The Best Work You May Never See: The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, TBWA\Helsinki Descend Into "The AI Abyss"

The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL), in collaboration with TBWA\Helsinki, has released a powerful short film demonstrating the dangers of unsupervised media consumption by children and highlighting the need for clear labeling of AI generated content. 

Titled “The AI abyss,” the film is a plunge into the uncharted waters of AI in the media. It draws a parallel to MLL’s longstanding tradition of empowering children, dating back to their initiatives of teaching children to swim 50 years ago. Today, the challenge lies not in water, but in the media stream, where AI increasingly blurs the line between reality and fiction.

Europol predicts that by 2026, AI could be responsible for creating up to 90% of all media content. This escalating reality, combined with existing online threats, emphasizes the need for effective and prompt parental guidance in children’s media use as well as labeling. 

“We need an identifier to clarify whether content is reality-based or AI-produced, much like the Parental Advisory label helps identify content harmful to children. This becomes even more important as children’s media literacy struggles to keep up with the rise of AI,” said Paula Aalto, head of school cooperation and digital youth work at MLL. 

“The AI abyss” portrays a young girl receiving a cell phone from her parents without any media literacy education. She embarks on a journey into the “stream of media,” visualized as a pool of water. Initially fascinated by the flow of intriguing media content, her experience soon takes a sinister turn as AI-generated elements morph into disturbing representations of cyber threats. As the girl in the film is rescued from her disturbing experience, we are reminded of the importance of parental intervention in ensuring online safety.

“As a parent myself, I am concerned about my own children’s media use on their phones. Children are constantly exposed to harmful content, and parents must protect them from seeing things that they do not have the ability to process due to their young age. We, parents, are the solution,” said Joni Furstenborg, creative director at TBWA​​\Helsinki. 

“The AI abyss” was directed by Iiro Hokkanen via TBWA\Screen.