It’s been a busy week for AI and parenting news. At London Tech Week on Monday, PM Keir Starmer re-confirmed that AI tutoring tools will be rolled out to 450,000 disadvantaged secondary school pupils by 2027. If that one passed you by first time round, now you know.
The bigger headline though, is that he’s given Apple and Google three months to switch nudity-blocking tools on by default for every child, on every device. Tools that can do this already exist. The government’s position is that switching them on shouldn’t be left to parents to figure out. If companies don’t act, there will be new laws.
You don’t have to wait for that deadline. Apple already has a feature called Communication Safety which flags images containing nudity in Messages, AirDrop and FaceTime on children’s devices. It’s on by default for under-18s with a Child Account set up, but if you haven’t done that, it may not be active. Search “Communication Safety” in your iPhone settings to check.
For Android, a built-in equivalent doesn’t yet exist, which is exactly what this announcement is pushing Google to create.
This Monday on the podcast
What is AI doing to our kids’ planet?
Holly and I are joined by Dr Kelly Widdicks, who studies the environmental cost of digital technology at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. We try to answer real questions — like whether generating a party invitation with AI is better or worse for the planet than driving to the shops to buy one. The honest answer is that the data to settle it definitively isn’t there yet. Working out why turns out to be the interesting part.
Holly also reports back on how she got on with last weekend’s colouring page.
It’s on YouTube, Spotify and Apple from Monday morning.
This weekend’s AI activity
Open ChatGPT on your phone, take a photo of the inside of your fridge, and ask it what you could make for dinner. It takes about thirty seconds and means you can use up what you already have without staring at random leftovers wondering where to start.
There’s a step-by-step guide over on our blog – with a handy pdf download.
Let me know what your fridge comes up with on Instagram or Facebook.
Over to you
The next episode we’re recording is about AI toys for young children — the ones that talk back, respond to your child, and claim to learn from them. You’ve probably seen them in the shops.
If you’ve got a pre-schooler, or you’re wondering whether to buy one, I want your questions before we record. Hit reply and send them over, the best ones go straight into the episode.
See you Monday,
Fiona
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