AI: a practical one — staying involved in your child's AI use

What can you do to be/stay involved? Here are some ready-to-use ideas. 😄

1. For younger children, one shared family account is often wise, also because ChatGPT officially may not be used independently under the age of 13. That naturally gives insight and transparency. For older children this can actually backfire. Then trust and conversation are often more important than control.
2. If your child uses their own account, you can occasionally go through the chat history together. For example: "What were you trying to achieve with this?" "What did you find useful or actually odd about this answer?"
3. Via screen time or parental supervision on the device, you can see when and how long ChatGPT and other AI tools are used. You don't see what is asked, but you do see patterns. A lot or little use, late in the evening, mostly around homework. That often already says enough to start the conversation.
4. Set the settings up properly together: turn off chat history if you don't want to keep conversations, and agree not to enter personal data.
5. Have your child explain how ChatGPT works and what it's used for. You'll quickly notice whether it's a tool, or unnoticed a replacement for their own thinking, and whether it's used more for practical matters or for mental/faith-related questions.
6. Following everything is not feasible and usually not desirable either. More important is that a child learns:
   • ChatGPT is a tool (not an authority)
   • When extra caution is needed regarding identity
   • That your child remains responsible for what they submit
   This also connects to 'Prompting like a PRO': learning to think about your question, providing context and staying critical of the answer.

Do you have anything to add? Feel free to let me know.