Social Media is firmly in the news at the moment with the vexed question of how to protect children from harmful content and with the govenment castigating companies for the failure to do enough.

Our conversation is led by our own Lizzie Jackson who has not only worked for the BBC and in social media but has a PhD in the subject so we should get some valuable insights from an expert!

Lizzie did the first BBC-supported PhD (2009) on the changing dynamics of Producer-audience agency when Social Media is added to programming. Her findings indicated audiences were able to influence BBC content, yet BBC Producers still framed social media as merely a way to market their content.

Lizzie was a Member of the Home Office Task Force on Internet Safety and the Producer of ChatGuide the BBC's educational materials on child safety.

Since the 1980's when the first message boards and discussion forums launched in the USA the Social Media landscape has evolved considerably. Moderation used to be done by hand until increasingly sophisticated technology began to take over. This severed the ability to get to know groups of fans or enthusiasts and to receive valuable sentiment insights. It was replaced by thumbs-up clicks, data-gathering, and mere marketing.

Discussions descended into filtered bubbles of chat between like-minded people. The good that Craigs List and the early advice forums brought to online communities plus the ability to directly connect with experts slowly disappeared. The ethos pioneered by the Whole Earth Catalogue and then by ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet) to link-up one beautiful world for the common good became smothered.

Tim Berner's Lee, labelled by some as the founding father of the internet, felt discouraged. His vision of a communications network to ensure democratic communications during the Cold War took more commercial directions.

Sherry Turkle, an academic researching the effect of social media on children and the children's safety industry began to agitate for legislation in the UK to curb an unregulated mushrooming sector. They positioned online gaming as particularly harmful. Parents were concerned and had little awareness of how to cope with increasingly addicted children. The gaming industry prospered and flourished.

Then things got really ugly...

The UK Home Office Task Force for Internet Safety was convened. Membership included the NSPCC, The Children's Society, The BBC, AOL, the Lucy Faithful Foundation and others.

A special division of the police was formed to investigate online grooming.

The BBC worked with the NSPCC to create ChatGuide, two television programmes and three education kits for Junior and Middle Schools, and to inform police and prison officers about grooming.

The Dark Web (a secure internet used by criminals, drug dealers, but also activists and freedom fighters) was awash with paedophiles swapping images of child pornography. Jim Carr's detectives began to combat the growing danger to children with some success and much international acclaim.

Now, social media is constantly interrupted by sponsored ads, and young people aspire to be influencers. You Tube aggregates learners into communities that challenge formal education systems. And the Dark Web continues to be a problem.

However Telegram helps Ukranians fight Putin's autocratic regime, and besieged Palestinians can still communicate.

WhatsApp helps us organise our social lives and our families and friends keep up using Facebook. Tik Tok spawns talented young documentary-makers and Blackboard and Moodle helps school teachers and university lecturers teach. Every business, large, medium, or small has to have a social media strategy.

So, what do we think? 

Is Social Media Good, Bad, 

or just plain Ugly?

All about Lizzie Jackson...

Professor Dr Lizzie Jackson trained as a teacher and performer of drama and dance at Bretton Hall and Middlesex University. Her BBC career included being a production secretary, sound engineer (BBC Radios 2, 3, 4, 5, and the BBC World Service), presenter, journalist, producer, BBC trainer, and senior manager (social media).

One of 20 staff who launched the website www.bbc.co.uk Lizzie was also a member of the Home Office Task Force for Internet Safety.

80% of her radio programmes by her production company'Soundbites were critics choice.

The BBC-supported Lizzie's PhD on interactive media at the University of Westminster.

With six others she co-wrote the European Union's policy on the governance of public service media.

Lizzie was Deputy Dean of the broadcast and research departments at Ravensbourne University and the creative technology and research faculties at London South Bank University.

As an active researcher she won £6.5m in funding, latterly to build three experimental film studios in Maidstone, Canterbury, and Folkestone.