This week’s seminar theme regarding privacy, safety, bullying, and consent really had me weighing the pros and cons of technological advancement and what it means for students and teachers.

When guest speaker Jesse Miller began his lecture he touched on the advancements in AI, specifically the potential danger of generated images. He covered how images can be superimposed to create sensitive and seriously harmful content which can jeopardize the safety of minors (or anyone for that matter).

This conversation immediately made me recall the case of Amanda Todd, which concerns the suicide of a teenage girl who had been blackmailed using nude images. Having lived just a few towns over from me, Amanda’s case was discussed at length at my elementary school, serving as a warning about cyber safety.

Now considering what Jesse said about AI and how it can be used against people in that context, I am reminded about the importance of educating youth not just about safe internet use but about how to ask for help and not go about suffering in silence. Part of this entails giving students functional up-to-date resources concerning how to better inform themselves in this ever advancing world, facilitating interventions from adults in the form of workshops, and providing support outlets for if help is required… there must be resources better fit to handle issues related to technology than Kids Help Phone and that is the only resource I remember getting in grade school… so these should be made known.

I do not envy kids growing up in this tech filled generation and, despite our ignorance regarding what it means to be a Gen Alpha, it is our duty as educators to help them navigate this world.

PS. On the topic of AI and generated images, I wanted to put ChatGPT’s abilities to the test so I got it to generate me this photo using the following prompt: “Please generate me a cartoonish image of a teenage girl crying while looking at a phone screen.”

Image generated by ChatGPT, October 29, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/chat