The Tech Shock podcast – Digital Families conference highlights
10 Jan, 2023
3 minute read

The Tech Shock podcast – Digital Families conference highlights

This week, Vicki and Geraldine talk us through their highlights – and some of the excellent speakers, many of whom are previous guests on the Tech Shock podcast – from Parent Zone’s Digital Families conference 2022.

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What we learned this week

Working through the day’s proceedings, Vicki and Geraldine start by discussing Faith Rogow’s exposition of media literacy. The pair unpack her remarks on how media – and what it means to be literate – is undergoing an enormous shift. Simply ‘reading’ or ‘decoding’ messages isn’t sufficient – we need, as Geraldine says, “a whole set of skills that we haven’t been used to teaching children”.

Relatedly, Vicki and Geraldine recall a comment from panellist Julian McDougall on media studies in schools: the subject is an untapped, and unfairly mocked, resource when it comes to digital education. 

Reference is made to Dr David Zendle’s engaging talk on predatory monetisation in the video game industry – an industry which is (conservatively) estimated to generate 100 billion dollars annually. Vicki says that Dr Zendle’s call-to-action has stuck with her – don’t rely on self-regulation and ineffective policy, keep making noise, and keep trying to affect change from the ‘bottom up’.

The pair turn to Dr Elly Hanson’s presentation on pornography. Not only, Dr Hanson stated, does pornography encourage selfish individualism and misogyny, the industry also manipulates tastes for later revenues. For Geraldine, it’s just another form of ‘surveillance capitalism’.

Vicki and Geraldine then discuss Callum Hood’s talk on 'incel' culture. The pair recap some shocking revelations, and the notion that tech companies aren’t doing enough to limit traffic to sites encouraging violence, hatred of women, and suicide. 

Next, the pair touch upon The Tony Blair Institute’s Sam Sharps and his belief that, given it covers all facets of modern life, all policy is tech policy. Vicki claims Sam really “landed that point. That tech is here, and it’s transformative”. 

They also weigh in on speaker Paul Finnis from The Digital Poverty Alliance, who, in exploring digital exclusion and media literacy, left the audience with some truly “sobering” stats concerning internet access and illiteracy among school leavers. 

Geraldine brings up the last part of the conference: a conversation between Vicki and Lord Jim Knight, one which focused heavily on the Online Safety Bill (OSB). They mention Lord Knight’s familiarity with Westminster processes, and consider his insight into some of the barriers that the OSB might face (especially given recent political upheaval) an enlightening part of the event.

Vicki and Geraldine close their roundup with mention of a question posed to the audience at the conference. The question was centred on children and social media use, and it produced, the pair believe, a unanimous “bombshell”of a response.

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Next week Vicki and Geraldine talk to Roxy and Gay Longworth, co-authors of When You Lose It, a personal account of nude sharing, blackmail, and the impact this had on their family.

Our Digital Families blog

Watch the speakers from the conference 

More on our Tech Shock Podcast