Family IT Guy Podcast

Is Perplexity safe for kids? Common Sense Media tested the AI search tool with accounts set up as a 15-year-old and gave it its lowest rating, unacceptable risk. My opinion and my suggestion is that kids should never use AI alone.

The testers set the age to 15 in Perplexity's phone app, and Perplexity still treated them like adults. It discussed pornography, engaged in romantic role play, and offered no parental or school controls. It also trains on user data and keeps search history by default. In the crisis tests, its default chat gave an actual crisis line in only half of the suicide and self-harm cases, and the only eating disorder hotline it offered has been disconnected since 2023. Academic mode, which Perplexity markets to students, gave complete answers to homework in 83% of the tests.

I use Perplexity all the time, and for adults I think it's an amazing tool. For young people, using an AI chatbot is a high-risk activity. If kids use AI at all, and I recommend they don't, I think it should be 100% supervised: you can actually see the screen, and if you get up, their hands come off the keyboard.

These are early adopter systems. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, which makes Claude, wrote on his blog that "we do not understand how our own AI creations work." I don't think kids should be beta testers, especially of technology that enters their minds.

Sources:

Common Sense Media's Perplexity risk assessment: https://institute.commonsensemedia.org/risk-assessments/perplexity

Dario Amodei, "The Urgency of Interpretability": https://www.darioamodei.com/post/the-urgency-of-interpretability

Full livestream, where I answer more viewer questions and cover news about kids and technology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXv57vLtLpg

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

Website: https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #ai #perplexity #digitalparenting #onlinesafety #familyitguy

I think boredom is good for kids, and a school bus ride is a good place to practice it. A parent in my livestream chat has two boys, six and seven, with no phones or tablets of their own, and the youngest wants a screen he can play with on the bus.

My first answer is that the internet is for adults, not children, for technical reasons and for legal and regulatory ones. Once you buy a device with an internet connection, you end up blocking one thing after another, because many of the things it can do are designed to capture attention. Even an hour a day adds up to hundreds of hours a year. A Wi-Fi tablet with no cellular connection still needs its videos from somewhere, and most video services aren't compatible with kids, even their kids' products. YouTube Kids, for example, is not safe for kids.

Compared with watching content, even content you've filtered, I think staring out the bus window is better for a child's mental and emotional health. If he wants something to do, he could bring a book or a Kindle. My son is 11 and has a kids' Kindle with a filtered library, which you still need to check on, and he's been reading a lot of books because of it.

The parent followed up that a handheld game console would be okay, and that being bored is okay too. If he'd rather play a game, an old console like a Nintendo DS works well. We found one for our son on Facebook Marketplace. The batteries last a long time, and it's sturdy enough for a kid.

Full livestream, where I answer more viewer questions and cover news about kids and technology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXv57vLtLpg

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

Website: https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #screentime #boredom #digitalparenting #kidsandtechnology #familyitguy

My son uses his Apple Watch for emergencies, with a short list of family contacts. When he asked to add a friend, my wife and I said no. Here’s why texting friends would change what we use the watch for.

https://www.familyitguy.com

Someone in the live chat asked why we don't just teach children to use devices well instead of

banning them. It's a fair question and I think the premise is sound. My answer is that it depends

on the device.

A phone is not usually the thing you are protecting a child from. It's a door to other things, and

those things are what need restricting. Some of them I don't think have a safe version at any age:

pornography, social media, anonymous chat, anything running an addictive algorithm.

So it isn't teach or restrict. It's both. Restrict the things that don't have a good version, and

for everything you do hand them, teach them how to use it. Education is a dependency for anything

that matters, whether it's a hammer or an app.

Full livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmj519CTr9o

A mum wrote in during the livestream. She has two boys, nine and five, she wants to protect them from what is online, and she does not want to do it by frightening them. How do you balance that?

I use an analogy at those ages. Most of us would not drop a child off in a dangerous part of town and leave them there. The internet is that same part of town, reached through a screen instead of on foot. There are people there who like to hurt others, and there are companies making money the same way.

Then there is the part every parent hears: my friends have this. In our house the answer is that we do not do things because other people do them, and we do not do things because of social pressure. We do things based on our principles and on keeping each other healthy. Being normal is not what we are aiming for.

Full livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmj519CTr9o

iOS 27 parental controls are out, and in this video I go through what changed for parents and how I'd set up a kid's iPhone with them.

First, the new Screen Time features: suggested starting apps by age, Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse, contact requests, time allowances by app category, schedules, Pause Device, requests for more time, and sharing your child's age range with the App Store. Communication Safety, Apple's filter that tries to block nude photos in messages, now covers gore and violence too. I also explain why updating to iOS 27 may not give you the new controls yet, and how to tell which version your family has.

Then I go through the settings I suggest changing so a kid's iPhone gets used for a specific purpose and then put down: contacts, the internet, app installs, the camera, notifications, the Home Screen, grayscale and the AI features in Siri, plus a first aid app and maps and languages that work offline. I run grayscale on my own phone, and I suggest parents try it too. The details for each setting are in my iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass.

Chapters:

0:00 What's new in iOS 27

0:59 Suggested starting apps

1:46 Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse

3:24 Contact requests

3:57 Communication Safety now covers violence

5:09 Time allowances and schedules

6:43 Pause Device and requests for more time

7:34 Sharing your child's age range

8:43 Why you may not see the new controls

11:49 Why I'd wait for iOS 27.1

12:30 How I'd set up a kid's iPhone

13:32 Birthday and Screen Time passcode

14:37 Contacts and the internet

15:29 Blocking app installs

16:29 Turning off the camera

18:35 Screen Distance and locked settings

19:21 Offline tools: first aid, maps and Translate

21:23 An empty Home Screen and grayscale

22:52 Raise to Wake, Always On and StandBy

23:47 Notifications and badges

25:01 Siri Suggestions, keyboard clicks and Picture in Picture

25:40 App Store settings and stock apps

26:25 Turning off the AI features in Siri

27:26 Wrapping up

Sources:

Apple's June 2026 announcement of the new child safety features: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-previews-new-child-safety-features/

Apple Support, setting up parental controls on a child's iPhone or iPad: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121

Apple Support, blocking changes to settings on a child's device: https://support.apple.com/guide/child-safety/block-or-allow-access-and-changes-to-features-nzglr8yl0hwv/web

American Red Cross apps, including First Aid: https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/mobile-apps.html

Images in this video are from Apple Newsroom and Apple Support.

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass:

https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass

More help for parents:

https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

A parent shares how their daughter’s abusers got around the restrictions on her device. I discuss what happened and why children need to know they can ask their parents for help when something goes wrong online.

I recommend that parents offer their children a free pass: if someone is hurting them, taking advantage of them, or making them uncomfortable, they can tell their parents without getting in trouble. That promise needs a strong relationship behind it. And if they use the free pass, give them another one.

Chapters:

0:00 A parent shares what happened

3:19 Clarifying the Screen Time code

3:52 How parents respond

4:30 A promise backed by a strong relationship

Related conversation with Jason Sokolowski:

https://youtu.be/MmVnmZICzb8

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass:

https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass

More help for parents:

https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

Roblox is an adult platform that is marketed to kids. It does not respect parental authority. It has lied to and misled parents for years, and it has traded safety for profit. I am not a fan.

Roblox has 123 million daily active users and about 70 percent of them are under 18. That leaves roughly 36.9 million adults on Roblox every day. Most parents picture a children's game.

During the livestream Jason Sokolowski wrote in that Roblox is the gateway, that children get invited from there into a private server on Discord, a chat app where conversations happen out of sight, and that is where the desensitisation begins. He is right. It is not the only gateway, but it is a big one.

Jason's daughter Penelope was caught up in 764, an online group that targets and coerces children. He has talked about what happened to her on my podcast, and I would recommend looking him up.

Full livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHb5wt_LrMw

A parent asks how to control a school-required iPad that their child also uses for homework. I discuss Apple’s Screen Time controls, NextDNS internet filtering, and home router schedules, including how the school’s restrictions may affect which controls parents can use.

I also explain why I recommend putting the iPad away after homework and paying attention to how much time children spend away from the internet.

Chapters:

0:00 A school-required iPad

1:28 Screen Time and school restrictions

2:16 App and website controls

3:27 NextDNS internet filtering

3:55 Putting the iPad away after homework

5:15 Home router controls

Resources discussed:

Apple parental controls: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121

NextDNS: https://nextdns.io

Gryphon: https://gryphonconnect.com

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass:

https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass

More help for parents:

https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

Meta’s child safety settlement leaves addictive feeds and messages from strangers available to kids. I explain why I don’t think the agreement addresses the main sources of harm, what its time limits actually cover, and what parents can do with the controls already on their devices.

I also discuss age checks, privacy, who receives the settlement money, and why showing our kids how we manage our own phone use matters. Recorded during my September 2, 2026 livestream.

Read the presentation and court filing:

https://www.familyitguy.com/meta-settlement

Chapters

0:00 Will this settlement protect kids?

1:07 Addictive feeds and messages from strangers

4:39 Time limits and the optional chronological feed

8:46 What I would change at Meta

13:11 Parents leading by example

17:23 Age checks, privacy and government control

21:41 What Meta admitted and who gets paid

25:24 Who can enforce the agreement

26:36 Why the safety message matters

Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are.

iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass:

https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description

Website: https://www.familyitguy.com

Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g

#parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy