"Hello, Ash!" says the tablet. It sounds just like Nan.
"Nan is in the tablet!" says Ash. "Nan! Come out!"
The story
It is a wet day in Kettlebridge. Ash is five, and the voice coming out of the screen has Nan's warmth in it and Nan's way of saying things.
But look at Biscuit. When the real Nan says hello, Biscuit zooms to the door. Every single time. Today Biscuit does not zoom. Biscuit does not open one eye.
"Hang on a minute!" says Ash. "Biscuit ALWAYS zooms for Nan."
Mum explains it plainly. "A computer can make a voice. It can sound like someone you love." Maya knows what to do about it. "Check it before you trust it. The real Nan is three doors down."
The tell
Biscuit did not zoom.
Wellies on. Knock, knock. The door opens and it is Nan, the real Nan, and Biscuit zooms and zooms and zooms. "A computer copied my voice," says Nan. "Clever trick. Not the real me."
Then the line that does the work: "So if a voice sounds like me, come and find the real me. I am three doors down."
Reading it together
A picture book for early readers aged 5 to 7, to be read aloud, talked about and remembered. Sixteen spreads, a picture on every page, two minutes of words. Reassuring throughout, and deliberately unfrightening, because a scared child does not ask questions and asking questions is the entire skill.
Suits Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, or kindergarten and first grade.
For parents, carers and teachers
There is no live AI in this book and no data is collected from any reader. Every word was written and checked by people. For a story about faked voices, we were not going to do it any other way.
It is the closing story of the series and the one grown-ups most often reach for first, because voice cloning is the thing that frightens adults. Handled here, it frightens nobody. Ash ends up hugging his actual grandmother.
Good for
A first, gentle look at deepfakes, at the age when the checking habit forms rather than the age when it is needed. Voice cloning and impersonation are adult words for a very simple idea, and a five-year-old can hold the idea long before they can spell either word.
AI safety for kids without a single frightening page. An AI book for kids containing no AI, which is rather the point: artificial intelligence for kids ought to be explained by people who will tell them the truth about it. An internet safety picture book for the world children are actually growing up in, and the online safety conversation most parents have been putting off. Cyber safety for kids, starting with the one thing a child can check themselves.
Useful for any family where a grandparent is far away and a voice on a screen is normal, which is now most families.
What your child will be able to do
A computer can make a voice that sounds like someone you love. Check with the real person.
Curriculum
Mapped to the statutory online safety and digital literacy curricula of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Not endorsed or accredited by any government body.
The series
Book 6 of 6 in Little Safety Spotters, for ages 5 to 7. The others are The Shark on the Screen, My Name Is Mine, The Funny Feeling, Not My Photo and The Screen Got It Wrong. All six together in Safety Spotters: Six Ash Stories.
Safety Spotters continues for ages 7 to 11, and Safety Spotters: Case Files for ages 11 to 14.
Available as an ebook and a paperback.
Free resources, activity sheets and the grown-ups' guide at safetyspotters.com
Is it real? Let's ask.
