AI and Today's Youth

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly common part of our lives, and that includes its interactions with kids. As AI technology advances at a rapid pace, particularly with popular AI tools like ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, and Midjourney, it's super important to know the safety concerns that come with these interactions. While AI does offer learning and developmental opportunities for children, most AI platforms aren’t built with kids in mind, and that brings up a lot of potential risks.

Genie is designed specifically with kids’ safety and mental health as its top priority, and how our AI interacts with kids is a huge deal to us. We’re parents ourselves and have had the same questions as every other parent in today’s digital age... What’s AI? What should I be worried about? Is AI even safe for kids?

Understanding AI

AI is essentially a computer program that uses machine learning to adapt its responses based on the context, history, and user who's talking with it. Genie, specifically, is built to use these personalizations to inform the age-appropriateness of its answers to make sure that the content of the answer is appropriate, but also the language it uses to explain things is at an appropriate grade level. 

It’s worth noting that AI as we know it right now isn’t the Hollywood-style, thinking for itself, ready to take over the world type of AI. Genie isn’t designed to replace anything in your kid’s world like friends, parents, or social circles. We’re building Genie to be a safer alternative to the unmoderated, “anything goes” Internet they already use right now. Tackling that with the help of AI puts us in a unique position to make sure their online experiences and relationships are safe from the dangers that come along with other platforms and AI models.

Potential Concerns

Common worries about kids interacting with AI usually revolve around the risk of exposure to inappropriate content, privacy issues, and the potential impact AI can have on young developing minds. AI can have a huge influence in our lives, kids’ lives even moreso. One of the biggest potential problems comes from the fact that AI is still a new technology, and it's based on machine learning. That means it pulls its info from The Internet at large, so if not enough is done to screen that data, kids run a high risk of being exposed to inappropriate material, incorrect information, or misinformation. 

A common point of contention older kids are running into is the appropriate use of AI to “assist” with homework. While using AI to help flush out ideas or quickly research facts is great, using AI to completely finish homework and writing assignments can get a child in hot water, and even risk expulsion in some collegiate settings. It’s important that kids learn how to responsibly use AI to learn new things and support them in their own work.

Safety Measures

Common Sense Media reviewed several AI platforms in 2023, based on 82% of parents saying they wanted help evaluating how safe for kids different AI were, with only 40% saying they had the resources necessary to make an informed consideration. While each platform reviewed had struggles in one way or another, the kid-focused education platforms performed much better "... because the companies designed them with kids’ usage in mind, they tended to use responsible AI practices and focused on fairness, diverse representation, and kid-friendly design considerations. They also were more transparent about their data privacy policies."

In the United States, and other countries, laws and measures aimed at protecting our young ones while they’re online do exist already. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) all are designed to keep our kids safe online, but none are keeping up with the rapidly-changing world of technology we live in today, and none specifically regulate Artificial Intelligence.

Common Sense AI Principles

Well-built AI includes robust online safety features for content filtering, word/topic/theme monitoring, and customizable parental controls. Common Sense Media also proposes that every AI be judged for its safety and privacy based on how it performs in a number of metrics:

• People First - For AI to best benefit people and society, it should be developed and used in ways that put the people it will impact first, respecting human rights, children's rights, identity, integrity, and human dignity.
• Learning - AI should support the needs of individual students (including students who are linguistically diverse, neurodiverse, and those with disabilities), align with content standards when relevant, engage students both individually and collaboratively, augment and enable educators, and cultivate a lifelong love of learning.
• Fairness - Responsible AI depends on inclusion by design, including active evaluation of blind spots, hidden assumptions, and unfair biases in data, as well as of the resulting systems and system choices.
• Social Connection - AI should support meaningful human contact and connection, and demonstrate an understanding of the wider contexts and complex relationship networks into which an AI system is integrated.
• Trust - It is critical that AI systems used by children do not perpetuate misinformation or disinformation (e.g., does not contradict well-established expert consensus or promote theories that are demonstrably false or outdated according to criteria such as legal documents, expert consensus, or other reputable primary sources).
• Privacy - AI systems should provide clear policies and procedures, require notice and consent for use of data, and allow children—in accordance with their age and maturity—to access, securely share, understand the use of, control, and delete their data, and for parents, guardians, and educators to do the same when appropriate.
• Kids’ Safety - AI systems must prioritize the protection of children's safety, health, and well-being, regardless of whether the systems were intended to be used by them, and special protections are needed for marginalized groups and sensitive data (e.g., race, gender, ethnicity, biometrics).
• Transparency/Accountability - AI should not be the primary source of information for decision-making. These systems must provide mechanisms for meaningful human control (e.g., AITL, moderation tools for adults, overridable predictions and decisions) and human agency (e.g., consent, control, remediation, and feedback).

Benefits of AI Interaction

AI conversations can be significantly beneficial for kids. They offer a unique, interactive way to learn and explore various subjects and each kid can learn in their own, personalized style. Generative AI can help teachers customize their lesson plans to support different learning styles and students, and kids can benefit from AI’s adaptive learning in their own studies as well.

There’s also the mental health aspect. Properly-designed, Artificial Intelligence (like Genie) can provide support for kids who struggle to make friends, or deal with social challenges. Good AI can even help kids who feel lonely, have a hard time communicating their feelings, or live with developmental conditions like autism spectrum disorder. Social and mental health support helplines built on generative AI can also provide highly responsive and personalized support for young people.

Internet Matters reminds us, though, that “an over reliance on generative AI might negatively impact children’s critical thinking skills. This is because it reduces opportunities to engage in independent analysis and problem-solving. Moreover, using AI as the main source of knowledge might compromise the ability to question and evaluate information.”

Parental Oversight

Parental involvement is key in ensuring their child's interaction with AI is a healthy one, and that their kid is developing good online safety habits, especially for young children. Monitoring their AI usage, guiding them through its functionalities, and having open discussions about the content and experiences encountered are essential practices. This oversight helps in making AI a positive addition to a child's life.

Dr. Tovah Klein, child psychologist and director of the Barnard College for Toddler Development, suggests that parents consider the following guidelines for AI-child interactions:

• Don’t let AI tools be their only source of information. If possible, make sure a human — whether you or a teacher — can help them talk through how they arrived at an answer. Help them fully understand it, so they’re not missing out on important cognitive development.
• Help your children understand that they are interacting with a machine, even if that system is built on language and ideas originally created by humans. Make sure they know that sometimes, the information these tools provide is incorrect.
• Monitor how much time your kids are spending on it, just as you would with other online tools or social media. An AI tutor is no replacement for human interaction with a teacher or a parent who can help a child more fully understand what they’re learning.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence can be great for your child! But it can be risky, too… AI platforms like Genie that are designed specifically for kids are the safest option and can be a safe and enriching tool for them, especially with the right parental guidance. With any AI, we encourage you to stay involved with your kids and their interactions, especially when it comes to The Internet. Like a lot of the world, too, AI is changing every day, so stay informed about the new technologies, safety options, and trends surrounding AI. 

There are a lot of bad corners and bad people floating around The Internet, and not nearly enough being done to protect our children from experiencing them. That’s why we’re building an Internet for Kids, and tackling these concerns head-on with the help of Genie, our “specifically designed to keep kids safe” AI best friend.

Try Genie out today for free, and see for yourself!