Arguably the worst thing humanity ever invented, but a great vehicle for cute cat memes – It’s time to have a talk about the internet. 

School’s back, which means we once again have to use the internet for more than video game cheat codes and Netflix reruns.

Knowing how to navigate the internet safely is a critical skill, so I decided to consult an expert: Enter Brandon Laur, CEO and digital literacy instructor behind The White Hatter. 

You know them as the folks who do presentations for schools, businesses, and other organizations on digital safety, as well as private investigations online. Basically, he knows his stuff. 

He was kind enough to chat with me recently, and we discussed everything from AI deepfakes to location-sharing on social media.

The first question I asked was pretty basic: How important is online safety? His answer: online safety is just as important as physical safety, just more complex in some ways. But, as he reassured me, there’s not as much danger as you’d think. 

“When it comes to the bad actors on the internet, generally they look for the lowest-hanging fruit,” Laur said. Things like strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and good antivirus programs will make you safer than most. 

Another good tip? Turn off location-sharing for your social media. Now, my paranoid mind immediately goes to corporate overloads watching you at all times as location-sharing’s biggest danger – but the actual risks can be a little more banal. 

If your location is broadcast, even if it’s just to your close friends list, it’s essentially public. 

As Laur said, “There’s nothing stopping a close friend from sharing your location with another person who shares that with another person…or if you by accident add someone as a close friend who you didn’t mean to.” 

That could easily spoil a surprise party, but if a bad actor is looking for you, you’ve just made it that much easier to find you, figure out your address, and compromise you.

In a perfect world, the internet would be a safe space for everyone, but that’s just not the case. It’s become easier than ever to bully someone anonymously and repeatedly – now from the comfort of your home.

Throw in some ever-more-accessible AI deepfakes, and you’ve somehow found a way to make the high school social scene even worse. 

I asked Laur about AI, and his response was really interesting. He told me that AI doesn’t really reinvent the playing field, but rather it’s “only amplified what humans could do originally.” 

AI makes it easier to distort, bend, and otherwise kick truth in the teeth. The best solution, Laur believes, will be AI detectors built into our phones and laptops – but unfortunately, that isn’t quite possible yet. 

What he sees in his field is that younger people (for the most part) have learned to look at things on the internet with a lot more skepticism than older generations, because it is so easy to create misinformation, either with AI or old-fashioned methods.

Despite the risks, however, AI isn’t going anywhere. Even if we have restrictions on it here in Canada, many other countries don’t. 

There are huge problems with AI, from plagiarism to environmental damage, and while Laur acknowledges the need for boundaries and regulations, he knows that Pandora’s box has been opened. 

As he says: “AI is here, and it’s economically powered.” In other words, AI can make money, and both corporations and governments love that. They love it a lot.

And AI can be very useful, like when it looks over and edits your resumes and applications, giving you tips on how to appear more desirable as a candidate.

Yet even that has pitfalls: Laur mentions an anecdotal white paper from 2023 that found that some HR professionals won’t accept people who used AI as part of the hiring process, which shows you that not everyone is as enthusiastic about AI as Silicon Valley tech bros. 

Something to consider for those university and job applications…

There’s tons more information that The White Hatter (www.thewhitehatter.ca) can provide, with their daily blog, massive assortment of articles, and impressive collection of YouTube videos. 

Online literacy is a vital quality to have in this complicated world, and as kids like me grow up, it will only become more essential to our lives. 

Stay safe out there!

Gabriel Mackintosh is a student at Royal Bay Secondary School.

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