AI reliability as a tool for parents to address Child Financial Harms

Assessing the quality, accuracy, and safety of advice provided by popular AI services regarding Child Financial Harms (CFH) in gaming.

Key insights

The research concludes that for parents to receive effective guidance, precise "prompt engineering" is more critical than the specific bot chosen. The quality of advice varies significantly based on the "personality" of the AI and the structure of the user's prompt. 

While most bots provided factually accurate baseline data, Claude achieved the highest overall score (40/50) for its appropriate tone and research depth. Conversely, Meta AI demonstrated significant issues with tone and consistency, occasionally mocking users or hallucinating incorrect information.

The research highlights the potential for AI to supplement traditional age-rating systems by identifying complex financial risks that other systems may overlook. 

For instance, several models suggested an 18+ rating for EAFC based on its monetisation, providing a nuanced second opinion to its official PEGI 3 status

Developing Parents' Digital Financial Capability

Children and parents’ financial skills and confidence are closely linked. What system changes might help enhance parents’ digital financial capability?

Key findings

• Parents need to be aware of online financial harms and know how to support their children effectively. 
• Services available to parents are not sufficient to deal with online child financial harms. 
• Strategic, evidence-based and widely-available parenting support is needed. 
• Policymakers need to implement a national parenting strategy that includes online financial harms. 
• Regulators need to include child financial harms in platform risk assessment requirements.
• Platforms must ensure parents have the information they need to understand online financial risks. 
• Banks need to create or improve pathways for parents to report concerns on behalf of their children.

Short changed and out of time

A report into families facing financial harms alone – based on a parent poll discussing Child Financial Harms.

Key insights

• 62% of parents who have children aged 7-18 agree that financial harm online is a relevant issue. 
• 20% of parents who have children aged 7-18 say their child has experienced a problem whilst online involving money. 
• About a quarter of children who spend money online have experienced financial harm online, according to their parents. 
• 15% of parents are not confident about teaching their children about making, spending and losing money online. 
• The most common problems involve accidental purchases (46%) and subscriptions (24%). 
• Over one fifth (21%) of parents report their children have made purchases on their card without their consent.

Communicating about Child Financial Harms to Media and Policy Audiences

How to most effectively communicate to raise awareness of Child Financial Harms as a distinct and‬ urgent.

Key insights

Child Financial Harms represent a distinct and emerging challenge that sits at the intersection of online safety, financial literacy, and child protection. Unlike traditional financial fraud or general online safety concerns, these harms occur in spaces specifically designed to appeal to children, often disguised as play or entertainment. 

However, despite their rapid growth, the existence of these problems as a distinct issue is all too rarely acknowledged in public and political discourse. As a result policymakers and other influential decision makers are often unaware of the severity and potential long-term impacts, and struggle to locate it within a crowded field of urgent issues.

A problem hiding in plain sight?

how much financial agency do children have online – and how are they spending, making, and losing money? 

Key insights

Almost all young people aged 13-18 (96%) buy things online, either physical goods or digital purchases. 

More than three in five young people (61%) use their own debit cards to buy things online. 

Almost half (48%) of young people spend money to play online games. 

42% of 13-18 year-olds claimed to have also made money online

5% of children and young people surveyed had made money through gambling video game items. 

More than two in five (42%) of young people who have bought something online have accidentally bought or subscribed to something accidentally, been scammed, or lost money in another way. 

Three-quarters of 13-18 year-olds (76%) think young people their age end up doing something that breaks the law.