Quietly Freaking Out About AI

anyone else?

Is anyone else freaking out about AI & kids?

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

Right now the Senate is considering a Federal Budget Bill. Buried in that bill is a clause that would prevent states from enforcing AI safety regulations until 2025. I’m very nervous. Read on to hear all about my take on AI regulation. But first, check out some items worth flagging, a big event announcement and a round up of recent tech headlines. Let’s jump in!

Worth Flagging

1. School Smartphone Ban Op Ed. Many schools in NY state are announcing their implementation plans for next year. Here are my thoughts on it.

2. Summer Camp Essentials. ICYMI last week— check out this curated list of items every sleep away camper needs in their trunk.

3. Book A Coaching Call. Are you stuck? Need you need a digital parenting answer ASAP? I am now reserving a few slots a week to help you troubleshoot. Book me for a 20 minute call and I’ll help you get unstuck.

Events

Ok To Delay x Digital Mom Digital Parenting Summer Webinar Series. I teased this series in my last newsletter—but tickets are now on sale! Learn more about each session here.

• Session One: "Group Chat" - Tuesday July 15 8-9PM EST

• Session Two: "Video Games" - Tuesday July 22 8-9PM EST

• Session Three: "Snapchat" - Tuesday July 29 8-9PM EST

  

Tech Headlines For Parents

1. New York: The NY State legislature just passed a bill that will require warning labels on social media platforms with addictive design features (more).

2. California: The California State legislature has passed the phone free school act joining 24 other states that either require policies or flat out restrict them (more about the other states here). California School districts must submit their plans by July 1. (more about California).

3. Snapchat: Snapchat is now available on Apple Watch. You can receive and reply to chat notifications , preview text messages and respond with text or dictation. You can't view Snaps, stories, or use the camera (more).

4. Apple Settings Update- With iOS 18.5 and later, Parents managing a child in Family Sharing can now receive notifications when the Screen Time passcode is used on the child's device. However, parents will not receive notifications when a Screen Time passcode is changed or removed. Here is a link to a reddit thread where redditers are helping a kid sneak around this 🤦‍♀️.

And finally… Why I am freaking out about AI

I am worried about the following scenarios: an AI-doctored photo of your child gets distributed, an AI generated child porn image of them gets created and distributed, a chatbot gives them questionable or even harmful responses. If this measure goes through, there would be no repercussions for the tech companies. For any of it.

This terrifies alot of parents. This terrifies me.

Do we, as parents, have a big responsibility in all of this? Of course we do. We need to pay really close attention to AI. We need to talk to our kids about it, like ALOT. We need to keep explaining to kids how to interrogate sources, to be careful sharing any imagery and to remember that chatbots aren’t real people. And we’ll need to keep up to date with the constant changes.

But how the heck can we realistically keep our kids safe around AI without help? AI is literally everywhere. You have to assume its in everything, in some way shape or form. That we would prevent ourselves from holding its makers responsible for designing with child safety in mind for 10 years, is unimaginable to me. Digital parenting is already hard enough!

At a bare minimum, states need to be able to enforce safety measures and hold AI makers accountable. If you agree, please, call you senator and tell them to remove this clause (you can look up your Senator’s info here).

But, honestly, AI makers need to build with child safety in mind. AI needs parental controls.

Here’s what I propose: