Broken Custodians

The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the official position, opinions or views of the hosts, producers, or editorial team.In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to William Clouston, leader of the Social Democratic Party, about children’s exposure to AI, smartphones and social media, and what these issues reveal about political short-termism and the erosion of community and personal responsibility.They discuss the use of AI in education and contemplate what is lost when technology supplants human interactions, and in particular, how reliance on AI weakens children’s ability to think, write and create for themselves. William explains why he shares Molly and Ben’s view that education should remain rooted in human instruction and independent work.William also explains why he believes attention-based technology and devices need to be tackled, and why restricting children’s exposure to addictive-by-design smartphones themselves may be the most robust and effective response. William also shares his views on the relative responsibilities of parents, schools and the state.The episode then broadens as William is asked to explain why he believes short-termism in politics has been failing our younger generations, before ending with a brief discussion of Epicureanism, William’s lodestar ancient philosopher, and what it means to live well.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to Dr Mandy Pierlejewski, senior lecturer and researcher at the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, about the Reception Baseline Assessment and the digitisation of skills testing for four-year-olds.They explain what the RBA is, why it is carried out in the first weeks of primary school, and why the data is sent to the Department for Education rather than being used by teachers to support children’s learning. In particular the conversation looks at the recent move to a two-device digital test, in which the teacher follows a script and the child answers questions on a touchscreen.Mandy discusses what she and her colleagues observed when they studied children taking the digitised test in the previous school year, including signs of stress, anxiety, disengagement and frustration. More broadly, the episode asks whether the assessment is consistent with early years principles of care, whether it risks measuring digital familiarity rather than basic numeracy and literacy skills, and whether the baseline should be replaced by teacher assessment based on observation over time.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem reflect on their recent conversation with Tom Richmond (Episode 4), and ask what it means for parents concerned about the growing use of one-to-one devices, AI and other edtech in schools.They discuss why learning depends on children thinking hard, and why the spread of classroom technology may be undermining that process: removing the friction that helps children build memory, literacy and real understanding, while promising improvements that are not supported by the evidence.The conversation also looks at international attainment data which shows that heavier device use in schools has led to worse outcomes, and the Department for Education’s plans for AI tutoring for disadvantaged pupils. More broadly, the episode asks whether children and parents have been drawn into a large-scale experiment that has not been properly justified, and what parents can do when there is no clear legal right to opt out of school edtech schemes, despite concerns about screen time, physical safety and educational outcomes.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.Notes: Students working on devices remain focussed on task on average for no more than 6 minutes: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563212003305Within an average hour they spend no more than 38 mins on task:  https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~eragan/papers/Ragan_CAE2014.pdf‘The Cuckoo in the Classroom’ report that we reference is here: https://safescreens.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Safescreens-EdTech-Report-Nov-2025.pdfThe risk of myopia jumps by about 21% for each extra hour of daily screen use. For children who already have the condition, an extra hour of screen time increases the odds of it worsening by 54%. See here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11846013/

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem discuss the libertarian case for restrictions on children’s access to harmful social media, and why this is consistent with the free speech of adults.They explain why free speech matters to them as much as child protection, and why the Online Safety Act has been failing on both fronts: infringing the free speech of adults in problematic ways, while doing too little to protect children from the addictive and exploitative features used by social media and gaming platforms.The conversation also looks at how the House of Lords has recently forced the Government to announce bolder plans to tackle the harmful functionalities of online platforms, and the broader debate around age-based restrictions, digital IDs, and parental responsibility. More broadly, the episode insists that a stronger and more successful approach to child protection online is essential for restoring the free speech of adults.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to education expert Tom Richmond about the infiltration of AI into UK schools, and the serious questions being missed in the rush to embrace it.Starting with the government’s enthusiasm for expanding the use of AI in education, they explore how these tools have already become embedded into classrooms through the software and devices that schools have been encouraged to use. They discuss the science of learning, the difference between improved performance and better learning, and the emerging evidence that the use of AI weakens memory and long-term knowledge retention, especially for children and new teachers.The conversation also looks at plans to roll out AI tutoring, the pressure on teachers to use AI as a shortcut, and the risk of confusing teaching efficiency with better learning. More broadly, this episode asks whether schools have been drawn into a giant uncontrolled experiment, and whether AI can ever support education without hollowing out learning itself.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.NOTES:Tom Richmond’s September 2025 paper for the Social Market Foundation, EducAItion, educAItion, educAItion: Could Generative Artificial Intelligence pose a risk to educational standards?, is here: https://www.smf.co.uk/publications/ai-and-learning/ 

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to former pharmaceutical industry insider Dr Alan Black.They begin with a recent case in which Moderna was found to have allowed inappropriate payments to be offered to children to join a medical trial, and use it as a starting point to explore broader questions about ethics and accountability in the pharmaceutical industry.Molly, Ben and Alan discuss how the pharmaceutical industry is regulated in the UK, and why self-regulation is failing the public. They also examine the role of government-backed public health messaging, the rarely-discussed concept of conditional marketing authorisations and its significance during the pandemic, and the warnings raised by the government’s ethics committee before it was sidelined and then shut down.More broadly, this episode asks what the findings against Moderna reveal about public trust and the relationship between government and the pharmaceutical industry.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.Hosts: Molly Kingsley, Ben Kingsley Senior Producer: Francesca Gilardi Quadrio CurzioVideo Editor & Audio Producer: Andrija Klaric

In this episode of Broken Custodians, lawyers and campaigners Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem examine the UK Covid Inquiry’s Module 4 report and contemplate the official account of that era now being constructed by the Inquiry.Drawing on their work during and after the pandemic, Molly and Ben discuss school closures, children’s health policy, government secrecy, the premature sidelining of the Government’s official ethics committee, the role of censorship, corporate influence and the long-term consequences of decisions made in those circumstances. They ask why the Inquiry is failing to confront  what went wrong, and examine how that threatens to embed a version of events that leaves the most uncomfortable questions unanswered.This episode considers why the Covid Inquiry matters not only as a record of the past, but as a guide to future policy-making, including policy impacting children. It looks at how children’s interests were weighed, what happened when senior government advisers raised ethical concerns, and why some pandemic decisions remain difficult to discuss in mainstream public debate.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.1. For details of the polling commissioned by UsForThem which revealed that less than a quarter of UK parents of under-18s had understood that the JCVI had declined to recommend rolling out the Covid vaccine programme for 12 to 15 year olds, see page 62 of The Accountability Deficit, 2023, by Kingsley, Skinner and Kingsley.2. All of the PMCPA case reports concerning Pfizer and Moderna, among other pharmaceutical companies, including those for complaints commenced by UsForThem, can be located via the PMCPA case reports portal at https://www.pmcpa.org.uk/cases/completed-cases. A short video published by UsForThem in March 2025, detailing the 53 serious rule breaches by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca in relation to Covid vaccine products between 2020 and 2024 is here: https://x.com/UsforThemUK/status/1901921340996620689?s=20.3. The role of the Moral and Ethical Advisory Group is explained at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/moral-and-ethical-advisory-group.Hosts: Molly Kingsley, Ben Kingsley Senior Producer: Francesca Gilardi Quadrio CurzioVideo Editor & Audio Producer: Andrija Klaric

In this first episode of Broken Custodians, lawyers and campaigners Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem introduce the questions at the heart of the series: how are decisions affecting children being made, who benefits from those decisions, and what happens to those who challenge them.Drawing on their work during and after the pandemic, Molly and Ben discuss school closures, children’s health policy, censorship, debanking, government secrecy, corporate influence and the expansive presence of technology in education. They explain why ethics, transparency and free speech are not abstract principles, but safeguards that really matter when children’s interests are at stake.This opening episode sets out key themes Broken Custodians will return to throughout the series: ethics, transparency, censorship, free speech and corporate influence.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.Hosts: Molly Kingsley, Ben Kingsley Senior Producer: Francesca Gilardi Quadrio CurzioVideo Editor & Audio Producer: Andrija Klaric

Broken Custodians is a bold podcast with Molly and Ben Kingsley of UsForThem, hosting candid discussion of ethics, corporate influence and accountability in public policy-making affecting children.Hosts: Molly Kingsley, Ben Kingsley Senior Producer: Francesca Gilardi Quadrio CurzioVideo Editor & Audio Producer: Andrija Klaric