AI and digital childhoods

Professor Neil Selwyn from Monash University presents at the latest DC x ACMI seminar

In the fourth seminar of the Digital Child x ACMI series, three experts gave their thoughts in answer to the question ‘How is AI changing digital childhoods?’.

‘The aim of this event was to ask a series of questions, particularly relating to the ways that AI impacts on, or affects, the childhoods of young children, which is the particular remit of the Digital Child Centre,’ said Professor Julian Sefton-Green, Digital Child Chief Investigator.

‘How do young children and their families understand AI? Where or how is it used in daily life? What do they or other actors want from it? What are people’s concerns about AI, and in what way is the idea of AI just a theoretical construct and how is it actually impacting on people’s everyday lives and interactions?’

The first presenter was Professor Andra Siibak, Professor of Media Studies in the Institute of Social Studies at the University of Tartu in Estonia. Estonia is widely considered to be the world’s most advanced digital society.

Following Professor Siibak was Dr Luke Heemsbergen, Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and Senior Lecturer in Communication at Deakin University, and then Professor Neil Selwyn, Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.

The seminar series consists of public-facing events co-hosted by REDI’s Deakin node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

View the seminar below or got to the Digital Child YouTube channel.