What is an algorithm, protecting sperm whales and stopping dangerous games at recess: news for children

A file to understand everything about the functioning and role of algorithms, a zoom on the creation of the world’s first sperm whale reserve and advice for avoiding dangerous games at school: this is the menu of the new episode of ” Hello info!”

Every week, the “Hi news!” podcast. tells the news to children, a production of Franceinfo radio and Astrapi magazine. The children speak throughout the show: to comment on current events, ask questions, ask for advice or even tell jokes! On the microphone this week to co-present this new episode, we listen to Benjamin, 10 years old, who lives in Paris.

In the news, there is talk of the project to create the first sperm whale reserve in the world, where commercial fishing and the movement of large ships will be prohibited. A decision taken by the island of Dominica. Off the coast of this Caribbean country live 200 sperm whales, whose numbers are dwindling due to boats hitting the sperm whales and large fishing nets catching them by accident. This 800 km² area will help protect these cetaceans and the planet since sperm whale excrement feeds the plankton. And this plankton is important because it traps CO² and thus limits global warming.

Following the terrorist attack on Saturday, December 2, in Paris, “Hi news!” explains to you what we call an “S file”. These are people that the police monitor closely, and that they have entered into a large computer file because there is a risk that they endanger the State, in particular by carrying out violent, terrorist actions. The letter S stands for “state security”.

Le Quart d’heure Actu: a weekly ritual to learn how to stay informed

To embark on the adventure of media education in cycles 2 and 3, we provide you, every week, with a new episode of “Quart d’heure Actu”. This sequence of three brief audio extracts from the podcast “Salut l’info!” allows you to establish a short and fun weekly information ritual in class. And to encourage active listening among students, the session is accompanied by a quiz to download.

>> To find out more, go to the Bayard education website

Webinar: “The super power of images!”

We take this opportunity to send a message to the teachers who listen to us: thank you for your loyalty! If you want to deepen media education, the Salut l’info! offers you the opportunity to register your class for free and participatory webinars. The first webinar of the year will take place on January 11 live and streaming from the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, in Paris. The theme: the super powers of images! More information and registrations on the Bayard education website

What is an algorithm ?

Algorithms are everywhere: in phones, for example for WhatsApp, TikTok… An algorithm guides the computer to carry out all the tasks that humans instruct it to carry out. There is an algorithm for starting a computer, opening internet pages, etc. It allows the search engine to sort among the multitude of pages that exist online. All thanks to a language that the computer understands, with lots of numbers. This is how algorithms calculate and give their instructions or recommendations. If they are very useful to scientists for reducing the energy consumption of buildings or creating drugs for example, they are also criticized because they accumulate a lot of confidential information about people and create a kind of bubble which means that we will watch the same kinds of things all the time. We explain everything to you in our file!

An internet petition was started in the UK by 10-year-old boy Teddy. He opposes the representation of the glasses emoji which therefore has glasses but also squinting eyes and two large rabbit teeth. It’s the emoji we call “nerd” in English, it represents a geek, a rather nerdy intellectual. In short, a not very flattering image that he wants to change. His petition has already been signed by more than 2,000 people.

A dangerous game in the playground

In our section “We tell each other everything”, we listen to the testimony of Maël, who left a message on the show’s answering machine at 01 47 79 40 00. He evokes the game of the comma and his sudden blows given on the neck and head. “They did it to me a lot of times at school, my neck started to hurt”, he says. To help him find solutions, “Hi info!” answers him, with the help of our psychologist Nadège.

To find a smile again, we listen to three children’s jokes and music advice from our guest of the week, Benjamin.

Good listening !

“Hey news!” was prepared for you this week by:

Ingrid Pohu, Agathe Guilhem, Lara Mercier and Rémi Chaurand on production

Pauline Pennanec’h and Marion Joseph as editor-in-chief

Philippe Baudouin directing

Guirec Corbin on mixing