My AI: Snapchat chatbot coaches fictional ‘13-year-old girl’ on losing virginity
- Snapchat’s new AI chatbot has reportedly coached a 13-year-old-girl on how to lose her virginity and deceive social services.
- Co-Founder for the Centre for Humane Technology Aza Raskin managed to convince the chatbot that he was a teenage girl.
- The bot instructed the “girl” how to lie to her parents about a trip she would take with a 31-year-old man to lose her virginity and trick social services.
- One question posed to the chatbot was what is the easiest way to use make-up to cover a bruise with the AI responding, “Green is a good colour to use”.
- At launch Snapchat stated there would be instances where the chatbot would make mistakes and issued an apology in advance.
- The AI chatbot on Snapchat is currently only available as a premium feature.
- For more on this story, please visit the Times website.
Interactive gaming to help keep young people safe online
- Researchers and computer scientists at Bournemouth University have developed an online game called CyGamBit to teach children how to keep safe online.
- Topics addressed within the game include cyber bullying, data theft, trolling, who we are online and health and wellbeing.
- The game is played in groups of up to six and could be played in schools and other educational or social settings.
- The leader of the project, Jane Henriksen-Bulmer has said that the game has been “designed for children aged between 8 and 12” to address the gaps in conversations between parents and children.
- For more on this story, please visit Bournemouth University’s website.
Government urged to include suicide prevention on national curriculum
- The government has been urged to include suicide prevention on the national curriculum following a campaign from the ‘Three Dads Walking’ group.
- The three fathers who lost their daughters to suicide want suicide prevention lessons to become a compulsory part of the curriculum.
- These lessons are currently optional to teach to age-appropriate children.
- The Education Secretary promised the issue would be a “key priority area” in the upcoming review of Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE).
- For the full story, please visit the Yahoo News website.
Police protect hundreds of children from Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
- Ahead of National Child Exploitation Awareness Day on 18th March, West Mercia Police will be delivering a campaign designed to raise awareness of and to prevent Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).
- West Mercia Police have specialised officers and dedicated teams who target offenders actively engaging in Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCESA).
- In the last 12 months OCEST officers have safeguarded 231 children and conducted safeguarding visits on 238 targets.
- The Internet Watch Foundation confirm that since 2019, there has been a 1058 per cent increase in the number of webpages that show sexual abuse of 7–10-year-olds.
- The NSPCC also reported in 2022 that online grooming had increased by 84%.
- For the full story, please visit the MSN website.
One fifth of homeless children change schools multiple times
- According to research by Shelter, over one fifth of homeless children have changed schools multiple times.
- 47% of school-aged children have been forced to move schools due to living in temporary accommodation.
- 37% of these children have missed more than one month of school.
- Local authorities provide temporary accommodation to homeless families but the shortage of affordable homes means families are stuck in temporary accommodation for months or years.
- Research has shown that living in temporary accommodation and moving schools can be detrimental to children’s relationships, sense of belonging and academic achievement.
- Shelter fear that the cost-of-living crisis will result in more families becoming homeless, they call on the Government to unfreeze housing benefit and build more social housing.
- For more on this story, please visit the CYP Now website.
