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Just two weeks ago a report from The Education Select Committee recommended that, post-election, the new government consider additional measures around screen time – and smartphone use – for children.
Having previously heard from both parents and young people on the topic of a smartphone ban for under-16s, this Tech Shock special now turns its focus onto some expert viewpoints.
In this episode, Vicki is joined by a member of the Parent Zone Studio, Riley Mackrory to explore contributions from both education and mobile industry professionals.
Talking points:
Who could be held accountable – or even criminalised – for not adhering to a smartphone ban? Is there really such a thing as a ‘dumb’ phone? What impact could bans have on households where smartphones are the only route 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.
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Part two of this Tech Shock special discusses the possibility – and possible impact – of a smartphone ban for under-16s.
Having previously heard from parents, this week Vicki is joined by Anna Lindsay from youth-content platform VoiceBox to get a measure of what young people themselves think about the issue.
Talking points:
Can you build resilience in an ecosystem of bans and prohibitions?Are we consulting young people enough on legislation that impacts them? Could – or should – this process be more collaborative? What do young people feel they would lose if using smartphones were no longer an option?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.
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A minimal digital living standard is a benchmark. It refers to both a level of digital skills and access to tech that can appropriately meet an individual’s basic needs – not just ‘nice-to-haves’. It involves things like communication and connection with others, and the ability to engage with opportunities and digital services adequately and safely.
This week, Vicki is joined by Dr Emma Stone, director of evidence and engagement at the Good Things Foundation; professor of Digital Culture at the University of Liverpool, Simeon Yates; and Dr Chloe Blackwell from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University to look at what a minimal digital living standard might look like in practice.
Talking points:
What goes into constructing a metric like the ‘minimal digital living standard’? Is grasping relative differences between groups the key to understanding digital inclusion and exclusion?How can – or how should – policymakers and organisations begin to use this benchmark in their work?
https://mdls.org.uk/publications/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.
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Just months after the DfE announced guidance on mobile phone use in schools, the possibility of a smartphone ban for under-16s is being actively discussed.
is support for smartphone bans more ‘knee-jerk’ than much needed? are smartphones detrimental to socialising or do they facilitate another form of it? how might such a ban impact user safety, education and the practicality of everyday life?
Support for bans like these can, at least initially, be very strong – but also nuanced.
In a slight change of format for Tech Shock, Vicki is joined by a member of the Parent Zone Studio, Riley Mackrory to share and discuss the parent perspective; based on contributions we’ve had directly from parents themselves.
Talking points: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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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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.
Every 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?
Talking pointsTech 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.
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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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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Vicki and Geraldine talk to sharenting expert Claire Bessant about the pros and cons of posting about your children online.
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?
Talking points: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.
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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.
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Vicki and Geraldine talk to clinical psychologist Elly Hanson about OnlyFans, which has done such a good marketing job that it's been popping up at child protection conferences. But should it be there? What do we really know about the streaming site that combines porn and prostitution?
Is OnlyFans changing young people’s sexual scripts?What does the psychological research tell us about the impact of the objectification that’s central to OnlyFans?Young women advertising themselves as ’teens’ are especially popular on the site. Do we have to accept that this is simply male sexuality, or is something else going on?Why are the connections made on OnlyFans never authentic, despite the site pushing the ‘girlfriend experience’?
Talking points: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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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Vicki and Geraldine talk to Natalie Foos, director of Voicebox, about the site’s new report on young people forming relationships with AI chatbots.
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?
Talking points: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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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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.
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?
Talking points: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.
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Vicki and Geraldine talk to the film maker and designer about how a design pattern library could bake in digital resilience to online products.
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?
Talking points: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.
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Vicki and Geraldine talk to the MP who has been a driving force through all the stages of the Online Safety Bill.
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 A
Talking points: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.
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