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Online safety advice

Online safety

If you are a parent or carer, we hope you will find the web links below useful.

If you have any concerns , questions or wish to seek advice regarding your or your child's use of the online world, or technology, please don't hesitate to come to school with your questions. 

Mrs Perry or Mr Riley, our ICT technicians will be happy to guide you.  

Is your child chatting to a real friend - or an AI chatbot?

 

AI Chatbots are built into platforms children are using every day on their phones and other devices. Research from Internet Matters, shows that two-thirds of children are using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Snapchat's My AI, character ai and others, and they're being used for schoolwork, to seek advice and even for companionship*.

 

Chatbots interact in a human-like way, they are always available, are friendly and non-judgemental, and use empathetic language - which can make children feel acknowledged and understood. However, this makes it harder for children to recognise that they're interacting with a tool rather than a real person. Chatbots are not real and their responses cannot always be trusted.

 

Also, they're often not designed with children in mind - most lack safety settings or parental controls. So if children ask for advice on sensitive topics, the lack of age checks plus inconsistent filtering mean they may be presented with responses that are inappropriate for their age.

 

To help you get to grips with what AI chatbots are, and for advice and tips on how you can help your children use them safely, check out Internet Matters new AI information hub.

 

 

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