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Covering everything from the impact of screens on the developing child to the explosion of teen sexting, and the acceleration of compulsive and addictive online behaviours (gaming, shopping, pornography), The Cyber Effect also examines the escalation in cyberchondria (self-diagnosis online), cyberstalking and organized crime in the Deep Web. Cyberspace is an environment full of surveillance, but who is looking out for us? Full of surprising statistics and incredible-but-true case studies of the hidden trends that are shaping our culture, this book raises troubling questions about where the digital revolution is taking us.

Dr Mary Aiken is the world’s leading expert in forensic cyberpsychology – a discipline that combines psychology, criminology and technology to investigate the intersection between technology and human behaviour. In this, her first book, Aiken has created a starting point for all future conversations about how the Internet is shaping our perception of the world, development and behaviour, societal norms and values, children, safety and security.

Upending your assumptions about your online life and forever changing the way you think about the technology that you, your friends and your family use, The Cyber Effect offers a fascinating and chilling look at a future we can still do something about.

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Reviews

THE TIMES
If you have children, stop what you are doing and pick up a copy of The Cyber Effect, a fascinating book that explores how human behaviour changes online
THE BOOKSELLER, Books to Watch
A Freakonomics for our online lives...With great clarity and insight, Aiken investigates the effect of technology on human behaviour
NATURE
BEST SCIENCE PICK OF THE WEEK
RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB
Fact Not Fiction BOOK CHOICE
WASHINGTON POST
Aiken is popularly known as the inspiration for the TV crime drama CSI: Cyber. In The Cyber Effect, she offers a fresh voice and a uniquely compelling perspective that draws from the murky, fascinating depths of her criminal case file - an expert on human behavior in the cyber-realm
OBSERVER
Really good... Our lives are changing and human ­behaviour is evolving because people act differently when they are interacting with technology, says the cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken. She explains why studying our online identities is fascinating - and frightening...
NEWSWEEK
Having worked with law enforcement groups from Interpol and Europol as well as the U.S. government, Aiken knows firsthand how today's digital tools can be exploited by criminals lurking in the Internet's Dark Net
HUFFINGTON POST
It is of some comfort to me to know that I am not alone in my Cassandra-like warnings about the outlaw Internet. "We cannot stand by passively and watch the cyber experiment play out," Aiken warns. "In human terms, to wait is to allow for the worst outcomes." I could not have said it better.
GUARDIAN
Aiken really hits her stride in three central chapters covering the impact of digital technology on children and young people. Here she makes a powerful case for the view that our society has been criminally negligent in the way it puts children in the harm's way of digital technology
LONDON EVENING STANDARD
From online dating to Pokémon GO, our lives are merging with tech. It's the cyber-effect
TELEGRAPH
Obesity, aggression, developmental delays: what tablets and mobiles are doing to our children...Dr Aiken says children are being 'catapulted' into cyberspace before they are psychologically capable of making sense of it
28.06.2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Aiken does a good job of pulling together the main charges against the internet . . . this book is fascinating . . . the result is a book that is extremely useful and well researched