As the Tech Shock podcast returns for its 11th season, Vicki is joined by Sara Grimes, McGill University professor and expert in child rights and ethical game design, to explore the views of young gamers – and the current industry at large.

2025 research from Ofcom shows that 97% of 8-17 year-olds game online. But as the industry continues to grow in popularity – and of course value – we’re left facing the same set of problems (and some newer ones to boot).

Age ratings remain confusing to the parents left to interpret them; in-game advertising is not the elephant in the room, but simply in the room; monetisation and gambling are still one step ahead of regulation; and child creators lack basic rights when it comes to intellectual property.

But to properly understand gaming in 2025 we first need to understand the lived experiences of child gamers themselves – with this also giving us a firm basis to begin asking some important questions, and demanding answers.

Talking points:

• What does direct research with children reveal about gaming and age-appropriate game design?
• Why is it that, within gaming, children aren’t viewed as serious creators with intellectual property rights?
• Is the industry now so problematic that we require a gaming regulator – and what might good regulation in such a complex space actually look like?

Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.

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Media literacy. It’s at the core of a three-year strategy from Ofcom, featured in DSIT’s ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan’ and looks set to make more than just a fleeting appearance in the reviewed curriculum this autumn. It’s also one means of combating mis- and disinformation as well as online financial harms and misogyny. In short, it’s being recognised by many – and rightly so – as essential.

Designed to build critical media literacy skills across UK communities, Everyday Digital is a national media literacy programme from Parent Zone and originally funded by DSIT. The programme helps parents to understand media literacy and build simple habits which can be incorporated into their everyday lives – and those of their children.

In this episode, Vicki is joined by Everyday Digital expert and member of the Parent Zone team, Megan Rose to discuss what’s next for the programme, including how it’s being scaled to meet a growing need, and how professionals can get involved.

Talking points:

• Are parents really ever ‘hard to reach’ or do we just need more media literacy initiatives in the supermarket?
• What impact did evaluation show Everyday Digital to have, and why do we need to move away from endless pilots?
• With risks and harms evolving (alongside our responses to them) what’s next for Everyday Digital – and Parent Zone more generally?

Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.

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After a shift to online learning during COVID-19, EdTech – everything from digital whiteboards and eBooks to Google Classroom and virtual reality equipment – is an industry that’s gone from strength to strength in terms of size, scope and profitability.

But as the UK is beginning to see a narrative form around the virtues of a ‘screen free’ childhood and, further abroad, countries like Sweden move back to more ‘traditional’ methods of teaching, many parents are left questioning the current use of EdTech and its effect on their children.

To help understand how we should approach the growing presence of EdTech, as well as what ‘good’ EdTech might look like, Vicki is joined by Natalia Kucirkova, Professor of Early Childhood and Development at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and Director of the International Centre for EdTech Impact.

Talking points:

• Could possible harms warrant us taking the ‘precautionary principle’ when it comes to EdTech in schools?
  
  
• How exactly does ‘transparency’, ‘accountability’, and ‘fairness’ play into principles of ‘ethical’ EdTech?
  
  
• Is independent research and evaluation really enough to keep Big Tech accountable?

Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.

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