How to Monitor AI Slop

By Rebecca Paredes

October 8, 2025

Mom and daughter talking to each other on couch about AI apps

Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:

Learn how to monitor your child’s AI apps with our FREE AI safety toolkit for parents.
Instagram is testing the ability to adjust your algorithm. We break down why this is a good feature to explore with your child.
We spoke with the team at Culture Reframed about parenting through the porn crisis, how to start conversations, and essential tips to keep kids safe.

Digital Parenting

🤖 Free AI safety toolkit for parents: ChatGPT now has parental controls, but are they doing enough for parents? AI is everywhere in your child’s digital world. OpenAI recently launched Sora, a social network app filled with “hyperreal” AI-generated videos. (If your child uses Instagram, a version of this is already available in their app, called “Vibes.”) AI companion apps are having shockingly detailed and intimate conversations with kids. And who’s to say what the future holds for how kids use AI?

Parents need better tools to monitor how their kids use AI today. That’s why we’re excited to bring you this free AI safety toolkit, created by the parents at BrightCanary. In it, you’ll find a cheat sheet of the most popular AI apps, a simple setup checklist to better protect your child, a quiz to evaluate your child’s AI safety, and more. Download the guide (free PDF) today.

Did you know? BrightCanary monitors every app your child uses, including what they type on ChatGPT, Character.ai, Meta AI, and more. Get 20% off BrightCanary Protection to monitor AI prompts and get concerning content alerts with code SAFETY20.

🔄 Instagram testing ability to “tune” algorithms: In an Instagram post celebrating three billion monthly active users, CEO Adam Mosseri announced that users will be able to add and remove topics based on their interests. Instagram, like other platforms, uses an algorithm to determine what your child sees on their feed, based on the content they like, comment on, and share. But social media algorithms have a snowball effect. If they search for topics like violence, adult material, or conspiracy theories, they’ll see more negative content on their feed.

Being able to add and remove specific topics means that your child can have more control over what they see and what’s recommended. In the meantime, periodically check out your child’s social media feeds together. And if their feed needs a clean-up, we’ve covered how to reset your child’s social media feeds — and how to talk to them about why that matters.

Tech Talks

Talking about AI doesn’t have to be awkward. These conversation starters come from our free AI safety toolkit for parents. Use these prompts to start the dialogue, and download the guide for even more safety tips.

“Do your friends use AI apps? What do they ask it?”
“What’s the difference between talking to an AI and talking to a friend?”
“If an AI gave you advice that felt wrong, what would you do?”
“Do you think AI can be trusted?”
“What would you do if AI gave you a weird answer?”

What’s Catching Our Eye

💸 ChatGPT users will be able to use Instant Checkout to make purchases from Etsy and Shopify, all without having to leave the app — so, now’s a good time to talk to your child about purchase limits and why they shouldn’t use ChatGPT to buy their entire Christmas list.

❤️‍🩹 October is National Bullying Prevention Month. What should you do if your child is getting bullied on social media? Save these tips.

📱 One in five Americans regularly get their news from TikTok, a sharp increase from 2020.