Privacy

Two big changes happen at this age: the beginning of adolescence and (for most kids) starting to use phones and social media. While younger kids use digital tech, for tweens it is often an essential part of how they develop and grow. They are aware of online risks like privacy invasions and stranger contact but more often in the abstract sense, having been told of them by teachers or parents instead of peers. This often leads to a disconnect between how risky they think things are and what they actually do.

Media risks

The risks that kids encounter in media fall into four categories:

Content risks, where kids are exposed to or engage with harmful content such as violence, hate, or sexualized media;

Conduct risks that come from what kids do or how they interact with other users;

Consumer risks related to money, advertising, and data collection;

And risks that come from being Contacted by other people.

Content

Many kids this age begin using platforms designed for older teens or adults: more than half have a TikTok or Instagram account, and four in ten have a Snapchat account.

At the beginning of this stage, children are often becoming more interested in the wider world and may use media to learn about current issue or events. A third use the internet to access news, though hobbies (67%) and entertainment or celebrities (53%) are still more popular topics.

Because they are still building their general knowledge, kids this age often have more knowledge than they’re able to interpret. They are more likely to see misleading content than any other age group: 59% say they see it every day. They are learning to be skeptical of what they see online, but are still learning how to judge whether it’s reliable or not. They’re also more likely to encounter racism, sexism and other forms of hate content.

Many tweens will start to seek out information about sex, but they may not know how to find reliable information or how to avoid seeing inappropriate content. Just one in ten intentionally look for pornography at this age, but a quarter have seen it without looking for it. This happens most often (64% of the time) when it pops up on websites, but it may also show up as a result of search engines (34%), on social networks (19%) because friends share it or on video sites (18% for both).

Gender representation and body image are key issues at this age, which may explain why this is one of the periods where social media has the biggest impact on girls’ happiness. (The end of the teen years is the other.) This is the age where there is the biggest gap between their images of themselves and the images they feel they should present online. In particular, they feel pressure to make themselves and their lives seem “picture perfect” at all times. They are more and more aware of the difference between the idealized images they see in media and their own reality, but do not generally have strategies to resolve this conflict in a healthy way.

They’re more afraid of realistic dangers than younger children and are more likely to intentionally watch scary or “gross out” content, which may be beyond what they’re able to handle.

Conduct

Kids this age are becoming more independent and pushing for more freedom, but still need support in managing their time and balancing screen use with other activities.

While they are becoming more independent from parents, this is actually the age where kids are most influenced by peers and “super peers” – influencers, celebrities, friends-of-friends and so on. They’re prone to take risks as a way of testing boundaries and gain status among their peers, but at this age it's hard for them to think clearly about the possible consequences of what they do online. At the same time, they are also starting to look for ways to make a positive difference both offline and online.

They are still learning how to manage online conflict and deal with the limitations of online communication. As they reach this age they often move from communicating mostly with one person at a time, through platforms with voice and video, to things like social media or group texts where they are talking to larger audiences with fewer clues about how a message should be interpreted. This can lead to unintentional conflict or “drama” as what they post and read is misinterpreted.,

“Drama” is more common than intentional cyberbullying: just a quarter of kids this age have been targets of mean and cruel behaviour online, fewer than kids in middle childhood and older teens. When it does happen, they’re less likely than younger kids to turn to parents or guardians (one in five would do this) and more likely to pretend they’re not bothered by it (one in four). When they do cyberbully others, they are likely to do it to get back at someone (four in ten of those who cyberbullied others said this was the reason), to get revenge on a friend’s behalf (one in five), to “get even” for something else (just under a third) or to join in because their friends are doing it (one in four).

This is the age where kids’ attitudes towards sharing sexts become fixed. While very few kids this age have sent (8%) or received (13%) a sext, starting at this age about a third of kids who did receive a sext went on to share that sext with others.

At this stage children are very conscious of the need to create a specific digital image, carefully choosing (and sometimes editing) photos to that effect. Over a third say they only post things they’re sure won’t offend or upset other people, and almost as many say that others expect them to only post positive things online.

Kids rely heavily on peer feedback at this age. Though they are aware of the artificiality of acting this way, they are more likely to use alternate or private accounts (“finstas”) for a more authentic experience instead of using their main accounts in more authentic ways.

Youth at this stage are also vulnerable to excessive use as their growing social needs, along with expectations of keeping in touch with parents while being more physically independent, happen at the same time as they start using media tools like social media that are designed to keep users engaged.

Contact

Kids this age often use many different tools to keep in touch with friends and family, including games, social networks and messaging apps. This means more different ways that people they don’t know can contact them, and blocking strangers or “randos” becomes a necessary chore.

At this age kids are mostly focused on friend and peer circles. Only towards the end of the period become do they become interested in connecting to broader communities, except for online games and celebrities on social media. They may become interested in subcultures and start exploring online communities organized around personal interests like art or coding, or around particular parts of their identities. This is generally healthy but may sometimes lead to contact with people they don’t know offline. Online communities based on shared interests, like forums or wikis, give them a chance to develop their identity and to build their skills or knowledge beyond what is possible with offline peers.

They may take steps to limit who can see what they post online, but aren’t yet thinking about possible future audiences like employers.

Kids this age are less likely than older teens to have been sent a sext from someone they only know online, but much more likely have gotten one from a total stranger (four in ten kids who had received a sext said this.) This reflects the fact that kids this age are most vulnerable to sexploitation, where fake sexts are used to encourage kids to send sexts which are then used to blackmail them.

Consumer

Youth at this stage usually see the online world as a personal space which they use for self-expression, socializing and self-directed learning. They are able to weigh risks and opportunities but pay more attention to possible benefits. They are becoming aware of the most abstract traces they leave online, like location tracking and data collection, but generally do not yet understand their possible future consequences. They have little knowledge of what platforms do with the content they post there and the data gathered about them.

At the beginning of this stage they still typically have little knowledge of how digital tools such as search engines work. For instance, they imagine Google as a human resource (a staff or network of people answering questions) rather than an algorithm. As a result, they rely too much on surface cues like the order of results to judge reliability and don’t understand that what they search is visible to the search engine and that it may affect what ads and content they see there (and other places).

Children this age still think of privacy largely in interpersonal terms and are just starting to imagine possible unknown or future audiences for what they post online.

Safety tips

There are four main strategies to help kids become resilient to online risks. We can:

Curate our kids’ media experiences;

Control who can access our kids and their data;

Co-view media with our kids;

and be our kids’ media Coaches.

Curate

Spying on kids and taking devices away as a punishment is likely to backfire at this age. Heavy-handed filtering is also likely to cause a “forbidden fruit” response, and they’re often able to get around it. Even if it does work, it can prevent them from developing the digital skills they need to manage risks.

Tweens do still want to control what they see online: four in ten take steps to avoid seeing pornography. Help them to do that by showing them how to use filters themselves and to use search terms and content settings (for instance Restricted Mode on YouTube or TikTok). Because kids this age are starting to look for information about healthy sexuality, provide them with good quality sources like SexandU (a resource provided by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada) and CBC’s About Sex.

Many social networks provide a safer experience for young teens by default, so it’s important to make sure that kids give their correct age when they register. If they really want to use a particular social media app, create a shared or parent-managed account they can use until they turn 13.

At this age they are conscious of the negative impacts of excessive or compulsive use, but don’t feel able to control it themselves. They need external supports and may even appreciate it if adults in their lives “play the bad guy” and force them to log off.

Most kids get their first phone not because they asked for it, but because their parents wanted to be able to stay in touch with them. This can cause conflict because the phone represents more independence for kids but more supervision to parents.

Control

Kids this age need safe spaces to hang out with people they already know, and safe ways of getting to know appropriate new people. Ask them if they know how to prevent people they don’t know from contacting them in games, social networks and other online spaces, and how to limit who can see things they post online. If they don’t, suggest learning how together.

When kids start using a new device or a new app, review the privacy features and make sure they are set to allow as little data collection as possible. If they have an iPhone, go to Privacy settings, then Privacy & Security, then Tracking, and switch “Allow Apps to Request to Track” to Off. On an Android phone, download the DuckDuckGo app and turn on App Tracking Protection. Show your kids how to do this and explore together how you can limit data collection on other apps, browsers and websites.

Co-View

At this age, co-viewing may start to move from using media together to talking to kids about their media lives: what they like, what they’re excited about or looking forward to, and what worries or annoys them. While just being with them is an important step, this is also a great opportunity to help your kids think critically about the media they consume, by asking them questions about it and, sometimes, answering back.

Explore online interests together to begin with. Co-view things like craft or cooking videos where safety is an issue, and explore online communities like wikis that they’re interested in.

Because kids this age are starting to think more in terms of values and morals, it’s important to help them understand that media don’t actually tell us what to think, but do have a big impact on what we think about: these messages come from who the main characters are or who is quoted in a news story who and what are shown as being important, and what things characters do that are rewarded or punished. That’s why even the most “meaningless” media like cartoons, social media posts or video games can still have a big effect on us.

Help your kids understand that everyone else is sharing idealized images of themselves and their lives online. For example: talk about the characters in your kids’ favourite shows or games, or their favourite streamers, influencers or YouTubers. Do they see certain types of people (different races, genders, body shapes, abilities, and so on) more or less often? Are different things often associated with different types of people?

Coach

Because youth this age are becoming more independent, it is important to teach them how to balance risk and opportunity online. At the same time, it is also essential to help them take stock of the help-seeking resources available to them. Talk to your kids about how they use their phones and other devices and apps. Understanding the role those play in their lives can help to avoid conflict over rules.

Taking risks is a big part of what kids need at this age, but they need support and guidance to do it safely. Open, supportive conversations – both before and after encountering online risks – are needed to build resilience. They are likely to bristle if parents seem to be judging or criticizing them or the things they enjoy.

Teach them to recognize the “red flags” that suggest someone online – whether it’s a person they met online or someone they already know offline – may be grooming them for a sexual relationship:

flattering them, especially about how they look
asking about times and places where they could meet or could communicate online in private
introducing sex or sexual topics into the conversation
sharing or offering to share sexual images, either pornography or pictures of the sender
asking them not to tell their parents or friends about a conversation or about the relationship.

You can give them some ways to leave a conversation quickly if any of they see any of those, like telling the person that you’re calling them. It’s also important that they know to tell you if an adult they know offline asks to contact them in a private online space.

Tweens’ increasing ability to see shades of grey means that approaches to media use and “screen time” should now focus on identifying more on less healthful and productive uses of media technology and recognizing the ways in which the design of media tools may promote unhealthful patterns of use. Ask your kids which media activities they feel better after doing, and which make them feel worse. Every child is different: some might be affected by just a small amount of something, while for others it might take a large amount and some might not be affected at all. We can help them reflect on which media activities are good or bad for them and in what amounts.

They still need boundaries and to know they can come to you, and they are often relieved when a trusted adult steps in to help solve a problem. (Seven in ten still think that their parents know more about technology than they do!) Rules should include both a general principle (for instance, “Respect people’s privacy online”) and specific examples (“Always ask before you share a photo of anyone.”) Reassure them that you won’t overreact if they come to you for help and talk to them about where (and who) they could get help if they can’t come to you.

Talking to kids after things have gone wrong – and helping them to deal with whatever has happened and find solutions – is also essential to helping them become resilient.

Additional Resources

For Parents

Break the Fake: Critical Thinking vs. Disinformation

Co-Viewing With Your Kids

Dealing with Fear and Media

Family Guidelines for New Tech Devices

Helping Kids Get a Healthy Start with Phones

Protecting Your Privacy on Commercial Apps and Websites

Talking to Kids About Advertising

Talking to Kids About Casual Prejudice Online

Talking to Kids About Gender Stereotypes

Talking to Kids About Media and Body Image

Talking to Your Kids About Pornography

Understanding the Rating Systems

Using Parental Controls

For Tweens

Break the Fake: How to Tell What’s True Online

Dealing with Digital Stress

Digital Citizenship: Building Empathy and Dealing with Conflict Online

Digital Citizenship: Ethics and Privacy

Digital Citizenship: Using Technology for Good

How to Search the Internet Effectively

What to Do If Someone is Mean to You Online

What Starts as a Joke Can End Up Hurting Someone

Media Safety Tips by Age:

Media Safety Tips: Teens

Julia — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 20:27:15 +0000

Media Safety Tips: Teens

Authenticating Information

Julia Mon, 01/06/2025 - 15:27

Tip Sheet

Media Safety Tips: Teens

While they’re not going through as much development as tweens, moving to high school at the beginning of this stage – and moving out of it at the end – can be stressful.

Two important ideas relating to teens are the imaginary audience and the personal fable. The imaginary audience makes them overestimate how much attention other people are paying to them. This makes them more self-conscious and leads them to think of privacy primarily in terms of impression management – trying to control how others see them. The personal fable makes teens see themselves as the main character of a story and, as a result, leads many to believe that bad things will simply not happen to them.

Teens are conscious of “real world” issues and are typically interested in helping to find solutions. They enjoy becoming competent in adult activities and demonstrating their skills.

Media risks

The risks that kids encounter in media fall into four categories:

Content risks, where kids are exposed to or engage with harmful content such as violence, hate, or sexualized media;

Conduct risks that come from what kids do or how they interact with other users;

Consumer risks related to money, advertising, and data collection;

And risks that come from being Contacted by other people.

Content

Teens engage more actively with media than younger children. They have a wider variety of activities and choose from a wider variety of media works, and are more likely to select media for themselves based on their own needs. At the same time, individual media choices are more significant to teens’ identities than they are for younger children.

Jane Brown’s Media Practice Model suggests there is a cycle in which teens’ own preferences and identities lead them to select and interact with particular media works. They then apply these media works to their views of themselves and the world, possibly copying or rejecting what they have seen. This leads to a further development of their identity, which further prompts selection of media works, and so on.

Social media has the biggest impact on boys’ happiness at the beginning (14-15) and end (19) of this period. It has less of an effect on girls at the beginning and middle, but its impact rises again at 19.

Gender role identity is particularly influenced by media at this age. While they are not passive recipients of media messages, they do often draw on media for sexual or romantic “scripts” to follow. This can include unhealthy romantic scripts (like possessiveness) or sexual scripts drawn from explicit media, including pornography.

They’re most likely to seek out mental health information and support at this age. They may look for content related to risky behaviour (drugs, tobacco, eating disorders, etc.) and may also have this content recommended to them by algorithms.

Conduct

Teens are not necessarily more likely to take risks that younger kids: They are exposed to more risks and are more influenced by peers than younger children. Labeling them as “stereotypical risk takers,” though, can actually make them more likely to take risks. They’re more confident in their identity than tweens, but as a result they may be more influenced by the groups or subcultures they’ve found a place in.

At this age they are starting to become aware of how the design of media tools affects how they use them, and the ways in which they can create difficulties in communication. They are very sensitive to the social signals sent by different app features (following, Liking, etc.). They develop strong social norms around their use and often feel obligations to friends and peers in relation to them. This can get in the way of getting enough sleep, as teens often feel they have to be available at all times to support or respond to their friends.

Contact

Teens’ peer groups are mostly settled and they are more influenced by their peers than adults. Kids who are shy or less confident may start to prefer spending time with people online rather than offline.

Many are starting to form romantic relationships, which can create a new set of challenges. They have learn appropriate boundaries when it comes to trust and privacy.

Kids this age are most likely to have met someone face-to-face that they first met on the internet (one in five have done so, compared to one in ten tweens and just one in twenty children under 11.) In most cases youth say this is a positive experience for them, but when it goes badly it can be very dangerous.

Consumer

Even well into the teen years, children still usually have a poor understanding of corporate data collection and its implications, as well as the long “shadow” that their online presence may cast. They focus on controlling known audiences (parents, friends, etc.) but generally don’t know what information about them apps and websites collect themselves, how long they store it, or what they can do with it.

They’re highly vulnerable to influencer marketing at this age. They may not realize how much the ads they see are influenced by their data profile.

Many teens are also exposed to gambling ads at this age but don’t understand the risks and costs of gambling.

Safety tips

There are four main strategies to help kids become resilient to online risks. We can:

Curate our kids’ media experiences;

Control who can access our kids and their data;

Co-view media with our kids;

and be our kids’ media Coaches.

Curate

Filters don’t work well at this age unless teens have been involved in setting them up. Almost half of teens take steps to avoid seeing pornography or other inappropriate content online, so it’s still useful to show them how to use filters themselves and to use search terms and content settings (for instance Restricted Mode on YouTube or TikTok). Make sure they know about good quality sources of information on healthy sexuality like SexandU (a resource provided by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada) and CBC’s About Sex. This is also the period where kids are likely to experience mental health issues, so make sure they know about mental health resources like Mind Your Mind and counselling services like Kids Help Phone.

Many social networks provide a safer experience for young teens by default, so it’s important to make sure that kids give their correct age when they register. You can also help teen learn how to get out of a “rabbit hole” of unhealthy content by making recommendation algorithms, like YouTube’s Up Next bar and TikTok’s For You page, forget what they know about you and training it to show you more healthful content.

You can also help them to opt out of having devices in their bedrooms at night: because they often feel obligated to stay in contact with their friends, they may appreciate it if you play the bad guy. If you ever change the rules about when devices are allowed, or take a device away as a consequence of their behaviour, give them a chance to let their friends know so others don’t think they are “ghosting” them.

Control

Review the privacy and data collection settings on their devices and apps. Remind them to do this any time they get a new device or download a new app. If they have an iPhone, go to Privacy settings, then Privacy & Security, then Tracking, and switch “Allow Apps to Request to Track” to Off. On an Android phone, download the DuckDuckGo app and turn on App Tracking Protection. Show your kids how to do this and explore together how you can limit data collection on other apps, browsers and websites.

Help them think about how they want future audiences to see them and start to build an “online resume” that highlights their hobbies, volunteer work, creativity, and so on.

Co-View

Though their independence is increasing, teens are more likely than parents to say they’re interested in shared online experiences!

Teens get a lot of their ideas about what relationships are supposed to be like from media. Make sure you're aware of what they're watching, playing and listening to and be ready to talk about ways that they depict romantic relationships and gender stereotypes. Kids who see either physically or psychologically abusive relationships in media are more likely to be abusive towards their partners. Talk to your kids about media portrayals of relationships and about gender stereotypes. Talking about gender roles can help youth to resist pressure from their partners and peers to do things like sending sexual photos to their partner or sharing them with their friends.

Kids this age often start to watch horror movies and other disturbing content on purpose, and are also likely to see upsetting material without looking for it. The more they understand about how media are made, are better able to deal with the experience, but they also need to know they can still come to you if they see something that makes them upset.

Coach

Teens need to learn how to judge risk and to recognize factors that make them more likely to engage in risky behaviour. Don’t start with the assumption that all teens are risk-takers or are unable to make good decisions: this can affect how they see themselves and lead them to take more risks than they would have otherwise. If they know a safe way to do something they want to do, teens will usually prefer that to a riskier way.

Don’t assume that kids don’t need guidance once they’re in their older teens! The end of the teen years is when social media has the most impact on kids’ happiness. This may be because it is another period of increased independence, or because there are often big changes in their offline social networks. This is also the period where they are most likely to want to make a positive difference online, so ask them how their favourite influencers or YouTubers have made a difference online (or offline). Talk about what things are seen as normal, or are rewarded, in their online spaces. Do they agree with them? If not, what can they do to change them?

Even in the teen years, household rules still make a difference in how kids behave online. These rules should be less about specific routines and procedures and focus more on values and general principles like “be kind to other people online” and “think twice before sharing a photo with anyone.” It’s also important to watch out for the “over-correct”: relaxing rules and then, after something goes wrong, putting in stricter ones. This will increase conflict with kids and make them less likely to respect the rules.

Teens are likely to overestimate both the risks and the possible benefits of any action. They also overestimate how many of their peers are doing the same thing. When talking to them about risk, focus on consequences that seem probable and directly relevant. British neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore gives as an example warning teens that smoking “give[s] you bad breath, or put[s] younger children in danger.” As they feel strongly about their newfound independence they “also respond to the idea that this is an adult industry that is exploiting them to make money.”

Make sure that teens understand what makes for a healthy and unhealthy relationship and the importance of not feeling pressured into doing things they don’t want to do – such as taking explicit pictures of themselves. Tell them that there is never any excuse for sharing an intimate or embarrassing photo or video without permission from the person in it.

Talk to them about why adults having sex or forming romantic relationships with underage adolescents is wrong and make sure they understand that online predators are often not “strangers,” but people they already know who will use digital tools to communicate privately with them. Help them recognize the “red flags” that suggest someone online – whether it’s a person they met online or someone they already know offline – may be grooming them for a sexual relationship:

flattering them, especially about how they look
asking about times and places where they could meet or could communicate online in private
introducing sex or sexual topics into the conversation
sharing or offering to share sexual images, either pornography or pictures of the sender
asking them not to tell their parents or friends about a conversation or about the relationship.

Teens are incredibly conscious of hypocrisy, so it’s as important as ever to make sure that your media use is setting a good example or them.

Additional Resources

For Parents

Break the Fake: Critical Thinking vs. Disinformation

Break the Fake: How to Tell What’s True Online

Building Your Brand: Establishing a Positive Presence Online

Communicating Safely Online

Co-Viewing With Your Kids

Dealing with Fear and Media

Family Guidelines for New Tech Devices

Protecting Your Privacy on Commercial Apps and Websites

Talking to Kids About Casual Prejudice Online

Talking to Kids About Gender Stereotypes

Talking to Kids About Hate Online

Talking to Your Kids About Pornography

Talking to Your Kids About Sexting

For Teens

Communicating Safely Online

Dealing with Digital Stress

Digital Citizenship: Ethics and Privacy

Digital Citizenship: Using Technology for Good

What Should I Do If Someone Sends Me a Sext?

Media Safety Tips by Age:

Media Safety Tips: Middle Childhood (6-9 years old)

Julia — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 19:42:26 +0000

Media Safety Tips: Middle Childhood (6-9 years old)

Digital Health

Internet & Mobile

Marketing & Consumerism

Julia Mon, 01/06/2025 - 14:42

Tip Sheet

Media Safety Tips: Middle Childhood (6-9 years old)

Students in the primary grades are already active users of digital technologies. While they are usually supervised when they go online there are still many issues that need to be considered. Over this period they start to integrate computers and the Internet into their daily lives. By the end they typically are highly active in games and virtual environments. They develop their ability to understand abstract concepts over this period, but these need to be introduced in the context of everyday activities. For instance, the importance of online privacy can be introduced by making them think of times or places in the home that they would want to keep private.

Media risks

The risks that kids encounter in media fall into four categories:

Content risks, where kids are exposed to or engage with harmful content such as violence, hate, or sexualized media;

Conduct risks that come from what kids do or how they interact with other users;

Consumer risks related to money, advertising, and data collection;

And risks that come from being Contacted by other people.

Content

Almost eight in ten children this age use YouTube, and a third use TikTok. They are much more likely than younger children to see inappropriate content, either online or in traditional media.

During this time children generally narrow their interests and enjoy getting better at different skills and topics. Two-thirds use the internet to learn more about their hobbies. Developing a high degree of skill or knowledge can become a source of status at this age. This may lead them to a broader range of apps and websites as they look for trivia or expert instruction.

Children at this age have the ability to understand the difference between fantasy and reality. They generally accurately identify clearly unreal texts like cartoons and texts that are meant to be taken as real, like news. However they are less sure about more realistic works. Anything that blurs the line between fact and fiction, like reality TV, will probably be taken as real.

They understand and respond to simple morals in media works, but more complex messages can be misunderstood. They give more weight to the behaviours that they see more often. For instance, if a character engages in a negative behaviour for most of a program and only behaves positively at the end. However, a short explanation that makes the message or moral explicit makes up the gap.

This is actually the age group that is most likely to be scared by things they see in media. Unlike younger children they’re aware of tension and can be scared of things that haven’t happened yet, especially when there are cues like frightening music.

Conduct

This is the age where habits around screen use are established. It is much easier to set good habits at this age than later on. Rules and routines can be set about when and where using devices is allowed, time limits, and so on

Kids at this age use digital platforms to talk to friends and family. One-third of children this age have been targets of cyberbullying. Half of those said it happened in an online game, while a quarter said it happened by text or message and a fifth said it happened on a social network. A third said they turn to their parents for help when that happens. One in five say they do nothing, to show the bully they aren’t hurt. Another fifth say they just hope it will stop.

They are gaining in their ability to manage their thinking and their emotions and to navigate more complex relationships. However, the need to fit in with the group is also becoming stronger. One in six kids this age have cyberbullied someone else. By far the most common way of doing this (71%) is calling someone a name, but one-sixth of cyberbullies have posted or shared an embarrassing photo.

The most common reason given for bullying someone was that they were “just joking around.” They’re less likely than older children to try to get back at someone who bullied them or because they were bored. Kids this age typically care strongly about fairness and equality and can develop empathy over this period if it is fostered and encouraged.

Contact

Many kids at this age use video sites with social networking elements like YouTube and TikTok. Between a fifth and a quarter use social networks such as Instagram of Snapchat. Many also play online multiplayer games like Roblox or Fortnite where they may come in contact with people they don’t know offline. Just over half have their own smartphone.

Kids at this age have a more complex understanding of privacy than younger ones. They are considerably more likely to share personal content with their friends, but less likely to share it with people in general. While this makes them more protective of their privacy overall, it also means that they may share personal information with an online contact they see as a friend.

One in five have been send something that made them uncomfortable by someone online. When this happens, they are most likely (71%) to tell a parent or guardian. Half block the person who did this.

Consumer

At this age kids are able to begin to understand that apps, websites, games, etc. are all connected. They are starting to understand the idea of sensitive data or personally identifying information. You can help them understand this by talking about private spaces (like the bathroom) or things they would not want anyone to know about (such as times they were mean to someone or told a lie).

They are starting to understand the risks of sharing information online, but still mostly trust others -including apps and websites - to respect their privacy. “Privacy” is still thought of in very concrete terms like phones number, address, and so on. They don’t understand that things like their searches or that what they do online can be seen by others and influence what content they see.

Many apps and games aimed at kids this age include online purchases. Kids may feel social pressure to buy these, and the app itself may pressure them as well. (Some apps have characters encouraging kids to buy things, or show characters being sad if they don’t.)

They can start to learn about copyright and fair dealing. This is a time when ethical use of online content becomes increasingly relevant as they are beginning to use the internet for school research projects.

Safety tips

There are four main strategies to help kids become resilient to online risks. We can:

Curate our kids’ media experiences;

Control who can access our kids and their data;

Co-view media with our kids;

and be our kids’ media Coaches.

Curate

Take the time to research any new game or app before you let them download it, even if it’s free. Let them have more time for online activities that are educational, creative, active or genuinely social.

Good quality media can build knowledge and literacy. Help them find appropriate media for school and personal needs and use tools like bookmarks, playlists, and custom search engines to limit unwanted exposure to inappropriate content. Internet filtering is helpful, but what’s most important is helping your child find reliable and appropriate sources of information and entertainment.

Most children at this age never go beyond the first page of results during a search. Similarly, they do not know how searches or content is curated or delivered. They can begin to identify journalism genres, recognize newspaper structure and sections, understand the newsroom organization: who does what, deadlines, daily routine. They can also start to become familiar with basic journalistic standards.

It’s easy for parents to overestimate the ability of children this age to deal with frightening or disturbing content. Be particularly careful when they are sharing media with older siblings.

Three-quarters of kids get their first phone during this stage. In most cases, it is because their parents wanted to be able to call or text them. Before choosing to give a child a phone, think about whether or not they understand the rules and values you expect them to follow when they’re using it. If you choose not to give them a phone, go over strategies they can use to reach you if they ever need to. (These will also come in handy when they’re older if their phone runs out of power.) You can also give them a “dumb” phone that doesn’t have apps or internet access. Remember that to kids, a phone means more independence. That means if the phone doesn’t give them more freedom online, it should mean more freedom offline (like being able to go places or make plans with friends on their own.)

Control

In general, kids at this age are less likely to use privacy settings than older youth. It’s important to investigate the privacy controls of any apps or other tools they use, to start these off at the strictest levels, and to start to teach them how to manage their own privacy.

Use messaging or video-chat apps so that your kids can talk to their friends when gaming, without having to use the game’s chat system.

Kids at this age who have phones are less likely to have data plans than older children and more likely to rely on Wi-Fi. Scammers sometimes set up fake Wi-Fi networks with names like “Library Network” so they can spy on users, so you should help your kids find sources of secure public Wi-Fi and make sure they recognize the legitimate network.

Co-View

Co-viewing (and co-playing) with family members and friends can be a positive social experience, but kids this age still need prompting and encouragement to critically engage with media content. When you’re watching or playing with kids, don’t be afraid to use the Pause button so you can talk about anything that makes you uncomfortable – or to point out positive examples.

It can be an eye-opener for children to realize that all media are written and created by people with their own biases and experiences, as well as the media the creators themselves have seen. Understanding that media are not “windows on reality” but instead the result of choices that media creators made has a big effect on media’s impact on kids.

You can point out the people who were involved in making a media work that you’re co-viewing: How did their choices — about what was included, what was left out, and how things were presented — affect its impact? Making media can be a great activity to do together, too, and helps them understand that all media were made by people.

Ask kids whether they think their favourite YouTuber, streamer or influencer was paid to promote a particular game, toy or other product: “Do you think she was paid to unbox that? If not, do you think the company gave it to her for free? Would that change what you think about it?”

Children this age still benefit from physical reassurance after seeing something frightening. It’s also possible to help them understand that a media work isn’t real and to recognize conventions – such as the idea that the hero always wins in the end – that will let them put a frightening image or moment into perspective. It can also help to talk about the ways that media create tension or provoke fear (like frightening music) so they can recognize when it’s being used.

Coach

Kids this age may seem tech-savvy, but eight in ten still think their parents know more about tech than they do. Establish and clearly communicate rules about using devices and about what kids can, should, and should not do online. They understand the reasons behind rules but, at the same time, are more likely than younger children to push back against rules they don’t think are reasonable, so make sure the rules are practical and reflect values instead of being arbitrary.

It's also important to revisit rules you established earlier on and remind them to come to you if anything unpleasant happens to them online.

This is also a stage where children begin communicating more with offline friends through digital means such as instant messaging, but they need to learn coping mechanisms and explicitly learn and practice how to deal with the absence of emotional cues in that medium. Remind them to pay attention to things like tension and heart rate to identify what they’re feeling when using media. Help them develop conscious strategies for avoiding, minimizing, and resolving conflict online like assuming the best about the other person, talking things out in person and taking a break before responding.

Digital parenting expert Devorah Heitner suggests asking these questions:

What would you do if you’re on a group text and someone says they want to restart the group text without you?
What will you do if someone says something mean about a teacher or another friend?
What could you say to a friend who is texting you too much, and you need a break?

Additional Resources

For Parents

Co-Viewing With Your Kids

Dealing with Fear and Media

Family Guidelines for New Tech Devices

Four Tips for Managing Your Kids’ Screen Time

Helping Kids Get a Healthy Start with Phones

Protecting Your Privacy on Commercial Apps and Websites

Talking to Kids About Advertising

Understanding the Rating Systems

Using Parental Controls

For Kids

Break the Fake: How to Tell What’s True Online

Digital Citizenship: Building Empathy and Dealing with Conflict Online

How to Search the Internet Effectively

How to Be an Active Witness

What to Do If Someone is Mean to You Online

Media Safety Tips by Age:

What is AI?

Julia — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:58:59 +0000

What is AI?

Authenticating Information

Internet & Mobile

Privacy

Julia Wed, 10/16/2024 - 14:58

Guide

What is AI? A Guide

You’ve probably heard the phrase “AI” before. You might have seen news stories about the amazing things that it can do, like creating images or videos in minutes or carrying on what seem like real human conversations. AI has been described as a “game changer” for people with disabilities,[1] making it possible to automate tasks that otherwise would have been hugely time-consuming. AI chatbots have also been found to make people less lonely.[2] But what is AI, exactly, and what issues should I be watching out for? What are the benefits and what are the risks?

This guide provides an overview of what AI is – and in particular Generative AI – and gives two examples of main AI tools you are likely to encounter. Then it explains some key ethical and social issues related to Generative AI.

What exactly is AI?

AI (artificial intelligence) is a way of using computer algorithms to do things with little or no human involvement.

An algorithm is basically a series of steps or instructions for doing something. AI algorithms aren’t programmed but trained. This means they’re given a data set to learn from, such as a collection of millions of pictures or written texts. They find patterns or connections in the data set and use those to solve the problem they’ve been programmed to solve.

“You don’t need to produce a precise list of instructions and communicate them… You give the machine data, a goal and feedback when it’s on the right track – and leave it to work out the best way of achieving the end.” Hannah Fry, Hello World

AI algorithms are much more powerful and flexible than algorithms that are written by humans, but they’re also harder to analyze and to understand. While we might know what data goes into the algorithm, and we can see what is produced by them, we can’t easily tell the process between the two. This is why AI is sometimes referred to as a “black box.” Because the most sophisticated ones are able to change and adapt over time, even the people who make and operate them may not fully know how they work.

Even though AI isn’t programmed in the traditional way, people are still a necessary piece of the training process. They give feedback by rating the quality of answers, captioning or annotating things in the data set, or testing to make sure that it doesn’t produce graphic, violent or other inappropriate content.[3] AI “seems so human because it was trained by an AI that was mimicking humans who were rating an AI that was mimicking humans who were pretending to be a better version of an AI that was trained on human writing.”[4]

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI is what we call AI systems that can generate things like images, video, voice and text. They do this by first encoding many examples of the kind of content they’re going to make, and then decoding to make something new.[5]

From the user’s point of view, using generative AI starts with providing what’s called a prompt: a description of what you want the AI to generate (a text, image, video, piece of music, et cetera.) These can be very simple (such as “an apple”) or may include instructions about how to make it (such as “an apple in the pointillistic style of Cezanne”). Prompts can also put limits on what the AI can do or ask it to take on a particular role.

Let’s look at the two most common examples of generative AI:

Chatbots

Chatbots, which can produce written text, answer questions, and even carry on conversations, are based on a kind of AI called a large language model.

What does that mean? Let’s go through the three words in reverse order.

Model: Like other machine learning algorithms, most of what chatbots can do isn’t programmed, but instead come from being trained on large amounts of writing. They find patterns in these to create a model of how language works.

Language: Chatbots can read and write fluently at the level of sentences, paragraphs and even full articles. They do this mostly by using what are called transformers to look at how similar or different words are in different ways or “dimensions.”

For example, if we were to consider just two dimensions, roundness and redness, the transformer would see an apple and a fire truck might be very far apart on roundness but close together on redness, while a baseball would be close to the apple in terms of roundness but far away in redness.

Transformers make guesses by “looking” along different dimensions: if it started at “king” and looked further away along the “female” dimension it would see “queen,” while if it looked down the youth dimension it might see “prince,” and looking in both directions might lead to “princess.”

This lets the AI make better guesses about what words should follow each other based on other parts of the sentence or paragraph. For example, if you were to write “Frida had a drink of chocolate,” a simpler algorithm like autocomplete might always suggest that the next word after “chocolate” should be “chips,” because that’s what follows it most often in the training set. On the other hand, if you asked a chatbot “What kind of chocolate did Frida drink?” the transformer might spot the word “drink” and then look from “chocolate” along the liquid dimension and find that the nearest word in that direction was “milk.”

Large: Chatbots are able to mimic real language and conversations because of the enormous size of their training set and the number of operations (guesses) they can make. One popular chatbot, for example, was trained on a data set of around 500 billion words. In this case, each word is given a value in up to 96 dimensions (like “redness” or “roundness”) with the chatbot doing more than 9000 operations every time it guesses a new word.[6]

Media Generators

AI tools that create media like images, videos and speech work in a similar way to chat AIs, by being trained on data sets. In fact, many of them have large language models built in: if you give the prompt “Make a picture of a family having breakfast,” for instance, the image will probably include glasses of orange juice because the transformer understands that orange juice is “near” breakfast.

To actually make media, though, they use another kind of AI, called a diffusion model.

This works by starting with real images and then adding more and more noise – basically, random changes – until the original is completely lost. This is called diffusion.

The model then tries reverse diffusion: thousands or even millions of different possible ways of undoing that noise. Each try is compared to the original image, and the model changes itself a little bit each time based on how successful it was.

Eventually, when it can totally recreate the original, the model has a “seed” – a way of making new images like it. By learning how to de-noise this back to the original, the model also learns how to make new, similar images.

When you ask one of these models to make you a picture of an orange, for instance, it draws on orange “seeds” – all of the different images of oranges in its training set that have been through that process.

AI issues - What to Look Out For

There’s no question that generative AI is a powerful tool that is likely to have major impacts on our lives, ranging from the classroom, at the office and at home. There are both important benefits and risks. Below we describe some key areas where AI is making an impact.

Information

Chatbots may be effective in reducing belief in conspiracy theories, by giving accurate information and counterarguments that are seen as coming from an objective source.[7] People may also be better able at spotting their own biases when they’re reflected by AIs that were trained on their decisions.[8] At the same time, generative AI tools can sometimes be used to produce intentionally misleading content, ranging from websites and social network pages that use imaginary news stories and images to draw traffic[9],[10] to conspiracy theories and political disinformation.[11] This content has been found to be highly persuasive,[12] especially if human operators put a small amount of time and effort into improving it.[13] A 2023 study found that more than half of people thought they had seen false or misleading AI-made content over the past six months, and roughly the same number were not sure whether they would recognize AI-made disinformation if they saw it or not.[14] Chatbots also frequently reproduce popular misconceptions, such as the false belief that Black people have thicker skin than White people.[15]

“Hallucinations” are also important to watch out for. This happens when the model makes up false or inaccurate information. For instance, when chatbots are asked to give references for their answers, they will often make up books and authors. As Subodha Kumar of Temple University puts it, “the general public using [AI] now doesn’t really know how it works. It creates links and references that don’t exist, because it is designed to generate content.”[16]

Another chatbot consistently gave incorrect answers to questions about election processes.[17] As with intentional disinformation, people are likely to believe these hallucinations and wrong answers because chatbots don’t show any doubt or uncertainty.[18]Chatbots may also give users accurate but dangerous or inappropriate information. While most have “guardrails” to prevent this, research has found that these are imperfect and fairly easy to get around: one chatbot, for instance, told a user it thought was 15 years old how to cover up the smell of alcohol.[19]

The greatest risk, though, may not be that people will be misinformed but that we will become less willing to believe that anything is real.[20] As fake images become more sophisticated, the old hallmarks like uneven features or extra fingers will disappear, and it will become almost impossible to tell a true image from a fake one just by looking at it.

Focus on: Deepfakes

A deepfake is when an image of a real person is made this way. Sometimes this can be done just for fun, like the “digital doubles” of actors used in movies, but they can also do a lot of harm if they seem to show somebody doing something embarrassing or offensive. While the cases that have made headlines have involved celebrities, what’s much more common is the use of deepfake technology to create nonconsensual pornography, almost always using images of women. These often have traumatic effects on the people (mostly women) pictured in the image or video, and compounding the problem is that some people who make and share these may mistakenly believe them to be harmless because they “aren’t real.”[21] (Others, of course, deliberately intend to hurt the person whose image they have manipulated.) Although deepfakes of celebrities receive the most attention, tools for making pornographic deepfakes of anyone are now widely available.[22]

“It's super frustrating because it's not you, and you want people to believe it's not you, and even if they know it's not you, it's still embarrassing… I’m humiliated. My parents are humiliated." – 16-year-old victim of an intimate deepfake

Young people need to understand that intimate deepfakes aren’t “victimless” and do harm to the people portrayed. One strategy that platforms such as Meta are using to limit the spread and impact of deepfakes and other misleading AI-made images is watermarking them.[23] This means adding an icon, label or pattern to show that it was made with AI. So far, though, there are no watermarking techniques that can’t be removed – or added to real images and videos to discredit them.[24] As a result, Sam Gregory, executive director at the human rights organization Witness, describes watermarking as “a kind of harm reduction” rather than a single solution.[25]

Bias

Because AI image generators are trained more on stock photos than on actual photos, the images they generate reflect the conscious and unconscious choices of the stock photo companies. As a result, these algorithms not only reflect existing biases but can potentially be even more biased than the real world.

Images made by generative AI may reflect the stereotypes found in the training images: for example, images of people doing housework made by some models almost exclusively feature women[26] and giving some models the prompt “Native American” produces images of people all wearing traditional headdresses.[27] Even when not falling into stereotypes, generative AI tends to present a narrow picture of historically marginalized groups.[28]

Some research suggests, however, bias in AI’s responses can be improved by diversifying the training set: one study found that adding just a thousand extra images (to a model of more than two billion) significantly reduced the number of stereotyped or inaccurate results.[29]

Academic Integrity

AI can be used effectively and responsibly in the classroom, for things ranging from giving students feedback to role-playing things like job interviews, but it is important that kids understand the ethics of using it. While three-quarters of teachers say that AI has affected academic integrity,[30]research suggests that the arrival of AI has not led to more plagiarism.[31] Students also recognize that relying too heavily on AI could prevent them from learning important skills,[32] and those who frequently use AI are more likely to procrastinate.[33] The reasons why students use AI to cheat do so for the same reasons identified in earlier research on plagiarism: when they are under time pressure or a heavy academic workload.[34]

Unfortunately, tools for detecting AI-generated text both often fail to identify it and mis-identify text that was not made with AI.[35] Youth who are not writing in their first language are particularly likely to have their work mis-identified as being made by AI.[36] Rather than relying on detection tools, therefore, teachers and parents need to teach students how to use AI ethically and to be clear about which uses are unethical.

Privacy and Parasociality

Chatbots may mostly be a source of entertainment, but they can also be used to give feedback (if prompted to act as a “Devil’s advocate” or “sober second thought”) and can help to reduce stress and worry.[37] Many people find chatbots to be helpful and supportive. If they were designed or overseen by mental health professionals, they can even be effective as part of therapy, particularly for people who may be less likely to go to a human therapist.[38]

There are, however, risks that chatbots can give inaccurate or even dangerous advice.[39] This is particularly likely with chatbots that were not created by trained psychotherapists as part of an organized therapy program. While chatbots can’t actually experience empathy, research suggests that we are prone to think of them as being empathetic, especially if we’re prompted or “primed” to do so.[40] Young people who turn to chatbots for companionship may develop unrealistic expectations of relationships as well as misleading “scripts” of how they expect future partners to behave – and how future partners will expect them to behave.[41]

Things that you tell a chatbot may be used to help train it, and – depending on the tool’s privacy policy – may also be sold to data brokers, shared with the owner’s corporate partners, or used to customize your social network feeds and target you with ads. Even if the information is just stored but not shared or used, it may be exposed if the tool is breached by hackers.[42] The parasocial relationships that we form with chatbots may make us vulnerable to being manipulated into giving up more information than we otherwise would – and the chatbot may have been optimized to make us do so even without the direct intent of its makers’. And because chatbots have been trained on our highly personal data, such as our social network posts or search engine queries, and may seem to already know so much about us there is a risk that we will not think it’s worth taking any steps to protect our privacy.[43]

What’s next?

Like all technologies, AI influences how we use it, but we can always choose to use it safely and responsibly. Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or both, you can use the information in this guide - and in our companion guides Talking to Kids About AI and Addressing AI in the Classroom - to empower young people to use AI positively, critically and responsibly.

[1] Aquino, S.(2024) AI could be a game changer for people with disabilities. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/08/23/1096607/ai-people-with-disabilities-accessibility

[2] De Freitas, J., Uguralp, A. K., Uguralp, Z. O., & Stefano, P. (2024). AI Companions Reduce Loneliness. arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.19096.

[3] Hao, K., & Seetharaman D. (2023) Cleaning Up ChatGPT Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers. The Wall Street Journal.

[4] Dzieza, J. (2023) AI Is A Lot of Work. New York. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-humans-technology-business-factory.html

[5] Murgia, M. (2023) Transformers: the Google scientists who pioneered an AI revolution. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/37bb01af-ee46-4483-982f-ef3921436a50

[6] Lee, T., & Trott S. (2023) Large language models explained with a minimum of math and jargon. Understanding AI. https://www.understandingai.org/p/large-language-models-explained-with

[7] Costello, T. H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2024). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI.

[8] Celiktutan, B., Cadario, R., & Morewedge, C. K. (2024). People see more of their biases in algorithms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(16), e2317602121.

[9] Eastin, T., & Abraham S. (2024) The Digital Masquerade: Unmasking AI’s Phantom Journalists. https://www.ajeastin.com/home/publications/digital-masquerade

[10] DiResta, R., & Goldstein, J. A. (2024). How Spammers and Scammers Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth. arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.12838.

[11] Chopra, A., & Pigman A. (2024) Monsters, asteroids, vampires: AI conspiracies flood TikTok. Agence France Presse. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240318-monsters-asteroids-vampires-ai-conspiracies-flood-tiktok

[12] Spitale, G., Biller-Andorno, N., & Germani, F. (2023). AI model GPT-3 (dis) informs us better than humans. Science Advances, 9(26), eadh1850.

[13] Goldstein, J. A., Chao, J., Grossman, S., Stamos, A., & Tomz, M. (2024). How persuasive is AI-generated propaganda?. PNAS nexus, 3(2), page034.

[14] Maru Public Opinion. (2023) Media Literacy in the Age of AI. Canadian Journalism Foundation. https://cjf-fjc.ca/media-literacy-in-the-age-of-ai/

[15] Omiye, J. A., Lester, J. C., Spichak, S., Rotemberg, V., & Daneshjou, R. (2023). Large language models propagate race-based medicine. NPJ Digital Medicine, 6(1), 195.

[16] Chiu, J. (2023) ChatGPT is generating fake news stories — attributed to real journalists. I set out to separate fact from fiction. The Toronto Star.

[17] Angwin, J., Nelson A. & Palta R. (2024) Seeking Reliable Election Information? Don’t Trust AI. Proof News. https://www.proofnews.org/seeking-election-information-dont-trust-ai/

[18] Kidd, C., & Birhane, A. (2023). How AI can distort human beliefs. Science, 380(6651), 1222-1223.

[19] Pratt, N., Madhavan, R., & Weleff, J. (2024). Digital Dialogue—How Youth Are Interacting With Chatbots. JAMA Pediatrics.

[20] Dance, W. (2023) Addressing Algorithms in Disinformation. Crest Security Review.

[21] Ruiz, R. (2024) What to do if someone makes a deepfake of you. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/ai-deepfake-porn-what-victims-can-do

[22] Maiberg, E. (2024) ‘IRL Fakes:’ Where People Pay for AI-Generated Porn of Normal People. 404. https://www.404media.co/irl-fakes-where-people-pay-for-ai-generated-porn-of-normal-people/

[23] Reuters. (2024) Facebook and Instagram to label digitally altered content ‘made with AI’. The Guardian.

[24] Saberi, M., Sadasivan, V. S., Rezaei, K., Kumar, A., Chegini, A., Wang, W., & Feizi, S. (2023). Robustness of ai-image detectors: Fundamental limits and practical attacks. arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.00076.

[25] Kelly, M. (2023) Watermarks aren’t the silver bullet for AI misinformation. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/31/23940626/artificial-intelligence-ai-digital-watermarks-biden-executive-order

[26] Tiku, N., Schaul K. & Chen S.Y. (2023) AI generated images are biased, showing the world through stereotypes. The Washington Post.

[27] Heikkilä, M. (2023) These new tools let you see for yourself how biased AI image models are. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/22/1070167/these-news-tool-let-you-see-for-yourself-how-biased-ai-image-models-are/

[28] Rogers, R. (2024) Here's How Generative AI Depicts Queer People. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-lgbtq-representation-openai-sora/

[29] Stokel-Walker, C. (2024) Showing AI just 1000 extra images reduced AI-generated stereotypes. New Scientist.

[30] Robert, J. (2024) AI Landscape Study. EDUCAUSE. https://library.educause.edu/resources/2024/2/2024-educause-ai-landscape-study

[31] Singer, N. (2023) Cheating Fears Over Chatbots Were Overblown, New Research Suggests. The New York Times.

[32] Pratt, N., Madhavan, R., & Weleff, J. (2024). Digital Dialogue—How Youth Are Interacting With Chatbots. JAMA Pediatrics.

[33] Abbas, M., Jam, F. A., & Khan, T. I. (2024). Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 21(1), 10.

[34] Abbas, M., Jam, F. A., & Khan, T. I. (2024). Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 21(1), 10.

[35]Perkins, M., Roe, J., Vu, B. H., Postma, D., Hickerson, D., McGaughran, J., & Khuat, H. Q. (2024). GenAI Detection Tools, Adversarial Techniques and Implications for Inclusivity in Higher Education. arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.19148.

[36] Liang, W., Yuksekgonul, M., Mao, Y., Wu, E., & Zou, J. (2023). GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers. Patterns, 4(7).

[37] Meng, J., & Dai, Y. (2021). Emotional support from AI chatbots: Should a supportive partner self-disclose or not?. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 26(4), 207-222.

[38] Habicht, J., Viswanathan, S., Carrington, B., Hauser, T. U., Harper, R., & Rollwage, M. (2024). Closing the accessibility gap to mental health treatment with a personalized self-referral Chatbot. Nature Medicine, 1-8.

[39] Robb, A. (2024) ‘He checks in on me more than my friends and family’: can AI therapists do better than the real thing? The Guardian.

[40] Pataranutaporn, P., Liu, R., Finn, E., & Maes, P. (2023). Influencing human–AI interaction by priming beliefs about AI can increase perceived trustworthiness, empathy and effectiveness. Nature Machine Intelligence, 5(10), 1076-1086.

[41] Hinduja, S. (2024) Teens and AI: Virtual Girlfriend and Virtual Boyfriend Bots. Cyberbullying Research Center. https://cyberbullying.org/teens-ai-virtual-girlfriend-boyfriend-bots

[42] Caltrider, J., Rykov M. & MacDonald Z. (2024) Happy Valentine’s Day! Romantic AI Chatbots Don’t Have Your Privacy at Heart. Privacy Not Included. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/happy-valentines-day-romantic-ai-chatbots-dont-have-your-privacy-at-heart/

[43] Gumusel, E., Zhou, K. Z., & Sanfilippo, M. R. (2024). User Privacy Harms and Risks in Conversational AI: A Proposed Framework. arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.09716.

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Disclaimer: Meta provides financial support to MediaSmarts. This guide has been developed in collaboration between Meta and MediaSmarts. MediaSmarts does not endorse any commercial entity, product or service. No endorsement is implied.

Addressing AI in the Classroom: Tips for Teachers

Julia — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 17:21:12 +0000

Addressing AI in the Classroom: Tips for Teachers

Authenticating Information

Internet & Mobile

Privacy

Julia Wed, 10/16/2024 - 13:21

Tip Sheet

Addressing AI in the Classroom: Tips for Teachers

Teachers can play a critical role in educating their students about AI, even if they aren’t experts on it. By addressing AI in ways that are designed to build students’ skills and teach them about the pitfalls of relying too much on it, teachers can help build the next generation of citizens who are empowered with the skills necessary to succeed in a world infused with AI technology.

Teachers don’t have to feel nervous about AI in the classroom – but we do need to know more about it: just a third of teachers say they’ve been given training on how students can use AI responsibly.[1]

We also know that students want to learn more about AI and chatbots and are looking for clearer guidelines on how they can use them more effectively and ethically.

While it is important for teachers and students to understand how AI works, and the issues that come with using it, the utility of AI depends on its user as much as the AI itself. As much as we have to acknowledge its limitations and implications, AI can be a useful tool if it is used critically and responsibly.

While AI tools can be helpful for learning, they can also decrease learning effectiveness depending on how they’re used. If students just copy and paste together AI-provided results, not only will they not learn anything but it will hurt their independence and autonomy.

Self-directed learning involves setting learning goals and plans independently, managing and evaluating one’s own learning processes, and taking responsibility for the learning outcomes. AI can help students learn as well as to set learning goals and plans, and evaluate progress.

Using generative AI, students can engage in one-on-one learning sessions. While we have to teach students the limitations of AI, it can play a valuable rule by allowing students to do things like:

Brainstorming topics for an assignment[2]
Suggesting improvements to a piece of student writing[3]
Refine research questions and narrow or expand topics[4]
Explaining a concept to them[5]
Making changes to a text (e.g. “rewrite to be more concise,” “rewrite so a small child could understand it”) and then analyzing the differences[6]
Writing a resume or business letter[7]
Play “devil’s advocate” or help them spot errors in their reasoning and question their assumptions[8]
Role-play situations like job interviews

In courses where the mechanics of writing are not being graded, AI can also be used to level the playing field for English as a Second Language students[9] or students with some disabilities.[10] Image generators can also be used to make custom artwork for student projects in courses where they are not being assessed on their artistic skills.

Here are some specific ideas for how you can use AI in the classroom:

Improving Questioning Skills:

In the AI era, having the ability to think critically and creatively is more important than possessing a large amount of knowledge, making the skill of asking questions increasingly valuable. While the internet is used for searching, using generative AI requires asking questions, which can help train the skill of questioning.

The ability to ask questions depends on how deeply and diversely one can inquire, so it is essential for students to increase both the depth and breadth of questions they can pose. One method of using generative AI for questioning is to start with a single question and then follow up with additional questions step-by-step in a chain-like manner.

An example of asking progressively deeper questions is the following:

1) 'What is the lifespan of a cat?'
2) 'Is there a difference in lifespan between house cats and wild cats?'
3) 'What are the significant reasons for the lifespan differences?'
4) 'Among these reasons, which is the most significant?'

An example of asking progressively broader is the following:

1) 'What is the lifespan of a cat?'
2) 'What is the lifespan of a dog?'
3) 'In the feline and canine animal families combined, which species has the longest lifespan?'
4) 'Which mammal has the longest lifespan?'

By asking generative AI these types of questions, students can develop their ability to think both deeply and broadly.

You can make writing prompts for AI a classroom exercise. Like search engine queries, most prompts don’t include enough information to take full advantage of the tool. Create a class account for a chatbot (you can use an anonymous email service like Protonmail or SharkLasers to register) and have students write a prompt that includes:

The chatbot’s role (this could be a specific one, such as taking on the personality or point of view of a historical figure or a fictional character, or a broad role such as a mentor or research assistant);
The purpose of the prompt (e.g. to give feedback, to share experiences, to play devil’s advocate, et cetera);
The desired qualities of the response (e.g. helpful, challenging, encouraging, et cetera);
Any constraints or limitations on the response (things the chatbot should not do, e.g. “Do not refer to anything that happened after 1800,” “Do not give me the answer directly.”); and
The intended audience (the grade level, the subject, language level, et cetera.)[11]

These can be used at the beginning of a conversation with a chatbot as well as a single response.

Enhancing Debate Skills: Students can improve their debating skills by using generative AI to take on pro and con positions on specific topics. Students can conduct mock debates by presenting arguments from each perspective and offering counterarguments. This practice can help enhance their debating abilities.

Language Learning: Traditionally, language learning has relied on methods such as paper books, video lectures, and phone-based language learning. However, recently, useful language learning apps equipped with AI technology have emerged, enabling personalized learning. Generative AI is capable of conversation, making it useful for learning any language through dialogue. Additionally, the increasing number of programs that let users interact using their voices greatly aids in practicing speaking skills.

Using AI as a Creative Tool:

Writing: Students can use generative AI to write various types of content such as novels, poems, and blog posts. AI can help with everything from brainstorming topics and themes to improving structure and grammar, as well as correcting typos. Using generative AI as an assistant – not a crutch – can enhance your writing skills.
Image, Graphic Creation, and Design: Students can use simple text descriptions with generative AI to create images and modify them into desired styles and formats.
Music Composition: Generative AI has made composing, arranging, and performing music significantly more accessible.
Video Production and Editing: AI can be used for various aspects of video production, including audio, subtitles, editing, and graphics. Technological advancements have reached a point where entering text can result in a complete video making it easier to express yourself!

Generative AI can be particularly useful when students are making media in a course that is not about making media, such as if they want to make a poster in History class or put a song to music in English class. It’s important to be clear with students what parts of an exercise or assignment can be done with AI and which cannot. Like a calculator, what students are allowed to do with AI will depend on their grade levels: in the same way, you can let them use it to automate skills they have already mastered.[12]

Thinking Critically About AI

Students should also be encouraged to think critically about AI by exploring issues like stereotyping, misinformation, privacy, parasociality and ethics.

“We need to find some sort of balance between ‘AI is going to rule the world’ and ‘AI is going to end the world.’ But that will be impossible to find without using AI in the classroom and talking about it at school.” Isabella Iturrate, 12^th-grader[13]

Identifying Misinformation:

Generative AI can produce both misinformation and intentional disinformation. Unfortunately, just warning people about the risk of AI disinformation doesn’t help them spot it. In fact, it makes them more likely to think that real content is fake.[14]

When students are considering whether something might be a deepfake, encourage them not to rely on evidence inside an image or video itself, like an image including humans with extra fingers: image generators’ ability to correct these is improving quickly. We also tend to be more skeptical of things we don’t want to believe are true, and almost any any photo or video will have some elements that let us dismiss it as a deepfake if we want to.

“Telling people to be skeptical is only the starting point. The harder question is how to decide what to trust. If we can’t rely on the content itself, the trustworthiness of the source becomes much more important.”[15]

Instead, teach students the information sorting techniques taught in MediaSmarts’ Break the Fake program:

For example, using a reverse image search like Tineye can tell you quickly where a photo first appeared. That may not tell you if it’s a deepfake, but if it didn’t come from a reliable source that’s a reason to think it’s not real.

Looking for what other people say about a source (for instance, whether it has a Wikipedia entry, or if it’s linked to by reliable sources) tells you more than what a source says about itself.

Consulting fact-checkers and sources that you already know to be reliable (like legitimate news outlets) can also help sort fact from AI-fiction.

Help students understand how AI works and how that informs our understanding of how they “know” and “decide” things.[16]

Have students contrast generative AI with other sources of online and offline information. For example, what are the similarities and differences between a chatbot and a search engine? How is it different from Wikipedia? In each case, consider the processes by which information is constructed and whether we can consider it a “source.”

Have students ask a chatbot a question on a topic you’ve covered in class, then have them rate the response.[17] How accurate and representative is it? Does it give equally good answers when you change the prompt? (Many chatbots will correct common misconceptions if asked about them directly, but repeat them if the prompt is not specifically about them. For instance, a chatbot asked whether people in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat correctly identified that as a myth, but listed sailing off the edge of the Earth as an example of something Columbus’s sailors might have worried about.)

Personal ethics:

Students need to understand that intimate deepfakes aren’t “victimless” and do harm to the people portrayed. MediaSmarts’ research found that youth who share sexts without the original sender’s consent justify what they’re doing through moral disengagement mechanisms like denying the harm of what they’re doing. The lesson There’s No Excuse addresses this. The same goes for “prank” images or videos of people doing embarrassing things.

Academic ethics:

Help your students understand what plagiarism is and how it applies to AI.[18] If your school doesn’t already have a policy about using AI, have your class develop one together. Make a chart with examples of acceptable and unacceptable uses so they understand the difference.[19]

Don’t rely on AI detection or assessment tools. If you do use them, make them only one part of the academic honesty process and be aware that they frequently make mistakes.[20]

Have students document and show their process. One option is to have them use an online word processor that tracks changes made to the draft. By checking the version history, you can see if it was written over time or pasted in all at once (as it would be if it had been written by a chatbot.)[21]

Think about how AI can be integrated into process steps, instead of used to make finished work.[22]

If you allow students to use AI in their work, have them include their prompts and link to the results.[23]

Use a broader variety of assessment tools, including in-class writing and media-making.[24] Focus on having students demonstrate understanding and applied skills instead of rote learning.[25]

Teach students to cite and reference their sources. Explain that just like a search engine or an encyclopedia, chatbots should be seen as links to sources rather than sources themselves.[26] Have students double-check the sources and citations in any result they get from a chatbot, to make sure that they really exist and that they are accurately reflected in the text.

[1] Dwyer, M., & Laird E. (2024) Up in the Air: Educators Juggling the Potential of Generative AI with Detection, Discipline and Distrust. Center for Democracy & Technology.

[2] Frank, D., & Johnson J.K. (2024) Working Alongside, Not Against, AI Writing Tools in the Composition Classroom: a Dialectical Retrospective. In Teaching and Generative AI. https://uen.pressbooks.pub/teachingandgenerativeai/front-matter/forweword/

[3] Frank, D., & Johnson J.K. (2024) Working Alongside, Not Against, AI Writing Tools in the Composition Classroom: a Dialectical Retrospective. In Teaching and Generative AI. https://uen.pressbooks.pub/teachingandgenerativeai/front-matter/forweword/

[4] James, A. B., & Filgo, E. H. (2023). Where does ChatGPT fit into the Framework for Information Literacy? The possibilities and problems of AI in library instruction. College & Research Libraries News, 84(9), 334.

[5] Spector, C. (2023) What do AI chatbots really mean for students and cheating? Stanford Graduate School of Education. https://ed.stanford.edu/news/what-do-ai-chatbots-really-mean-students-and-cheating

[6] Frank, D., & Johnson J.K. (2024) Working Alongside, Not Against, AI Writing Tools in the Composition Classroom: a Dialectical Retrospective. In Teaching and Generative AI. https://uen.pressbooks.pub/teachingandgenerativeai/front-matter/forweword/

[7] Ferreira, J. (2023) ChatGPT a 'time-saver' for parents, teachers as Canadians share how they're using the AI tool. CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/chatgpt-a-time-saver-for-parents-teachers-as-canadians-share-how-they-re-using-the-ai-tool-1.6419330

[8] Costello, T. H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2024). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI.

[9] Gupta, A., Atef, Y., Mills, A., & Bali, M. (2024). Assistant, Parrot, or Colonizing Loudspeaker? ChatGPT Metaphors for Developing Critical AI Literacies. arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.08711.

[10] Heidt, A. (2024) ‘Without these tools, I’d be lost’: how generative AI aids in accessibility. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01003-w

[11] Mollick, E., & Mollick, L. (2023). Assigning AI: Seven approaches for students, with prompts. arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.10052.

[12] Gupta, A., Atef, Y., Mills, A., & Bali, M. (2024). Assistant, Parrot, or Colonizing Loudspeaker? ChatGPT Metaphors for Developing Critical AI Literacies. arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.08711.

[13] Singer, N. (2023) Chatbot Hype or Harm? Teens Push to Broaden A.I. Literacy. The New York Times.

[14] Ternovski, J., Kalla, J., & Aronow, P. (2022). The negative consequences of informing voters about deepfakes: evidence from two survey experiments. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 1(2).

[15] Kapoor, S., & Narayanan A. (2023) How to Prepare for the Deluge of Generative AI on Social Media. Knight First Amendment Institute. https://knightcolumbia.org/content/how-to-prepare-for-the-deluge-of-generative-ai-on-social-media

[16] Frank, D., & Johnson J.K. (2024) Working Alongside, Not Against, AI Writing Tools in the Composition Classroom: a Dialectical Retrospective. In Teaching and Generative AI. https://uen.pressbooks.pub/teachingandgenerativeai/front-matter/forweword/

[17] Heaven, W.D. (2023) ChatGPT is going to change education not destroy it. Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/06/1071059/chatgpt-change-not-destroy-education-openai/

[18] Tight, M. (2023). Challenging cheating in higher education: a review of research and practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-13.

[19] Curtis, E. (n.d.) Creating Student AI Guidelines. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10VB7V_Mc54e_mVAyz_IihR5m1WUYjic0NlkFtbEQfbM/edit

[20] Rudolph, J., Tan, S., & Tan, S. (2023). ChatGPT: Bullshit spewer or the end of traditional assessments in higher education? Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2023.6.1.9

[21] Ford, D. (2024) Tracking the Draft: An Academic Integrity Policy for Cheating with AI. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/tracking-the-draft-an-academic-integrity-policy-for-cheating-with-ai/

[22] Berdanier, C. G. P., & Alley, M. (2023). We still need to teach engineers to write in the era of ChatGPT. Journal of Engineering Education, 112(3), 583–586. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20541

[23] Ferreira, J. (2023) ChatGPT a 'time-saver' for parents, teachers as Canadians share how they're using the AI tool. CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/chatgpt-a-time-saver-for-parents-teachers-as-canadians-share-how-they-re-using-the-ai-tool-1.6419330

[24] Vaidhyanathan, S. (2023) My students are using AI to cheat. Here’s why it’s a teachable moment. The Guardian.

[25] Tight, M. (2023). Challenging cheating in higher education: a review of research and practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-13.

[26] Eaton, S. E. (2023). Postplagiarism: transdisciplinary ethics and integrity in the age of artificial intelligence and neurotechnology. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 19(1), 23.

Disclaimer: Meta provides financial support to MediaSmarts. This tip sheet has been developed in collaboration between Meta and MediaSmarts. MediaSmarts does not endorse any commercial entity, product or service. No endorsement is implied.

Unpacking the Black Box: Explaining Algorithms and AI

Julia — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:54:02 +0000

Unpacking the Black Box: Explaining Algorithms and AI Lesson Plan

Internet & Mobile

Privacy

Julia Thu, 09/05/2024 - 07:54

Level: Grade 9 to 12

Duration: 3 1/2 – 4 hours

Author: Melissa Racine, Media Education Specialist, MediaSmarts

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

In this lesson, students learn about algorithms and AI, how they work, how they impact our lives on the internet, and ethical considerations. The lesson begins with a class discussion on algorithms. Students will discuss how AIs reinforce real-world biases, the difficulties in identifying how AIs make decisions, what information algorithms use to make choices, and how that information impacts the types of decisions AIs make. Finally, students will demonstrate their knowledge by researching and designing an infographic on a field that uses algorithms to make decisions. This lesson aims to build critical thinking skills by examining how AI algorithms work, investigating the biases and impacts of AI decision-making, and reflecting on how the implications to their own lives.

Learning Outcomes

Big ideas/key concepts: Students will learn understand that...

Media have social and political implications:
Algorithms are used to make important decisions
Algorithms reproduce and can intensify existing social biases and stereotypes
Media have commercial considerations:
Companies optimize algorithms to keep users engaged
Digital media have unanticipated audiences:
Data collected about us influences algorithmic decisions
Digital media experiences are shaped by the tools we use:
How we use digital tools is influenced by algorithm design
Interactions through digital media have real impact:
How we use platforms is influenced by algorithmic design

Key questions:

How do algorithms work?
How does generative artificial intelligence work?
How do algorithms and artificial intelligence affect our lives?
What can we do about it?

Frequent misconceptions to correct:

Algorithms are “just math” and cannot be biased
We are only affected by data collection if platforms learn something specific about us

Essential knowledge: Students will learn...

Reading media: How algorithms and generative AI work
Consumer awareness: How platforms use algorithms to keep users engaged
Community engagement: How algorithms can be biased and lead to unfair or unexplained decisions
Privacy and security: How data collected about us, and inferred based on collected data, can influence algorithmic decisions

Performance tasks: Students will...

Use: Create an informational media work
Understand: Analyze how algorithms and generative AI work
Engage: Evaluate the impacts of algorithms and generative AI on themselves and society

Click here to download the Unpacking the Black Box: Explaining Algorithms and AI slideshow

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit

Unpacking the Black Box: Explaining Algorithms and AI

Cyber Choices (Grades 3-5)

MediaSmarts — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 13:28:05 +0000

Cyber Choices (Grades 3-5)

MediaSmarts Mon, 08/19/2024 - 09:28

Cyber Choices is an interactive game designed to help students in grades 3 to 5 develop the skills and habits they need to make safe and responsible choices online. Delivered in an engaging online comic-book format (with accompanying audio to support developing readers), Cyber Choices lets students explore four different stories that cover key issues such as making good choices about their own and others’ personal information, dealing with cyberbullying (as both a target and a witness) and managing online conflict.

At key moments, students practice their decision-making skills by sorting out the reasons why the character might make one choice rather than another before deciding which way the story will go. Once students have played each story to one of the different possible conclusions, the game prompts students to feel empathy in digital environments by asking them to reflect on how the different people in the story felt about how the story turned out. In a classroom setting, the multiple endings for each story can lead to meaningful classroom discussions after playing.

Cyber Choices includes:

an interactive game;
a Teacher’s Guide, with detailed instructions on how to play the game, classroom activities and handouts, links to research and resources on the issues covered in the tutorial;

This promotional video provides an overview of the Cyber Choices student tutorial.

Questions?

For information about Cyber Choices please contact us:

webmanager@mediasmarts.ca
Telephone 1-613-224-7721 ext. 234
Toll free in Canada 1-800-896-3342 ext. 234

So, you want to become a parenting influencer

Rebecca Stanisic — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 15:03:51 +0000

So, you want to become a parenting influencer Rebecca Stanisic Wed, 06/26/2024 - 11:03

If you are a parent and you’ve been thinking of starting a blog, writing for parenting magazines, or becoming a social media influencer in the parent sphere, keep reading.

In 2009, I began writing my personal parent blog A Little Bit of Momsense. My toddler was not yet three years old, and I had a newborn. In 2006, when my first child was born and I became a stay-at-home mom, I started reading a lot of blogs. Eventually, I decided I wanted my own.

I didn’t know what to share at first, but I wanted a space online where I could just write. A blog seemed like a great way to share snippets of my motherhood journey, my life, and my thoughts and feelings, while still maintaining some privacy.

This began an unexpected career as a blogger, freelance writer and content strategist (helping others with their own business content online).

In the early days of parenting blogging (‘mom blogging’), there were conferences and events to meet up at. Brands like Fisher Price and Huggies would pay money for sponsored posts or event activations or send us free items to build trust and get more social shares, referrals and links.

We all seemed to make it up as we went along, but many of us were making money, whether as a side job or as a full-on business. It was exciting, to be honest! But it was also a lot of work (and still is). Eventually, blogs were receiving fewer offers for sponsored posts, and that budget went to Instagram posts and influencers.

In the beginning, I made one major decision. As a parent blogger, I would share stories and certainly my own experience and thoughts, but I wouldn’t share my kids' names or faces and kept most of their specific stories private. There were photos of them walking away or their hands, but not photos to identify them. In the early days of my blog, I didn’t even put my last name on my writing until I started to freelance and was actually growing my business.

Fifteen years later, I have no regrets about keeping the kids offline. They’ve participated in campaigns in a variety of ways, and certainly enjoyed some of my work perks (free stuff) and disliked others (me taking photos of food or hotel rooms while they wait).

If you are considering becoming a parenting influencer online, or a blogger, only you can decide how much or how little to share. But you should really consider what it may mean in the future for your entire family. Talk to them about the possible implications and, if your kids are old enough to understand, ask what they’d be comfortable with sharing. You should also keep in mind the pressure that comes with it. It’s a lot of work to constantly show up online and share.

The best way I can describe my approach is that I am authentic and it’s ‘me’ who shows up - but it’s edited. Because I do hold back.

There are ways to grow without including faces or names — I am confident of that because I’ve seen it. Plus, you’ll get very creative!

Whatever you decide, this continues to be an interesting, exciting, and at times exhausting space. Have fun with it, but don’t feel like you have to give everything over to the world. Take that advice from an old-timey mom blogger.

Related resources:

The impact of sharenting – Video Q&A with MediaSmarts’ Dr. Kara Brisson-Boivin
Privacy Ethics article
How Marketers Target Kids article
Privacy Pirates – Game
Data Defenders – Game
Wacky Media Songs: “Just Another Influencer”

Media Literacy Week: Protecting and empowering students in the digital age

MediaSmarts — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:01:00 +0000

Media Literacy Week: Protecting and empowering students in the digital age MediaSmarts Fri, 10/20/2023 - 03:01

Guest blog by Patricia Kosseim, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

^{Patricia Kosseim, Information and

Privacy Commissioner of Ontario}

Young people today love going online. Whether it’s for educational purposes, social networking or gaming — there is always something new and exciting to see and do. With every click, they explore new horizons but also, inadvertently, navigate through a sea of potential digital threats.

The online world is fraught with fake content that looks real, creating confusion between what’s true and what’s false. Cybercriminals and cyberbullies use the internet in ways that can seriously harm others, and advertisers attempt by all means to attract attention and nudge buying behaviour.

Canada’s annual Media Literacy Week highlights how critical it is that we all know how to use and engage with digital media. It’s a great time to educate kids about how to stay safe online so they are better equipped to face some of these challenges.

As parents, educators, and regulators, we share a responsibility to ensure that young people’s privacy rights are protected and that we empower them to assert their rights with knowledge and confidence.

This topic was top of mind for me and my federal, provincial, and territorial colleagues at our recent annual meeting, where we issued a joint resolution calling on our respective governments to improve privacy legislation to protect youth and calling on organizations to adopt practices that safeguard the best interests of young people.

At my office, we’ve made Children and Youth in a Digital World one of our strategic priorities. We recognize that educators and administrators have an essential role in preparing and empowering young people to be safe and responsible digital citizens. So, we’ve been hard at work to launch a number of new initiatives aimed at helping schools protect and support student’s privacy rights.

Just in time for back to school, we launched four new Privacy Pursuit! lesson plans, in collaboration with MediaSmarts, to help educators teach students in grades two through eight about how to protect their privacy online and respect the privacy rights of others.

Each lesson plan is designed to be used with the IPC’s Privacy Pursuit! Games and Activities for Kids activity booklet, filled with fun activities for learning about privacy that parents can do with their kids at home.

Most recently, we launched a new draft Digital Privacy Charter for Ontario Schools. It consists of twelve high-level commitments that codify best practices, many of which are grounded in statutory requirements under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

These commitments are intended to support students by:

promoting strong privacy protections in digital education tools and services used by schools
encouraging ongoing learning about privacy in the digital environment 
empowering students to understand and exercise their privacy and access rights

The personal information of children and youth is particularly sensitive. Given the potential for harm that can follow a young person into adulthood, this data is worthy of a higher degree of care and protection in a manner that supports accountability and transparency, building trust in Ontario’s schools.

So, let's work together! Parents and guardians, have a chat with your kids' teachers and principals about online safety and the charter. Educators, use the charter to help guide your online school activities and talk about it with your coworkers and students to help raise awareness of the importance of digital literacy. School officials, talk to your boards about adopting the charter and making the commitment to promote privacy protection, encourage digital literacy and empower our young people!

As part of this initial launch phase, we’re calling on school officials, parents, and students to provide feedback on the draft charter by completing our survey or emailing us at DigitalPrivacyCharter@ipc.on.ca.

Kids hold the promise to a better future. Let’s help them pave the way.

Managing your privacy when using smart devices

Julia — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:01:47 +0000

Managing your privacy when using smart devices

Internet & Mobile

Privacy

Julia Mon, 10/16/2023 - 10:01

Tip Sheet

Managing Your Privacy When Using Smart Devices

Today, it’s not just computers or even phones that connect to the internet: chances are that you have one or more “smart” devices in your home.

Whether it’s a video doorbell, a speaker with a built-in voice assistant, or even “smart socks” for your baby, these things all have one thing in common: they collect information about you and your family.

How much information they collect, though, is at least partially up to you. Here are some steps you can take to manage your privacy when using smart devices.

Keep privacy in mind when shopping. Different devices collect more or less information than others. For instance, some smart doorbells only store video locally (on a hard drive or memory card) instead of uploading it to the company. (Remember that it’s not just our privacy we have to worry about: we should be respectful of other people’s privacy, too.)

Reading the privacy policy should be an important part of your decision, too. The privacy policy tells you what information the company collects, what they’ll do with it and (in some cases) what options you have to control that.

The website Terms of Service, Didn’t Read (tosdr.org) summarizes and rates terms of service and privacy policies.

You can also review the privacy policy yourself before you decide what to buy. This is easiest to do on a laptop or desktop computer, where the text is easier to read and you can use CTRL-F to look for key words.

Look for: the word “collect,” as in “information we collect” or “how we collect and use your data.” Be ready to open a new tab and look up any words you might not recognize or you’re not totally sure you know, like “biometric” or “geolocation.”
Look for: the word “partners” or the phrase “third parties.” That tells you what other companies your information may be shared with (or sold to).
Look for: the phrase “how we use.” This will explain the different things the company will use your information for. It can be hard to know what effect that might have on you – for example, information about your health from a wearable device might affect how much you pay for insurance – so if this part of the policy isn’t clear or you’re not comfortable with it, consider buying a different option.
Look for: the words “rights” or “choices.” This should explain your privacy rights under the law (make sure to read the section for the place you live) and may tell you how you can ask to see what’s been collected or have it deleted, or to opt out of some of the ways that the company collects and uses your data.

Get to know the app. Because most smart devices don’t have screens, they almost all have an app that you install on a phone or tablet. The app is how you change the different settings on the device. A lot of the things suggested below involve changing those settings, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with the app and how you use it.

However, installing the app also gives the company that makes the device access to your phone or tablet. Some apps collect information when you’re using them, and others even collect data when you’re using other apps on the same device. Here’s how to stop that:

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, choose “Ask App Not to Track” when you install the app. If you have apps for smart devices that you’ve already installed, go to Settings, then Privacy & Security and then Tracking. Find the app and toggle “Allow Apps to Request to Track” to Off.
If you have an Android device, install the app DuckDuckGo. Go to Settings and then enable App Tracking Protection.
If you use a laptop or desktop computer to control your device, make sure your browser has an extension like Privacy Badger or Ghostery installed that blocks data collection.

Anybody who gets access to the app can change settings on the device, too, so think about installing apps for smart devices on a tablet or an old phone that doesn’t leave the house. That way you don’t have to worry about someone who finds or steals it getting access to the device.

Review privacy settings. Once you’re familiar with the app, find the privacy settings. These will usually be an option inside the main Settings section, but if you have trouble finding them you can use a search engine to look for “privacy settings” plus the name of your device (“Alexa privacy settings,” for example.)

Different devices have different privacy settings. Here are some options you should look for. (If you’re shopping for a smart device, try to find out which of these a device offers.)

Turning off data collection and sharing. Almost all smart devices send some information to the company, and companies use that data for a lot of different things: to improve how the service works, for instance, or to target you with more specific ads. You may be able to opt out of having your data collected or used for these purposes. For instance, on an Alexa device go to Alexa Privacy and then select Manage Your Alexa Data.
Deleting your history. Smart devices often record what you’ve done with them in the past, such as the specific things you’ve said to a smart speaker. You may be able to review what’s been saved, delete some or all of it, and pause history to keep it from recording things in the future by selecting “Don’t save recordings” or something like that.
Changing the password and wake word. Most smart devices come either with no password or a default password, so make sure to set a strong one. (See our short video at http://www.tiny.cc/goodpassword for quick tips on how to make a good one.)
- Smart speakers also have a “wake word” that tells it to start listening to you. To make sure that it doesn’t “wake up” by accident, change the wake. (Not all smart speakers let you change the wake word. Other ones give you a limited range of wake word options, so pick the one that’s the best fit.) If you speak a language other than English, you may be able to set your speaker to hear and respond in that language instead.
If it is possible to buy anything using the device, make sure that option is turned off too. (That way your kids can’t buy anything by accident.)

If the device is linked to your account with a company such as Google, Apple or Amazon, you may also be able to change some settings in your main account: for instance, if you don’t want your Amazon smart speaker to play targeted ads you can turn off “interest-based ads” on the Amazon Advertising Preferences Page. (It will still play ads, but they won’t be targeted using your personal information.)

Create a guest account on your WiFi. Keeping the device off your main WiFi account also limits what it can collect. Your internet provider may have come with an app that lets you change your router settings. If so, it should have an option to create a guest network. If there isn’t an app, contact your internet provider to ask for help.

Turn off microphones and cameras when you don’t need them. Many smart devices that have microphones or cameras have either physical switches or options in the app to turn them off.

Cover cameras when you’re not using them too. Most smart devices that have cameras have a light that turns on when the camera is active, but to be on the same side you should put a sticky note or something similar over any smart device whose camera doesn’t need to be running all the time.

Don’t forget about extra apps. Some smart devices have extra apps or “skills” that let it do different things. Some of these are made by different companies than the one that made the device, and may collect different information or use it for different things. Make sure to only download them from the device’s official store, and check the privacy policy before installing a new app or skill.

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“We need to find some sort of balance between ‘AI is going to rule the world’ and ‘AI is going to end the world.’ But that will be impossible to find without using AI in the classroom and talking about it at school.” Isabella Iturrate, 12th-grader[13]

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“We need to find some sort of balance between ‘AI is going to rule the world’ and ‘AI is going to end the world.’ But that will be impossible to find without using AI in the classroom and talking about it at school.” Isabella Iturrate, 12^th-grader[13]