Tech Shock - from Parent Zone

Natalie Foos, director of the youth content platform VoiceBox joins Vicki to provide some young people’s perspectives on the hot (or tricky) topics from Tech Shock's season 8. Talking points:In a year where half the world could be at the polls, how equipped are young people to avoid disinformation? As social platforms and online games are increasingly built to engage and retain, how autonomous can young users feel online? With tech developments moving so fast, do young people feel like regulation is an impossibility?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

This week Vicki talks to Emma Higham, product management lead on Google's Search Child's Safety Portfolio about some of the exciting new tools they've been working on.Talking pointsEvery family is different so how do tech companies create safety tools that work for everyone?What is LEO and why is it important?How does search think about people looking for information at vulnerable moments?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

From incels to Andrew Tate, young people are increasingly exposed to debates around gender when online. This week, Vicki is joined by Rosie Campbell, professor of politics and director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College London to discuss the topic of gender in the digital age. Talking points:What do we really mean when we talk of the ‘gender divide’?How is social media making the topic of gender more polarised, and more profitable (for some)? What’s the relationship between views on gender and who we vote for at the polls?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

This week Vicki is joined by Pete Etchells, professor of Psychology and Science Communication at Bath Spa University to discuss the topic of screen time and some of the debate that surrounds it.Talking points:What is ‘screen time’, and how hard is it to accurately measure? Why do we tend to look at tech through a harmful lens, and does this stand in the way of digitally flourishing?Do some policies just help us avoid thinking about children’s tech use?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

 Our 2023 research found that young people aged 13-18 spend over £50m online each week. But this financial autonomy could mean increased exposure to harms like scams, gambling, influencer marketing, and criminal exploitation. This week Vicki is joined by Maya Daver-Massion and Zixuan Fu, part of the security and online safety team at PUBLIC to shed more light on ‘child financial harms’. Talking points: What exactly makes child financial harms such a ‘wicked problem’ to solve?Other sorts of harm are always on the radar. So why are finance-related harms so often overlooked?Is systemic change needed to tackle child financial harms, and, if so, where do we start?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki talks to Dr. Katie Davis , Associate Professor at the University of Washington about what happens when technology intersects with child development and why good enough parenting really is good enough. How are online platforms designed and what sort of design leads to certain behaviours?When does technology support child development and when does it get in the way?What does AI mean for human agency?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

In 2024, the year of many elections, governments across the world are bracing themselves for an onslaught of disinformation. Vicki and Geraldine talk to Professor Julian McDougall of Bournemouth University about whether media literacy is finally poised to break free of its Cinderella status.Talking points:Why do politicians both sneer at media literacy and grab onto it as the answer to online harms?How do you measure the impact of media literacy when success is so often about what doesn’t happen?Much of social media is more emotional than rational. How does any kind of formal education counter that?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki and Geraldine talk to sharenting expert Claire Bessant about the pros and cons of posting about your children online.Talking points:Are parental influencers who post about their children doing anything different from families down the centuries whose children have worked on the family farm?Is there any point in talking about consent when children are being required to consent to their parents?Even if you’re careful not to post anything about your children in public spaces online, could schools be spreading information about them?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki and Geraldine discuss Parent Zone’s latest research into financial harms to children online. Is this a category of harms that we’ve simply overlooked? And if so, why?We tend to think children aren’t doing much financially online, but how true is thisWhen children get scammed online, why are they often reluctant to tell anyone?Young people told us that many of them were acting illegally online. Is the internet normalising lawlessness?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Tracey Carpenter of Cifas, the organisation that runs the UK fraud database, about the alarming rise in the numbers of children involved in fraud.Talking points:Why are children susceptible to being recruited as money mules?How does money muling work when children are involved?How should we respond when children are being exploited and at the same time are committing crimes?What are the consequences if a young person is put on the fraud database?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Natalie Foos, director of Voicebox, about the site’s new report on young people forming relationships with AI chatbots.Talking points:Should you feel jealous if your partner falls in love with an AI?Why were the chatbots Voicebox investigated sending unprompted sexually explicit messages?Can AI bots help with loneliness? Or are they commodifying our most personal and human feelings?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Vicki and Geraldine talk to Lorna Woods, Professor of Internet Law and a chief begetter of the Online Safety Act about how it started with a brie and cranberry sandwich and where it’s gone from there.Talking points:How far has Lorna’s central idea, developed with Will Perrin of Carnegie, survived the turbulent politics of the last five years?Will the Act deal with addictive design and the cumulative impact of pieces of content that, taken individually, might not look that harmful?Is there a lawyer’s answer to the collision of the fundamental rights of children and adults thrown up by the growth of end-to-end encryption, which allows for untraceable sharing of child sexual abuse material? (Spoiler: there is!)Are parents going to be overwhelmed by safety tools - their own and their children’s?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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:Is ‘remember to turn on your boundary settings’ about to become every parent’s mantra?Are financial harms to children online a problem hiding in plain sight?How much trickier is AI going to make being a good enough parent?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 mainstream?Could design patterns for digital resilience offer ways of responding to the requirements of the Children’s Code and the Online Safety Bill?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 he foresee further changes in response to amendments from the House of Lords?Can the Bill withstand developments in technology like generative ATech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 downgrading media literacy?What’s the difference between online safety and media literacy?Is media literacy too abstract a concept?Do governments really want their citizens to be media literate - or is that a bit too troublesome?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 genders?Should outside providers of RSE have other interests - either blogging about sex or, as in one case, selling sex toys?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 Artificial Intelligence not actually very intelligent?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 are tools anyway? Who knows what happens to all the data that has to be collected for the tools to work? Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

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 if the rest of the internet remains toxic?What do we get wrong about the way children live online?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram