The Rise of AI ‘Girlfriends’ Among Schoolboys

Whether it’s companionship, loneliness or cognitive offloading, the concerns around AI chatbots are growing. A new study was recently carried out in the UK with more than 1,000 boys aged 12-16 within focus groups, where it found that 1 in 5 boys is either in or knows someone in a ‘relationship’ with an AI companion. 

The concerns here are numerous, such as the very sexualised nature of some of these apps that are being used and the potential for distorting views, attitudes towards women and girls and/or changing behaviours.

The report, called The Voice of the Boys, goes into a lot more detail, not just about AI but also includes other aspects such as:

• 79% of boys aren’t clear what masculinity is.
• 65% of boys don’t think school is preparing them for the future.
• 54% of boys think boys have it harder than girls today.

Report Link: The Voice of the Boys

New Course – Preventing AI Image Abuse

You will be aware that the use of AI to manipulate images isn’t new, but an issue that is growing is the use of AI for image-based abuse. This includes pupils creating deepfakes of other pupils and one that is starting to emerge – individuals and organised crime groups harvesting images from the school website in order to blackmail the school.

A couple of weeks ago the UKCIS Online Harms Early Warning Working Group released new guidance for school/college settings. To enhance this, Traci Gregory and I have been working on a whole school package which includes:

• A video for staff split into 2 parts – the first for all staff, the second for senior leaders, governors and trustees.
• A RACI chart and checklist for school leaders.
• A video for parents and two information sheets – one for primary age and one for secondary/college age.
• Three videos for pupils – one for KS2, one for KS3 and one for KS4/5.
• A set of 9 posters which can be printed in A4 and A3 sizes – 3 for primary and 6 for secondary/college.

Full details and costs can be found at the link below:

Link – Preventing AI Image Abuse for Schools

New Report – Children’s Online Experiences

Released last week, Ofcom have published their new report which goes into a lot of detail about the online experiences of children. Reports such as this are invaluable not only for staff to be aware of the issues, but also for curriculum planning where you can see if you might need to introduce new or strengthen current topics. For example, some of the findings of the report are:

• AI is widely used, but not well understood. AI is used by over half of 8-17 year olds rising to two-thirds of 16-17’s.
• Harmful content remains an issue – nearly three-quarters of 11-17’s said they had seen harmful content. Importantly, there has been little change since new legislation came into place and the biggest factor is personalised feeds (algorithms). This reinforces the fact that as well as teaching about harmful content, we also teach the digital literacy aspects such as how algorithms work, what you can do to manipulate the algorithm etc.
• Children are using devices younger than ever with the majority of children under the age of two already using screens. 65% of parents of children aged 6 months to 2 years say that their child goes online.

Link – Ofcom Report – Children’s Online Experiences

For Parents – A Practical Toolkit for Families

The Molly Rose Foundation has some wonderful resources for parents including guides and other resources. One of these guides helps families understand who and what may be shaping a child’s online world and how these influences can affect mood, confidence and safety. To download this guide and check some of the other resources see the link below.

Link – Molly rose Foundation – A Practical Toolkit for Families