Five unmissable Tech Shock episodes
The Digital Families conference is back for 2022. At our special event in London – which you can register to attend here – expert speakers from across the spheres of tech, education and online safety will come together to explore the challenges and opportunities of the digital world.
Over the last 18 months, Parent Zone’s Tech Shock podcast has been driving the agenda for many of the topics you’ll experience at our conference.
Across three seasons, our hosts – Parent Zone CEO and founder Vicki Shotbolt and executive editor Geraldine Bedell – have been joined by expert guests to explore privacy, gaming and gambling, commercial pornography and much more.
Ahead of the conference this October, we’ve picked out five unmissable episodes to get you started.
Due to high demand you can now attend our Digital Families Conference 22 on the 18th of October virtually, as well as in-person. Register here for free
1. Carissa Veliz – on privacy and data
The author of Privacy is Power gave an impassioned argument for the importance of privacy online and what we risk in losing it.
Data in the wrong hands can cause very real harm, and that we need to take back control. Veliz argued that we need to start teaching young people about the dangers of unrestricted data collection: “We must teach young people to expect privacy, and to demand it when it’s not there.”
2. Faith Rogow – on media literacy
Faith Rogow is an expert on media literacy, founding president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education and who wrote some of the curriculum for the American Be Internet Legends.
Rogow discussed the importance of teaching media literacy from a young age, and believes that we need to encourage children to think critically about all kinds of media, from posters in the classroom, to illustrations in their story books to what they see online.
3. Dr Elly Hanson – on the impact of pornography
Dr Elly Hanson is a leading researcher of the impact of pornography on young people. In this episode, she explained how commercial pornography rewrites young people’s sexual scripts for profit, and should be discussed as the business that it really is.
She also explained that having an open-ended conversation with your child about the kinds of relationships that porn promotes is vital to “recapture the humanity of sex.”
You can read Dr Elly Hanson’s guest blog for Parent Zone here.
4. David Zendle – on gaming and gambling
David Zendle is a leading researcher into the links between gaming and gambling. In this episode, he discussed how microtransactions came to prominence in modern gaming, and the need for an independent gaming regulator to keep up with a rapidly changing environment:
“We need a new regulator to deal with the video game industry. The threats to people that exist through monetisation in 2025 will not resemble the threats to people that exist today.”
You can read David Zendle’s guest blog for Parent Zone here.
5. PSHE association and VoiceBox – on digital wellbeing
In 2021, VoiceBox released their report into digital wellbeing.
Lottie Gimlette and Natalie Foos discussed young people’s views and worries about the tech world with Jonathan Baggaley, head of the PSHE Association.
One key finding was that young people are well aware of the ups and downs of online life and know where they need extra support: “Young people aren’t naive and they want to have conversations. Parents don’t have to be experts, just be open, honest and frank.”