Tech Shock - from Parent Zone

In episode 5, Vicki is joined by Dr Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health at Google and YouTube. A clinician, researcher and parent of four, Dr Graham brings a rare combination of perspectives to the conversation. This episode moves from policy to the practical and personal. How do platforms like Google and YouTube think about the concept of information as a social...

In the fourth episode of Tech Shock's 12th season, Vicki is joined by two guests: Jeffrey DeMarco, Senior Policy Advisor at Save the Children, and Lisa Felton, Managing Director, Vodafone Foundation. Their organisation’s partnership was born from a shared recognition that children were highly connected but not necessarily thriving and that the support available to them simply hadn't kept...

In the third episode of Tech Shock's 12th season, Vicki is joined by Katie Searle, Director - Children's Strategy at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK's independent regulator for data protection and information rights and their new Switched On to Privacy campaign is designed to help parents start regular, practical conversations about online privacy...

In the second episode of Tech Shock's 12th season, Vicki is joined by Leon Xiao, Assistant Professor at City University Hong Kong, specialising in video game law and the regulation of loot boxes, gacha mechanics and other gambling-like monetisation in video games. Neither Vicki nor Leon are anti-gaming, quite the opposite. However, gaming and gambling have been converging for years and the ri...

In the final episode of Tech Shock's Spring Special Series on the social media ban and government consultation, Vicki is joined by Melinda Tankard Reist. Melinda is the Movement Director of Collective Shout, a grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls. Collective Shout has been heavily involved in both the age verification trial for po...

In the first episode of Tech Shock's 12th season, Vicki is joined by Natalie Foos, Director of VoiceBox — a global youth organisation that surfaces the lived experience of young people for decision makers. VoiceBox has long acted as an early warning system on emerging digital risks, and their Coded Companions report, published three years ago, was one of the first to examine the risks of youn...

This week in our special episodes examining the arguments for and against the social media ban, Vicki speaks to Haroon Chowdry, Chief Executive of the Centre for Young Lives. The Centre for Young Lives was set up by Baroness Anne Longfield, former Children’s Commissioner for England, and uses research, evidence, advocacy, public affairs and system change to improve outcomes for children and famili...

As we continue our special series of Tech Shock exploring arguments for and against the social media ban and the government consultation, this week we are joined by Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation.  The Foundation works at the intersection of online safety, mental health and suicide prevention, and holds a firm belief that technology can be a positive force for children. However, ho...

The beginning of March saw the government launch its consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s, as well as calling on the public to share opinions and concerns on more nuanced interventions.  But how did we get here? With the Online Safety Act (OSA) being in force for two and a half years, why do parents and policymakers call for a blanket ban that risks being yet another false pro...

December saw the launch of an international coalition to end violence against women and girls with additional support to tackle online harms. At the same time, debates around the banning of ‘nudification’ apps continue within the UK.  Developments like these represent a shared desire to affect change – and for the online world to be a safer place. But amid the Australian ban on social media for un...

Amidst a paradigm shift in technology, it looks to be the case that a failure to understand (and use) AI is a failure to prepare for a rapidly approaching future.  But plenty of questions remain. How best to support literacies related to AI? Where exactly should AI sit within a revised curriculum? And might the provision of AI tools to children (without appropriate support) simply foster a ‘copy a...

AI technologies are becoming more and more embedded in daily life – in ways that go well beyond smart speakers or nifty thermometers.  But this embedding raises lots of questions. Some people have little faith in Big Tech (or the countries trying to regulate it) to get it right. Providing it really isn’t  just a matter of the optics , the now safety-less renaming of the US ‘AI Safety Institute’ to...

Understanding AI has never been more critical. It’s part of most conversations around emerging tech. It raises endless questions around safety, creativity, copyright and intellectual property. The UK government, too, now has a national focus on upskilling young people for the “AI-powered jobs of the future” .  ‘Experience AI’ is a programme developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepM...

The subject ‘RSE’ (Relationships and Sex Education) was introduced to educate pupils about sexual health as well as their relationships and intimacies with others. Is it meeting the challenge or is there a nervousness in delivery, and are we finding ways to create safe spaces that allow for open discussions?   In an era not just of smartphones and social media, but easily-accessible nudification a...

Contrary to what many of us would like to believe, gambling is not an exclusively over 18 activity – in fact it’s far from it. Popular sports and surrounding media burst at the seams with gambling ads, online gaming draws many monetisation techniques from the gambling industry, and enormously popular influencers often ‘win big’ on when livestreaming crypto casinos.  But awareness of underage gambl...

As the Tech Shock podcast returns for its 11th season, Vicki is joined by Sara Grimes, McGill University professor and expert in child rights and ethical game design, to explore the views of young gamers – and the current industry at large.  2025 research from Ofcom shows that 97% of 8-17 year-olds game online. But as the industry continues to grow in popularity – and of course value – we’re left...

Media literacy. It’s at the core of a three-year strategy from Ofcom, featured in DSIT’s ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan’ and looks set to make more than just a fleeting appearance in the reviewed curriculum this autumn. It’s also one means of combating mis- and disinformation as well as online financial harms and misogyny. In short, it’s being recognised by many – and rightly so – as essential. De...

After a shift to online learning during COVID-19, EdTech – everything from digital whiteboards and eBooks to Google Classroom and virtual reality equipment – is an industry that’s gone from strength to strength in terms of size, scope and profitability. But as the UK is beginning to see a narrative form around the virtues of a ‘screen free’ childhood and, further abroad, countries like Sweden move...

Easily accessed tech like generative AI can facilitate the nudification of another's images, platforms’ hate speech policies around gender are suddenly being watered-down, and misogynistic content remains amplified (and deeply profitable) for those that peddle it.  The need to respond to online violence against women and girls is obvious. But where does the solution lie? Can cyberflashing and...

In the ‘information age’ it’s easy to find any number of resources and strong opinions. This makes it more crucial than ever that we're able to filter out the noise and access evidence and information that's of a high standard and digestible. As heated debates around tech continue – including its impact on attention spans and social media ‘addiction’ – what does the research actually say...

Awareness of emerging harms gradually develops and debates around smartphone bans and social media restrictions for children are ongoing. At the same time, the series 'Adolescence' has been turning these sorts of conversations national .  With all this in mind, are we doing enough to understand the lived experiences and perspectives of young people themselves? VoiceBox is an organisation...

With Ofcom's duties and guidance around illegal harms and content, services’ transparency, the safety of women and girls, as well as the protection of children all being published in 2025, it’s undoubtedly an important year for the implementation of the Online Safety Act. But with geopolitics becoming more unstable, tech companies pivoting in controversial ways – including Meta rewriting its...

As both the sophistication and accessibility of AI is on the up, the ease in which someone can create and share realistic deepfakes involving ‘non-consensual intimate images’ increases also. Worryingly, schools and education settings aren't exempt from this trend. To add to this, UCL’s Institute of Education found that – of young people who have experienced this sort of image-based sexual har...

Research shows that consistent, authoritative at-home parenting impacts children’s learning and educational outcomes. At times though, a prevailing culture within education can mean parents receive insufficient support, and are even unfairly labelled and criticised.  Similarly, the false narrative that very young children don’t use digital technology can be another obstacle to understanding not ju...

Children grow up surrounded by technology – engaging with it from birth. But how do we help parents with information, evidence-based advice and support so that those early interactions can lay the foundations for positive engagement as children grow? Supported by the Nuffield Foundation, the ‘Early years digital media literacy review’ is a new report from Parent Zone . It scopes out existing – or...