I became a parent in 2009, and again in 2011, and learning to parent in a fully connected age, with cell phones, tablets, and social media has been a constant challenge, and still challenges me every day. I started giving public lectures in community and professional way back in 2003, well before I was married or had kids, but as my kids got into school and grew, I found myself shifting away from technical talks at conferences all over the world to giving lectures at schools and in community groups here in Vancouver.
A few years ago as the first iterations of modern LLMs and AI tools started becoming publicly available, I started getting questions from other parents. Not "what is AI?" — they'd heard plenty about that. The question was simpler and harder: "What do I actually do?"
What do I do when my kid comes home using tools I've never heard of? What do I do when the school sends a letter about a new AI policy and I don't understand what it means? What do I do if something goes wrong online and I'm not sure who to call?
I didn't have a good answer to give them. So I wrote one.
Today I'm sharing A Parent's Guide to Artificial Intelligence: In B.C. Schools and at Home — a free, openly licensed resource for parents, caregivers, and anyone supporting children through the AI era. You can also find the content on Github, all under a Creative Commons, Open Source license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
What the guide is
The guide is a plain-language resource for parents who don't have a technical background. It's not trying to convince you that AI is good or bad. It's trying to give you what you need to make informed decisions for your own family.
It covers what AI actually is - a tool that is available, and that can be used to learn, build, or explore new concepts and ideas. Like all new technologies, AI presents opportunities and challenges, and it takes time to learn and understand how they can be used. It covers the specific tools your children are likely using — including the Vancouver School Board's recent introduction of Microsoft Copilot for secondary students.1 It covers the real risks: privacy, misinformation, deepfakes, and the harms that can target young people online. And it covers what to do when something goes wrong, with specific BC and Canadian resources that are free and fast.
The guide is written to be accessible. I aimed for a Grade 8 reading level throughout — which means short sentences, plain words, and no unexplained jargon. There's a full glossary at the back for terms worth knowing.
It's also a living document. AI tools, school policies, and laws change quickly. The guide is published on GitHub with version history, so you can see what's changed and when. If you find something outdated or missing, you can open an issue and flag it.
What's inside
The guide is organized into sections you can read straight through or jump to as needed.
Understanding the basics — What AI actually is, how it works, and why the "it's just autocomplete" framing is more accurate than most news coverage. Why AI sounds confident even when it's wrong.
Vancouver School Board and Copilot 13+ — What the VSB's decision to introduce Microsoft Copilot for secondary students1 means in practice. What protections the school version includes. What questions to ask your school.
The opportunities — Where AI genuinely helps students: explaining difficult concepts, summarizing complex reading, supporting students with accessibility needs. How to encourage your child to use AI as a learning tool rather than a shortcut.
The risks — Privacy, misinformation, bias, copyright, deepfakes, non-consensual intimate images, sextortion, and emotional dependency. Each section is direct and practical — not alarmist, but honest about what's actually happening.
Helping your family — Conversation starters you can use tonight. A Family AI Agreement template. The AI Traffic Light: a simple green/yellow/red framework for thinking about different types of AI use.
If something goes wrong — Specific contacts and resources for BC families. Take Back Your Images, NeedHelpNow.ca, Cybertip.ca, ERASE, and Kids Help Phone. These are listed in one place so you're not searching during a crisis.
Appendices — A FAQ section answering the most common questions parents ask. A full list of Canadian resources and references. A glossary of AI and digital literacy terms. A quick-reference checklist.
Who it's for
The guide is written for parents and caregivers in British Columbia — especially Vancouver School Board families — but most of it applies anywhere in Canada, and the principles apply more broadly than that.
It's written for parents who aren't working in tech. If you're a developer or security professional, some sections will feel basic. That's intentional. This guide is for the parent who got a school newsletter about Copilot and wanted to understand what it meant before the parent-teacher night. It's written for the parent who finds out their child has been the victim of a deepfake, and it's written for the parent who finds out their child is the one making deepfakes.
I also want to be clear about something the guide states upfront: I have strong opinions about AI. Some uses of AI are positive, some are not. I made a deliberate editorial choice to set those aside in the guide, because parents need practical resources — regardless of where they land on the broader questions. Different families will reach different conclusions, and that's okay.
This blog series is where some of those opinions will come out. The guide tries to be neutral ground, but I will also share some of my opinions, and I may host guest posts that share differing opinions as well.
How the guide was made
I'm the primary author, but I used AI to help with parts of the process — specifically to automate the verification of sources, to review language and tone, and to adapt the structure for accessibility. I'm disclosing that because I think it matters, and because the guide itself talks about the difference between using AI as a tool and presenting AI output as your own work.
The content, the research, the editorial decisions, the organization, and the views expressed are mine. The AI helped with the mechanics, the layout, and even helped me build the scripts theme for this blog based on tools like Pelican, and building on an open source theme.
The guide is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. You can share it, adapt it, and build on it — as long as you credit the source, don't use it commercially, and share any adaptations under the same licence. The source files are on GitHub.
If you do want to use it commercially, get in touch with me by opening an issue above, and we can try to figure out how that would work. If you want to use it as part of a course or article, we can work something out, If you are trying to sell my work, probably not!
What comes next
This announcement is also the start of something. I will be publishing a 12-part series — Try It Yourself: A Parent's Guide to Using AI designed to take parents one step further than the guide does. Over June and July I aim to publish one of the articles in the series every couple of days.
The guide explains the landscape. This series helps you actually use these tools yourself, so you can guide your children from experience rather than theory. We'll walk through the main AI tools, how to spot mistakes, how to protect your privacy, and how to have the conversations that matter.
You don't need to read the guide first to follow along. But if you want the full picture, the guide is at parentsguidetoai.ca. It's free, it's open, and it's a starting point — not a final word.
The guide is live now. If it's useful, share it with another parent who's trying to figure this out.
Read the guide: parentsguidetoai.ca
Report errors or suggest improvements: github.com/ygjb/parentsguidetoai.ca/issues
Start the blog series: Post 1 — Before You Talk to Your Kids About AI, Try It Yourself