About 70 parents and their children gathered at a workshop last Sunday to discuss how to navigate digital habits and the hidden pitfalls of artificial intelligence (AI) and screen time.
The session, titled “AI responsibilities, digital habits and hidden pitfalls”, was organised by Young Post and SCMP Learn, the South China Morning Post’s student business team. It highlighted how recommendation algorithms compound online risks, exposing teenagers to offshore betting syndicates and black-market sites.
Students were separated into three “design thinking” groups to explore ways to tackle these hidden dangers. The interactive format proved highly meaningful for 13-year-old Harris Cheung. His group dissected the mechanics of online scams by creating empathy maps and posters warning about the dangers of illegal gambling.
Harris said the activities shifted his perspective on the severity of unregulated betting.
“[Before, I thought] illegal gambling was a prank where you just gambled without any supervision. But now we see the effects. If there is a supply, there will always be a demand,” Harris said.
Power of knowledge
Harris explained that the workshop taught him how to handle predatory algorithms. Now, if he sees a friend receiving a suspicious message or ad, his advice is clear: “Don’t believe what they say. They might promise incredible profits or insane wins, but it’s not going to be true.”
Others also reflected on the prevalence of hidden betting advertisements online, noting how syndicates bypass filters by using carefully worded language.
“There were ones that were more about gambling without government supervision,” one student said.
However, the students also discovered how to weaponise technology for good. “We learned more about ... artificial intelligence and illegal gambling, how they use it, and how we can use AI to help fight it,” Harris explained.
Many students left feeling empowered, saying they now knew how to educate their families about AI and illegal betting.
They presented the posters they designed in their groups and explained the key lessons they learned.
Showing his group’s artwork, Harris said he was ready to take these lessons home. “[After this workshop], I will teach [my parents] ... what they need to do [to avoid] the traps,” he added.
Warning for parents
While students focused on the workshop, parents received a wake-up call regarding the psychological mechanisms behind popular video games.
Crystal Leung Chui-yee is the officer-in-charge of the Sunshine Lutheran Centre, a counselling and treatment centre for problem gamblers. She explained how randomised gaming “loot boxes” act as early conditioning for adult gambling addictions.
“When [children] can get whatever they want with just one click, it creates a cognitive short cut,” she said.
“The human brain ... remembers the instant gratification and dopamine.”
Landing a rare item provides an immense sense of triumph, she said, and feeding a developing mind these quick dopamine hits can breed a speculative mindset.
Leung advised parents to unlink their credit cards from their children’s devices and step into their digital worlds as curious learners rather than wardens.
For Fiona Ng, mother to a nine-year-old, digital threats feel like they are everywhere.
Ng’s caution stems from learning about a distressing experience in which a Form Four student secretly spent thousands of dollars on microtransactions using his mother’s credit card.
To prevent this, Ng separates her credit cards from her son’s account and discusses the reality of “money traps” in games like Minecraft.
“The truth is, you can’t really control them any more,” Ng reflected after the parents’ focus group. “The only way is to spend more time with them, step into their world, walk alongside them ... This is somewhat different from how we used to think before.”
Alice Leung, a mother of two sons, echoed these challenges. She stops her son from buying “Minecoins” but fears looming peer pressure. She said that enforcing screen time limits can cause friction, as her son argues that he cannot quit multiplayer games abruptly without seeming irresponsible.
Inspired by the talk, she plans to adjust her mindset. “Maybe my son is actually getting a ... sense of achievement from Minecraft, while I just see it as him playing games,” she said. “Maybe I will have a bit of a [change of mind] and try to understand more.”
A post-workshop survey of 17 attendees indicated the session was highly effective.
Nearly 80 per cent of the surveyed attendees said the session gave them a better understanding of illegal online betting sites, with half identifying them as their primary digital concern.
