Privacy, honesty, and human boundaries
Protect people and be clear about how AI helped.
Skill 4.10 · About 25 minutes to begin
Using a tool responsibly includes respecting the people whose information or work might enter it. You remain responsible for what you submit, publish, or send. An AI conversation is not a replacement for a trusted relationship or qualified help.
Before you begin
Bring along
- Notebook or local practice tools
- Fictional sample task
- Calculator and primary sources
Support & boundaries
Paper and on-page exercises need no AI account. For live tools, follow age requirements and parent, guardian, school, and program rules. Use fictional data; keep people in control of real decisions and external actions.
01 / Learn
Understand the skill
- Use only tools allowed for your age and by your parent, guardian, school, or program. Providers have different data practices; do not assume a chat is confidential.
- Follow the assignment rules and disclose meaningful AI assistance. Do not submit generated work as your own thinking when that is prohibited.
- Synthetic voices, images, and messages can impersonate people. Do not create humiliating or deceptive media, and verify urgent requests through a known independent channel.
02 / Practice
Try it, step by step
- 1
Review a fictional prompt containing a name, address, account number, and private message. Remove details that are unnecessary or private.
- 2
Replace real people and records with clearly invented examples. Never paste passwords, secret keys, or private information about someone else.
- 3
Check the rules for the task and tool before using it. If permission is unclear, use the paper exercise or ask the responsible adult.
- 4
Write an honest note: AI helped brainstorm the outline; I checked the claims and wrote the final explanation. Describe what actually happened.
- 5
Practice responding to a fake urgent voice message by pausing and contacting the person using a known number with adult support.
- 6
Keep humans in control of messages, purchases, account access, and public posts. Do not connect a practice helper to those actions.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Upload them because the AI promises to help.
- Treating a successful practice attempt as permission to skip the supervision or checks for a real task.
Your call
A teammate suggests uploading customer addresses to get a better route. What next?
03 / Demonstrate
Show what you can do
Use these prompts with a mentor. This practice checklist resets when you leave; record your overall stage below in the signed-in manual.
0 of 3 reviewed together
Mentor notes & sources
Help someone learn
- Never require learners to share real chats or private family information as evidence.
- If a youth encounters coercion, disturbing content, or a serious personal concern, support them in getting trusted human help rather than continuing an AI conversation.
Start together, then let the learner take responsibility at an appropriate level. Offer a shorter task, a different role, or more practice time when useful. Review the demonstration criteria together; advanced practice never removes supervision requirements.
Reference shelf
Original program lessons informed by these references. Equipment manuals, current local rules, and qualified instruction govern technical practice.
- UNESCO: AI competency framework for students ↗
Human agency, ethics, critical understanding, and creating with AI
- Common Sense Education: AI literacy lessons ↗
Age-appropriate critical thinking, privacy, bias, and responsible use
- FTC: how to avoid a scam ↗
Recognizing pressure and verifying requests
Edition updated 2026-09-28. Program learning material; not a professional qualification.
04 / Apply · In Action
Make the prompt safe
Rewrite an invented prompt that exposes a neighbor’s private details. Add a truthful disclosure for how AI would be used.
What success looks like
The revised prompt retains the task without identifying the neighbor or exposing records.
Talk it through
What information was unnecessary even though it seemed convenient?
05 / Teach · Take it further
Teach the crew a simple pause-and-verify response to a fictional impersonation scam.