The research by 13-year-olds Coby Masterson and Daniel Adewale – both First Year students at Coláiste Mhuire – has found that teenagers’ confidence in their digital safety may be dangerously misplaced. They were presented by Ray McGrath, chair of the judging panel from Stripe with the 2nd place award in the Analog Devices-sponsored Junior Group projects Technology Category presented by Analog Devices.

First year duo expose AI age-check failures and online privacy risks

Published:

Although just in First Year, what their Young Scientist researches have revealed have prompted two students from Coláiste Mhuire to issue a stark warning to their peers about the hidden dangers of digital rights after a chance encounter with a faulty AI age-check.

Coby Masterson and Daniel Adewale presenting their project, ‘Privacy and Protection: Know Your Net’, warned that teenagers’ confidence in their digital safety may be dangerously misplaced. Their endeavours saw them come second in the Junior Group (Technology) awards.

The inspiration for the project came from a disturbing real-world experience. While attempting to sign in to a social media account, the pair watched as a facial recognition system incorrectly identified 13-year-old Coby as an adult over the age of 18.

“It scanned him and said he was 18+, which would have allowed him to see all sorts of content, including explicit content,” Daniel Adewale explained. “If AI can interpret a teenager’s age wrongly, imagine what it could do for younger children.”

Motivated by that discovery, the duo surveyed 135 students to measure their understanding of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The results showed a “confidence gap”: while most students felt they understood their rights, the majority failed to answer basic GDPR questions correctly.

To address that, the students built a comprehensive educational ecosystem consisting of:

• The Know Your Net Website: Featuring dedicated pages on GDPR, online safety, and the controversial ‘Chat Control’ legislation.

• A Unity-Based Video Game: A three-level platform where players must navigate obstacles representing online threats.

An Interactive Reward System: Students earn virtual coins for correct answers to digital rights questions, which can be spent in an in-game shop.

• The project also delved into the heated European debate over ‘Chat Control’ – proposed legislation that would allow companies to scan private messages for illegal content. The students’ research found that while teens might accept limited scanning to detect ‘grooming’ on apps like WhatsApp, there is a fierce opposition to blanket surveillance.

“Most students strongly oppose the government or companies reading their private messages,” Coby Masterson noted. “Teens have low trust in social media with their data.”

Despite a last-minute category switch in December – moving from social sciences to technology – the two managed to develop their Unity game and website in just four weeks.

Published: