Free guide for parents

How to talk to your child about AI

A practical guide for parents of children aged 8 and over. Five sections — from the basics to safe everyday AI use.

1

What AI is and where your child encounters it every day

AI is not a single programme. It is a collection of techniques that allow computers to learn to recognise patterns — in images, sounds, and text.

  • YouTube and TikTok — an AI algorithm decides which videos your child sees. It analyses what they watch, for how long, and what they skip.
  • Face ID and voice recognition — AI on phones recognises faces and voices based on thousands of learned patterns.
  • Video games — opponents (NPCs) behave like humans thanks to AI. Matchmaking pairs players of similar skill levels.
  • Voice assistants (Siri, Google Assistant) — they understand speech and convert it to text, then search for answers.
  • Translation and spell-checking — Google Translate and spell-check in Word/Docs are AI systems trained on millions of sentences.
Key message for your child: AI is a tool made by people. People decide how to use it — and you can learn how too.
2

Questions worth asking your child together

The most effective AI literacy learning starts with conversation, not a lecture.

  • “Where did you come across AI today?” — teaches them to recognise AI in their surroundings.
  • “How do you know what the AI said is true?” — builds the habit of checking facts.
  • “What were you trying to achieve with that question? Did you get it?” — develops the skill of forming clear prompts.
  • “Did AI give you a ready-made answer, or did it help you think?” — distinguishes a tool from a substitute for thinking.
  • “If AI said something wrong — where would you check?” — encourages critical thinking.
Conversation principle: Do not judge your child’s answers as wrong. Ask “why do you think that?” — that is exactly what AI cannot do.
3

How to protect your child’s privacy when using AI

AI processes whatever your child types or says. That data goes to the companies running the tool.

  • Do not share real names and surnames with AI systems, unless it is a trusted educational app.
  • Do not share addresses, school names, or phone numbers — AI does not need this information to help with learning.
  • Do not upload photos of faces to open AI tools (for example unknown “photo editing” apps).
  • Passwords and codes never go into AI — even if the AI asks “how can I help you?”.
  • Check app permissions — is the app asking for access to the camera, microphone, or contacts without a clear reason?
Talking with your child: “When you type something into AI, imagine you are writing on the classroom board. Everything gets saved somewhere.”
GDPR and UK data protection: Across the EU and UK, laws protect children online. Under GDPR (Article 8), children under 13 require parental consent to use digital services that process personal data. UK users are protected under the UK GDPR; the ICO (ico.org.uk) can be contacted about data rights.
4

A checklist of safe AI tools for children aged 8–15

Before letting your child use an AI tool, check five things — that is enough to assess whether it is safe.

  • Content filter — the tool blocks inappropriate questions and answers. Check the terms of service or FAQ to see if child-specific moderation exists.
  • No open, unmoderated chat — the younger the child, the more important it is that the AI does not hold free-form conversations on any topic.
  • Minimal registration data — a safe children’s tool does not ask for name, age, and school all at once. The account should be created by a parent.
  • Clear purpose and scope — the tool does one specific thing (teaches, draws, translates) rather than being a “do-anything assistant”.
  • Parent dashboard or activity history — being able to check what your child was doing is the foundation of safe AI use.
What to avoid without parental supervision: Open chatbots without content filters, image-generation apps without moderation, tools that ask for personal data when registering children.
5

When AI helps with learning and when it gets in the way

AI is helpful when it supports thinking. It gets in the way when it replaces thinking.

AI helps when:

  • Your child asks for a difficult concept to be explained differently or through an example.
  • Your child checks their own idea: “Does my project plan make sense?”
  • Your child practises a foreign language — asking about pronunciation, sentence corrections, synonyms.
  • Your child looks for inspiration on a topic they then develop independently.

AI gets in the way when:

  • Your child pastes homework into AI and copies the answer without understanding it.
  • Your child treats every AI response as fact without checking the source.
  • AI replaces conversation with a teacher or classmate on a difficult topic.
  • Your child loses patience with making mistakes — because AI “always knows”.
A principle for parents: Ask not “What did AI tell you?” but “What do you think about what AI said?” That one question makes the difference between a passive user and an independent thinker.

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All of Stage 1 — Topics 1–4, 20 lessons — at no cost. Topic 1 opens without registration. A safe environment with no open chat, designed for children aged 8 and over.

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