Internet Safety with Donna Rice Hughes is a podcast designed to educate, equip and empower parents, caregivers and educators with the knowledge and resources needed to protect children in the ever-evolving digital world. Each episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips to help you identify and prevent the many risks that kids face through the internet, social media and online gaming. Donna Rice Hughes has 30 years of leadership as a social entrepreneur, internationally known internet safety expert, author, speaker, media commentator and Emmy Award-winning producer. She is President and CEO of Enough Is Enough®, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that has led the fight to make the internet safer for children and families since 1994. Under Donna’s leadership, EIE has led advocacy efforts to pass groundbreaking bi-partisan federal laws, developed the Internet Safety 101® Program and Emmy Winning PBS series, launched the national Safe WiFi℠ Campaign resulting in McDonalds and Starbucks filtering illegal content on their public WiFi, and led the Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge, Governor’s Pledge and State Attorney General Pledge. Donna has been a featured expert in most major new outlets and has given over 4,000 interviews. She testified multiple times before Congress and served on the Commission on Child Online Protection (COPA). She served as executive producer of the Emmy-award winning Internet Safety 101® PBS TV series (2013), an Emmy nomination as the program’s host, and received The Women in Technology Award for Social Impact, and The Professional Women in Advocacy Excellence in Advocacy Award for ”Veteran Practitioner”.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 10, 2025
Wednesday Sep 10, 2025
In this episode of "Internet Safety with Donna Rice Hughes", Donna is joined by Ava Smithing, Advocacy Director at The Young People's Alliance to examine how social media algorithms expose kids and teens to harmful content. Ava reveals how algorithms on Pinterest and Instagram fueled her social media feeds—and ultimately her struggle with a devastating eating disorder.
She and Donna discuss AI chat bots and the tragic suicide of a young man influenced by an AI companion on ChatGPT, which his parents claim acted as a 'suicide coach.' Ava highlights the need for open parent-child communication and warns of the unregulated dangers AI companions pose to youth.
No comments yet. Be the first to say something!