Coded Bias: How Racist Algorithms Impact Our Kids

Participants watched the film Coded Bias and then joined us for an important Action Network Live! dialogue about the bias built into technology and its impact not only on us as adults, but also on our kids. Featuring Coded Bias director Shalini Kantayya and expert researcher Dr. Criscillia Benford, we explored how the tech we use doesn’t just fail to overcome racism, sexism, and other biases in our society, it perpetuates them. Watch this record to learn how algorithms work and how they influence kids, why algorithms are built with bias, and how we can ensure that algorithms are not in charge of our – or our children’s – futures.

This event, co-hosted by Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) featured filmmaker Shalini Kantayya’s and Dr. Criscillia Benford. Shalini’s film, Coded Bias premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Her debut, Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo Di Caprio, and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award of the Best Documentary. Kantayya is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fullbright Scholar, and an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Educator, communications consultant, and Action Network Advisory Board Member Dr. Criscillia Benford is currently writing The Tech Between Us, a book manuscript-in-progress that leverages her work in Human-Computer Interaction and the Psychology of Interaction Design to help readers use tech in ways that reduce social anxiety and strengthen personal and professional relationships.

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