown in a film by 60 Minutes Australia reveals how too much screen time is shrinking the brains of young Australians. Social media has powerful influences on childhood, and a new report shows that as little as 3 minutes can harm children. The initiative Big Tech’s Little Victims is launching a national campaign to protect children from Big Tech exploitation. As these truths are being exposed and Meta is under scrutiny, these are initial steps in starting to create a safer world. On 26 March 2026, the House of Lords voted in favour of a social media ban for under-16s. The links between technology and mental harms in the young have been covered extensively on ACHES.
Wireless Radiation Limits Over 200 Times Too High
According to a study published March 14 in Environmental Health, wireless radiation safety limits are at least 200 times too high to protect people from cancer risks. This latest data is from scientists linked with the ICBE-EMF (International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields). Current limits are also 8 to 24 times too high to protect against male reproductive harm, resulting in reduced fertility. As we have highlighted before, the researchers in this study noted that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) set their wireless radiation safety limits based on a few studies from the 1980s.
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