The Alan Turing Institute teams explored the perspectives of children, parents, carers and teachers on GenAI technologies. Their research is guided by the ‘Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children’ (RITEC) framework for digital technology, play and children’s wellbeing established by UNICEF and funded by the the LEGO Group and seeks to examine the potential impacts of GenAI on children’s wellbeing.📊

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The research was undertaken through 2 online surveys which looked to explore the impact of GenAI use on children’s learning, development, and overall wellbeing. With a focus on the UK, the first of these surveys was of 780 children aged 8-12, and their parents or carers. The second of these surveys was of 1.001 teachers working in primary or secondary schools with children aged 1-16.🏫🎒

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:

👉Nearly a quarter of children aged 8-12 report having used GenAI, with the most used tool being ChatGPT.

👉Parents and carers are mostly optimistic about their children’s use of GenAI, but many report concerns over their children’s access to inappropriate or inaccurate information.

👉Parents, carers, and teachers all report similar levels of concern over the negative impact that GenAI may have on children’s critical thinking skills.

👉Teachers report that more than half of students who are using GenAI for schoolwork use the tool to submit AI-generated work as their own.

👉The majority of teachers who use GenAI are optimistic about its use in their work, reporting high levels of confidence and trust in the technology. These teachers also report improvements in their performance on various teaching tasks, aided by the use of GenAI.

👉Teachers are less optimistic about the impact that students’ use of GenAI may have – with the exception of its use as a tool to support students with additional learning needs.