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Tech Shock - from Parent Zone

Parent Zone

Tech Shock: everything you ever wanted to know about tech and family life. Podcasting from Parent Zone, the media literacy experts, host Vicki Shotbolt explores the upsides and downsides of family life in the digital age. With a range of expert guests, she looks at online harms to children, from pornography to gambling, and at what should be done about them. Incurably optimistic, Vicki also celebrates the many benefits of tech for children and young people, as she considers how best to live in a world in which family life is now inescapably digital. Listen every Monday, subscribe, and please give us a five star review.

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Episodes

143 episodes

  1. Episode 3: Dr Max Shotbolt: Quantum computing, the next big conversation 46:00
  2. Episode 2: Jonathan Baggaley: The Wind of the Song: Treachery of AI 57:47
  3. Episode 1: The Rapping Science Teacher: Science, Social Media and the Ban 32:14
  4. 5: Dr Garth Graham: Bringing Education to the World at Scale 36:27
  5. 4: Lisa Felton and Jeffrey DeMarco: A Partnership for Thriving 49:08
  6. 3. Katie Searle: Switched on to privacy: chat, choose, check. 21:44
  7. 2. Leon Xiao: The House Always Wins. The Home Loses. 41:47
  8. Spring Special Episode 4: Melinda Tankard Reist: ‘A Callous Society?’ 46:02
  9. 1. Natalie Foos: VoiceBox and AI chatbot support for parents 43:35
  10. Spring Special Episode 3: Haroon Chowdry: ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ 41:51
  11. Spring Special Episode 2: Andy Burrows: ‘Towards a Safer Future’ 42:11
  12. Spring Special Episode 1: Maeve Walsh: ‘Has the Online Safety Act Failed?’ 36:21
  13. 7. How to find friends and alienate people: geolocation, gender, and unhelpful legislation 35:27
  14. 6. Being ‘literate’ in the age of AI 46:03
  15. 5. Deepfakes, disinformation, and a trundle towards ‘reality apathy’? 47:55
  16. 4. Experience AI 35:44
  17. 3. RSE in the era of nudification apps and AI romance 46:00
  18. 2. A new gambling levy, and the dark side of the industry 37:18
  19. 1. "A range of questionable trends and industry practices” – gaming in 2025 54:17
  20. 10. Everyday Digital – a media literacy programme that works 28:44
  21. 9. EdTech: “Big Tech in a school uniform”? 38:26
  22. 8. Violence against women and girls: what’s needed for change? 32:24
  23. 7. Is tech destroying our attention spans? 38:06
  24. 6. Family vlogging, young people’s perspectives and the response ‘across the pond’ 29:02
  25. 5. What's next for the Online Safety Act? 41:00
  26. 4. Schools and emerging tech: a new era of sexual harassment and abuse? 31:32
  27. 3. Understanding ‘good enough’ parenting and toddlers' tech use 34:58
  28. 2. Early years digital media literacy: new report highlights significant gaps 31:38
  29. 1. Time for a change? Talking Child Financial Harms with Adam Groves 37:17
  30. 7. Season round-up with VoiceBox’s Natalie Foos 34:05
  31. 6. Digital resilience, wellbeing and the online world 42:36
  32. 5. AI’s role in mental health support? 36:57
  33. 4. From child rights to regulation: are we in a good place? 37:05
  34. 3. Digital parenting and monitoring technology 39:43
  35. 2. Mark Weinstein, privacy, anonymity and surveillance capitalism 48:28
  36. 1. The Annual Cyber Survey with Adrienne Katz 37:25
  37. Smartphone bans: the professional perspective 49:43
  38. Smartphone bans: what are young people saying? 28:01
  39. 9. Bonus episode - The minimal digital living standard 45:31
  40. Smartphone bans for under-16s: the parent perspective 29:59
  41. 7. Season roundup, with VoiceBox 33:44
  42. 6. The secrets of search 34:23
  43. 5. Young people and the emerging gender divide 31:38
  44. 4. The debate surrounding screen time, with Pete Etchells 50:26
  45. 3. The ‘wicked problem’ of child financial harms 36:55
  46. 2. Katie Davis 40:11
  47. 1. Has media literacy’s time finally come? 46:39
  48. 7. Sharenting 48:24
  49. 6. A problem hiding in plain sight? 39:38
  50. 5. The respectable face of the porn industry? 41:30