Every week e-safety adviser Alan Mackenzie sends me weekly updates. They are useful teaching resources but also parent guides to keep you up to date with current trends.
Here are a few tips from this week’s updates:
For Parents – Smartphone-Free Childhood?
There’s a lot of talk going on right now about a smartphone-free childhood. Personally I think a lot of very sweeping statements are being made without taking into consideration the individual needs of the child/family. Statements such as ‘all under 16’s should be banned from owning a smartphone’ are neither practical nor possible, but all of this makes things very difficult for parents who want clear information to make an informed decision.
Thankfully Internet Matters have lots of clear information which should be useful for parents. In THIS article Internet Matters look at a number of aspects such as balancing concerns with safety and limiting risk. In THIS article there’s a parents guide to smart phones versus dumb phones. Together these articles and the links within the articles have lots of up to date, useful information to help them make a decision.
AI Companion Bots – Explicit Images
Chatbots are sometimes referred to as companion bots. They’re basically the same thing but trained/programmed with a different purpose. In this case, companion bots are exactly that – to be your friend/companion.
Last year Voicebox released their ‘Coded Companions’ report (see HERE) which found that young people were being exposed to some pretty significant risks through the use of questionably designed chatbots.
Following on from this Voicebox have taken another look at the use of chatbots, particularly AI girlfriend/boyfriend chatbots, and have found young people sharing explicit imagery with these chatbots. For obvious reasons I can’t go into detail within this email but THIS article from Voicebox is worth a read.
