Tech Shock - from Parent Zone

In the first episode of a new series, Vicki and Geraldine take a look at the issues that will be looming large in tech for families over the coming months. We cover the metaverse - or, as Vicki prefers to call it, online immersive experiences; we consider how much money children are spending, making, and losing online; and we look at the implications of AI for children’s privacy. Talking points: I...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the film maker and designer about how a design pattern library could bake in digital resilience to online products. Talking points: What is 'digital resilience' and is it a better way of thinking about safety than ‘online safety’? Why do designers need patterns? Can digital resilience designers learn from the way that 'inclusive design’ has gone mainstrea...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the MP who has been a driving force through all the stages of the Online Safety Bill. Talking points: Given that the Online Safety Bill has had cross-party support, why has it taken such a very long time to become law? The government accepted 70 recommendations by the Joint Scrutiny Committee, which Damian Collins chaired. What is he pleased about having altered? Does h...

Vicki and Geraldine discuss why media literacy is having a moment. When Parent Zone asked teachers to define media literacy, many couldn’t do so. What do we mean by media literacy - and what does it look like in practice? Talking points: Media literacy has been yoked to the Online Safety Bill from the outset - but now it’s been taken out of the Bill, to be dealt with elsewhere. Is the government d...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the Chief Executive of the PSHE Association about the current backlash against relationships and sex education. Has RSE fallen victim to the culture wars? Will the government’s review change sex education? Talking points: Are parents being told enough about what their children are being taught? Are children, as claimed in parliament, being taught that there are 72 gende...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the Chair of Wikimedia UK and Chief Executive of the Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals, Cilip, about media literacy, librarians, and libraries in an age of search engines and AI. Talking points: Why is media literacy having a moment, especially in government? How are people supposed to develop media literacy when no one knows what it is? Why is Artif...

Vicki and Geraldine discuss Parent Zone’s paper, Tools: A False Hope? , looking at user empowerment tools, which are often seen as a 'silver bullet' in discussions about keeping both children and adults safe online. But will they actually work? How long would it take to set up all the tools on all your favourite platforms and services? (Spoiler alert: quite a long while.) How effective a...

Vicki and Geraldine chew over the issues raised in the latest season of podcasts, covering everything from football to affairs with Draco Malfoy. Talking points: Is establishing the principle of regulation worth flawed legislation? How flawed is the Online Safety Bill, exactly? What hope now for less racist hate speech and online violence against women and girls? Can children truly be safe online...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Natalie Foos, Director of Voice Box, about her fascinating report on Reality Shifting, a huge phenomenon (2bn+ views for the #RealityShifting hashtag) involving young people transferring their consciousness to their ‘desired reality’. More than daydreaming or fantasising (its adherents insist), it frequently involves inhabiting a parallel universe - Hogwarts is very pop...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Andy Burrows, freelance tech policy consultant and expert on child safety through his work with NSPCC. They discuss whether generative AI like Chat GPT could disrupt not only how teachers mark homework, but also all the efforts we have put into keeping children safe online Talking points: Are we making the same mistakes all over again with generative AI that we made bef...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Ellen Judson of Demos and Kyle Taylor of Fair Vote, who say they can no longer support the Online Safety Bill. Both have been keen supporters of regulation. They talk us through what they see as various wrong turns for the Bill. Talking points: Why a separate internet for children could be a disaster. Why the Online Safety Bill could turn the UK into a haven for disinfo...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the LSE academic working on the relationship between children’s digital skills and their mental health. Talking points: What we’ve got wrong about the links between being online and poor mental health. How young people are gaming the algorithms to protect themselves Can technical skills without critical thinking be dangerous for children? Are age verification and blocki...

Vicki and Geraldine speak to the founder of Glitch, the online charity campaigning to end hate speech online against women and girls with a particular focus on Black and minoritised communities. Talking points: When women become targets of online hate, why are they so often asked what they did to deserve it? Or told, ‘if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen'? Why are we tolerant o...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the CEO of Kick It Out about hate speech in football, online and off. Talking points: How can racism in football both be getting better and worse? Is the problem in elite clubs or at grassroots? Given what happened over LGBT rights at the World Cup, is Fifa fit for purpose? Will the Online Safety Bill prioritise freedom from harm over freedom of reach? Tech Shock is a P...

As the Online Safety Bill returns to parliament, Vicki and Geraldine talk to the CEO of Barnardo’s, which supports many of Britain’s most vulnerable children, about how much difference it could make. Talking points: What would the world have looked like if previous policies to intervene early in children’s lives - like Sure Start - had continued at the same level? Can regulation make the internet...

As a revised Bill comes back to parliament under a new-look government, Vicki and Geraldine discuss what’s changed, and whether it’s for better or worse. Talking points: Where are we? The ’triple shield’ - better than ‘legal but harmful'? Can end-to-end encrypted messages ever be scanned for child sexual abuse material and terrorism without compromising privacy? The Bill depends heavily on ag...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Kat Dixon, who spent the summer of 2022 exploring the ways data poverty damages people’s ability to live fully, as well as a host of really exciting local initiatives to counteract it. Talking points: Why you don’t have to be poor to experience data poverty. Solutions to data poverty exist, but some are much less desirable than others. What makes the difference? How far...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Liverpool about why Britain has too narrow a view of digital literacy - and a quite shocking amount of digital illiteracy. Talking points: Why media literacy means understanding what data’s being collected about you and why. Not everyone’s workplace requires digital skills. How can adults stay up to date? Why are dig...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the Professor of reading and children’s development at the Open University, an expert on children’s digital books. Are digital books the future of children’s reading? - Can digital books appeal to a wider range of children than print books? - Digital books have the potential to unlock the imagination and children’s creativity. Are they living up to their promise? - Ther...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Ofcom about regulating the internet. What have we learnt so far? Talking points: Why do parents help their children to dodge the system? Can you keep legal but harmful content and protect children? What can we learn from Ofcom’s regulation of video sharing platforms, which is already up and running? Link to the Ofcom blog: How old is your child online? Tech Shock is a P...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to a psychiatrist from Kingston University who studies the relationship between children’s vulnerability and their likelihood of encountering online harm. Talking points: Which types of vulnerability predict which harms? Why is better mental health the key to breaking the link between vulnerability and online harm? Why are rules not very useful in helping children to avoid...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to digital inequalities expert Kira Allman, recently appointed Senior Digital Policy Officer at Manchester City Council, about why we so often get ‘the digital divide’ wrong, why thinking of digital infrastructure as being like water is helpful, and the prospects for AI that works for human beings. Talking points: What’s the point of local digital policies when the interne...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to a mother and daughter, authors of a new book, When You Lose It , about the devastating consequences they suffered when Roxy was bullied into sending nudes to older boys at school. The pair are brutally honest about what happened, which included Roxy's being sectioned with psychosis. Despite their ordeal, the story is an uplifting one because it shows how resilient...

Vicki and Geraldine look back at Digital Families 2022, held live at the RSA and streamed online, talking through speaker insights and their fave bits. Talking points: Media literacy and regulation: where does the balance lie between providers and users for safety and thriving online? Why pornography is extreme surveillance capitalism. How children’s playgrounds are becoming rapaciously commercial...

Vicki and Geraldine talk to the expert on Crypto, Web 3 and the Metaverse about what the future is going to look like - and learn it might involve child labour. Talking points: Should Parent Zone be getting into Crypto? What are the online harms of the future web? Is the future of the web the financialisation of all our relationships? Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on s...