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Event details
How does GenAI imagine a child? Or an Australian? And why does it matter?
Ask generative AI to show you an image of a child and you’ll get a few standard results. But dig deeper and it will reveal how harmful biases can be baked into the core of these tools.
In this insightful talk, Curtin University Professor Tama Leaver unpacks how GenAI tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT imagine children and how already marginalised groups are being overlooked even in our AI world.
He’ll be joined later by Professor Michele Willson in a panel discussion led by John Curtin Distinguished Professor Melinda Fitzgerald exploring the big challenges in using GenAI safely.
This session is for anyone curious about AI and children’s digital experiences – from educators, policy makers, digital professionals, and parents and caregivers looking to better understand the cultural and ethical implications of GenAI in children’s lives.
If you can’t make it in person, you can join us online. Please note a link to stream the event will be sent to you via email closer to the date.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Date
Tuesday 9 September 2025
Time
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Registration & light refreshments
6.00pm – 7.30pm: Formal proceedings
7.30pm – 8.00pm: Networking & light refreshments
Location
The Lantern, Level 7
T.L. Robertson Library, Building 105
Curtin University
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Or online
Presenters & Panellists
Professor Tama Leaver
Professor Tama Leaver is a Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, a past President of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), and a regular media commentator. His current research includes examining the impact of datafication and artificial intelligence on children and childhoods. He is the author of Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology and Bodies (Routledge, 2012); co-editor of An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World’s Largest Social Network (Routledge, 2014) with Mike Kent; and Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) with Michele Willson; co-author of Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures (Polity, 2020) with Tim Highfield and Crystal Abidin; co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children (Routledge, 2021) with Lelia Green, Donell Holloway, Kylie Stevenson and Leslie Haddon; and co-editor of Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games (Routledge, 2023) with Katie Ellis and Mike Kent.
He has received teaching awards from the University of Western Australia and Curtin University, and in 2012 received a national Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities and the Arts.
Professor Michele Willson
Professor Michele Willson is the Associate Provost and Professor in Internet Studies at Curtin University. Her research explores the intersections between technology and sociality including digital childhood; social, casual and mobile games; and algorithms and the everyday. Her publications include the co-edited collection Young Children Rights in a Digital World: Play, Design and Practice (Springer, 2021)
John Curtin Distinguished Professor Melinda Fitzgerald
John Curtin Distinguished Professor Melinda Fitzgerald is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research at Curtin University and CEO of Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia. Lindy is responsible for the development and implementation of strategies, frameworks, and activities to achieve the University’s strategic goals in research and IP commercialisation.
In her role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Professor Fitzgerald has responsibility for the portfolios of Research Partnerships, the Mining Technologies and Critical Minerals Trailblazer, the Curtin University National Resilience and Security Program Office, Research Services and Systems, and Research Excellence. She manages strategic initiatives to empower Curtin University to lead research that Australia and our global partners need now and for the future.
Professor Fitzgerald also leads a team of researchers and postgraduate students in nationally coordinated research focused on understanding and preventing the loss of function that occurs following neurotrauma.
Access
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