It is a question likely being posed in every house with kids: How much access should children have to smartphones and social media? Add in the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, and there are a lot of concerns for parents to consider.
Many people struggle to define what AI is. Nick Mattei, an associate professor of computer science at Tulane University, described it in simple terms.
“It’s this idea that you’re trying to make the computer do smart stuff, and this goes back many years to the 1950s, which is just trying to get the computer to pretend to be human,” said Mattei. “I always sort of go back to that historical definition because what was ChatGPT when ChatGPT came out? It was trying to convince you it was human.”
Mattei told WDSU that technology is advancing rapidly, which has positive and, sometimes, negative consequences.
“You’re building these systems to be able to write an email, but if you can write an email, you can write a fake email,” said Mattei. “It’s kind of weird knowing you’re living through an experiment.”
Tech experts admit the scope of AI is still unknown because its believability and capabilities are ever-changing.
That fact is a concern for counselors like Allison Durant, who worries about AI’s impact on children.
Durant said a child’s age affects their ability to discern what is real and what is fake.
“I mean, definitely, children before the age of 10 cannot understand that,” said Durant. “The tween age, they can begin to understand that some of what they’re seeing is fake, but it still creates low self-esteem and low self-worth through those comparisons. Now, the older teens, as they get to 13 to 19, they might know that it’s fake, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause emotional distress.”
Constant scrolling can also lead to sleep deprivation, Durant explained. She added that too much screen time also impedes a child’s ability to think critically.
“It is impacting brain development,” said Durant. “(That’s why) one of the biggest things is to understand and to promote brain protection (to your kids) because the brain is developing up until the age of 25. So, just like we don’t want to put substances on the brain, we don’t want to put AI and some of this harmful, constant stimulation on the brain.”
Harmful content includes deepfakes, a term used to describe a hyperrealistic image of people doing or saying things that are not real. In some cases, those images or videos are sexually explicit.
“It’s this policy gap way behind how people are using these things, and as we push more and more of this stuff to everybody, it creates a lot more danger when these things do get pushed out,” said Mattei.
One way to protect children is to monitor their online activity.
Many social media companies offer enhanced protections for young people, but most require a parent and a teen to opt in to those protections. Here are instructions for four of the most popular apps:
Teen accounts have default protections known as a “13+ setting,” which company officials describe as similar to the PG-13 rating for movies. Additional safeguards are available if the “Limited Content Setting” is activated. To do so, go to:
Profile > Menu > Settings and activity > Content Preferences > Sensitive Content > Less
There is also a “Supervision for Teen Accounts” feature, through which parents invite a teen to participate. Information on that can be found by following these prompts:
Profile > Menu > Settings and activity > Supervision for Teen Accounts
Because Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same parent company, Meta, they offer similar protections for young people. Facebook also has default settings for teen users in an effort to limit the harmful content they see. In addition, a teen and their parent can opt in to enhanced safety features by enabling the “Supervision” setting. Adults can start the process by going to:
Profile > Menu > Access Supervision > Settings and privacy > Settings > Family Center > Continue
Snapchat
Snapchat’s protections are found under the “Family Center” tab. Like other social media apps, the company requires both the parent and the teen to agree to the added security. That means parents also need a Snapchat account to monitor their teen’s activity. To get started, parents should go to:
Profile > Settings > Family Center > Continue > Send Invitation
The teen must then go to their account to accept the invitation. After that, parents can view who their teen is messaging and what they are saying.
TikTok
This app has a “Family Pairing” setting to link a parent and a teen’s account so they can filter content, set time limits and control who their child messages. Again, the teen must opt in before those safeguards are in place. For parents, go to:
Profile > Menu > Settings and privacy > Family Pairing > Continue > Parent
The child has to follow the same steps and then scan a QR code generated when their parent set up the service.
Certain protections are in place as a default for all 13- to 15-year-olds with accounts. Additional protections are available by activating “Restricted Mode,” which blocks even more mature content and limits certain live capabilities. To learn more, visit:
Profile > Menu > Settings and privacy > Content preferences > Restricted Mode > Turn On
But Durant stressed that monitoring a child’s online activity is not enough to keep them safe. Instead, she says it is important to talk to young people about the dangers that exist online.
“It’s one thing to monitor it, right? But if you’re never talking to your child about some of the things that they’re seeing, then that’s not really giving them the space to come to you when there’s a problem,” said Durant.
Mattei told WDSU that he believes there will eventually be more regulation of social media and AI, but he cautioned that it will take time.
“There are productive uses for all of these tools,” said Mattei. “I think we’re still figuring out, like the social media launch, we’re all kind of living through this experiment of what it is to just have AI in your pocket all the time.”
READ MORE:AI and Kids: Local experts explain how to protect young people online
