AI Literacy, Safety Awareness, and STEM Career Aspirations of Australian Secondary Students: Evaluating the Impact of Workshop Interventions

2026-01-30

AI Summary

This study addresses the growing security risks posed by synthetic media, such as deepfakes, to adolescents, whose AI literacy, safety awareness, and interest in STEM careers remain underexplored. Through an “AI Day” workshop intervention targeting Australian students in Years 7–10, the research uniquely integrates foundational AI literacy with synthetic media safety education. Employing a mixed-methods approach—including pre- and post-intervention surveys and questionnaires—the study evaluates shifts in students’ ability to recognize AI applications on everyday platforms (e.g., Netflix, TikTok), their ethical understanding, safety awareness, and STEM interest. Findings indicate significant gains in students’ confidence in AI knowledge and platform-specific AI identification skills, alongside modest increases in STEM interest. However, sustained interventions appear necessary to solidify these outcomes, while qualitative insights reveal a cognitive progression from viewing AI as mere “algorithms” toward understanding it as complex “AI systems.”

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness
• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Security and privacy of machine learning and AI applications
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems

Abstract

Deepfakes and other forms of synthetic media pose growing safety risks for adolescents, yet evidence on students'exposure and related behaviours remains limited. This study evaluates the impact of Day of AI Australia's workshop-based intervention designed to improve AI literacy and conceptual understanding among Australian secondary students (Years 7-10). Using a mixed-methods approach with pre- and post-intervention surveys (N=205 pre; N=163 post), we analyse changes in students'ability to identify AI in everyday tools, their understanding of AI ethics, training, and safety, and their interest in STEM-related careers. Baseline data revealed notable synthetic media risks: 82.4% of students reported having seen deepfakes, 18.5% reported sharing them, and 7.3% reported creating them. Results show higher self-reported AI knowledge and confidence after the intervention, alongside improved recognition of AI in widely used platforms such as Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok. This pattern suggests a shift from seeing these tools as merely"algorithm-based"to recognising them as AI-driven systems. Students also reported increased interest in STEM careers post-workshop; however, effect sizes were small, indicating that sustained approaches beyond one-off workshops may be needed to influence longer-term aspirations. Overall, the findings support scalable AI literacy programs that pair foundational AI concepts with an explicit emphasis on synthetic media safety.

Problem

• AI literacy
• synthetic media
• deepfakes
• safety awareness
• STEM career aspirations

Innovation

• AI literacy
• synthetic media safety
• workshop intervention
• deepfakes
• STEM career aspirations