As a parent, invariably, you might be thinking what are those new tools your kids using these days? One of these tools is QuillBot, which is an AI writing tool that has been adopted by many students. Parents may wonder, “What exactly is QuillBot, and Is QuillBot safe?” As a tool for writing it has its advantages but opens questions regarding safety, cheating, protection, and general effects on learning. That is why in this post we will focus on answering important questions that may come up with QuillBot.
What is QuillBot?
QuillBot is a versatile paraphrasing tool that uses Artificial Intelligence to assist users write ordinary or mass pieces. It was intended to help refine writing, so users create easy-to-read text. QuillBot applies natural language processing to alter the sentences’ structure and keep the core message.
In a purist sense, QuillBot can be a precious tool for students. They may use it when they have no idea how to write, or they have nothing prepared for writing. Moreover, there is a web-based version of this software. It includes features that are intended to improve the writing process and the overall presentation of the article. Yet, as a parent, it comes in handy to know about the advantages as well as possible disadvantages of QuillBot.
Key features of QuillBot
QuillBot has several features whose main purpose is to enhance writing as is seen in the following breakdown:
- Paraphrasing tool: The main feature is that translates sentences while keeping the sense of the initial expressions. Moreover, the text itself is sometimes reduced.
- Grammar checker: This works to identify any grammar mistakes made in the text, and assist users in making corrections.
- Summarizer: Makes messages shorter by delivering only the essence of the information.
- Citation generator: Helps in writing essays, research papers, and other related academic documents.
- Thesaurus Integration: Provides word choices for better word selection and increases contextual vocabulary usage.
- Tone adjuster: Enables one to transform the attitude of his writing from formal, informal, or neutral.
- Word limit management: Assists users ensure that they write using a certain number of words that is required of them.
- Multilingual support: Users can paraphrase content in several languages, thus making it more useful to various users.
It is hopeful to tap into these to enhance the student’s performance on their assignments. However, some advantages and disadvantages need to be put into consideration as well, particularly within the academic environment.
Pros and cons of QuillBot
Like any other tool, QuillBot has its strengths and weaknesses as it will be discussed below. These are some of the points that as a parent will help you make the right decisions for your kid regarding the use of Quillbot.
Pros
- Improves writing quality: QuillBot can assist students in improving their writing by presenting them with alternatives of the best ways to write particular sentences.
- Saves time: Time can be saved through the use of the quick re-write or summary tools. This enables students to have a one-stop destination for completing their papers on time.
- Reduces plagiarism: Using the paraphrasing function, QuillBot prevents learners from copying texts directly from their sources.
- User-friendly: It is user-friendly as far as the interface is concerned, and the features are quite easy to locate.
- Accessibility: There’s a free version available online and also premium options for a reasonable price.
Cons
- Over-reliance: Students may rely heavily on QuillBot, which may eventually limit students’ capabilities to build up their writing styles.
- Potential for misuse: With the ability to rewrite whole essays, QuillBot can contribute to a student’s act of dishonesty.
- Limited creativity: QuillBot solutions do not help in the case of coming up with ideas for content creation.
- Subscription costs: Some functions are blocked by a paywall. Even though it is cheap, it will still have an impact on your kid’s monthly budget.
Age limit
QuillBot is recommended for users aged 18 and older. However, children between the ages of 13 and 7 can use Quillbot with parental consent.
Does QuillBot have parental controls?
QuillBot does not offer built-in parental controls. QuillBot is an AI-powered writing and paraphrasing tool. It is primarily designed to assist with writing, grammar correction, and paraphrasing. It does not provide content moderation and parental control features for users. If parents want to monitor and regulate such AI writing tools, parents should parental control apps like FlashGet Kids to monitor and screen time kids’ usage. This can help parents know how tools like QuillBot are used and better provide them parental supervision, thus ensuring that they’re using it ethically and educationally.
Does QuillBot have an app?
QuillBot has an application for Android and iOS if users are more comfortable working on their mobile devices. It is noteworthy that the app provides only the main functions of the web version of the app. These include paraphrasing, grammar checking, and summarization. This app specifically is useful for students who have a lot of commitments and can work on their assignments while on the move.
This, however, makes QuillBot more vulnerable to being used by kids which may lead to one or another misuse. Therefore, you might want to ask yourself how often your child uses the application and for what purpose.
Is QuillBot safe?
On the whole, it can be said that QuillBot is quite safe. It does not even require any personal data except for the information that is necessary to create a profile. In the same regard, QuillBot does not even save paraphrased content. However, like any other application, parents are urged to guide their kids when they are using QuillBot.
Is Quillbot safe for kids?
QuillBot can be safe for kids to use, but it depends on what they are doing with QuillBot. Depending on the users’ perception, it comes off as an learning aid designed to assist children with their writing tasks. However, there are some concerns to be aware of:
- Academic Integrity: With QuillBot it is possible to submit an assignment without a proper understanding of the material which is not useful for a child’s education.
- Over-reliance on AI: Children might become overly reliant on the help of the AI and that is why they could hardly develop such important skills as writing and critical thinking.
- Misuse: However, if the student utilizes QuillBot inappropriately then it becomes a means of cheating rather than a learning tool. As for the parents, they should make sure that their kids are using it to help them study.
In other words, QuillBot is safe for children if proper use of the platform is made. This is where parental control and supervision come in handy so that children should not misuse the Tool in one way or the other.
Is QuillBot detectable as AI?
Of course, QuillBot is noticeable as an AI tool, but with some exceptions. Although it produces text that is quite similar to the written by a person, AI writing is still detectable. Certain schools use higher-quality detection tools that can even detect QuillBot. Despite QuillBot trying to make content copying free, there are still chances of getting caught by plagiarism checkers.
That said, detection is not always guaranteed. QuillBot services help to paraphrase text with minimum plagiarism and simple software has a problem in identifying AI intervention. This is the reason why schools and universities are starting to worry about tools such as QuillBot. So, everything boils down to the quality of detection tools that the school is using.
Is QuillBot AI cheating?
This is a very challenging question. The use of QuillBot is tantamount to cheating depending on the usage of the said tool. In case a student ends up using QuillBot to rephrase entire essays and assignments that they have not written in the first place, then it can be viewed as cheating.
However, if QuillBot is used as some kind of help, for example, to check grammar, and word choice, or when a writer is stuck, it is possible to regard it as a helper. If a student declares how he has been using QuillBot in their writing assignments, it may not be considered cheating. Nevertheless, this is a debate that should go on between parents, students, and teachers.
Is QuillBot legal?
Yes, QuillBot is legal. It stays legal since it is under copyright law as it provides paraphrasing services providing unique content. It has no section that practices copying and pasting text from sources hence it does not violate any laws. However, how this tool is being utilized can prompt several ethical concerns.
For instance, one may write entire paragraphs or even pages while copying the whole parameters of an author’s content through QuillBot. It is still plagiarism even if the written content is purely original. However, it is perfectly legal to use QuillBot so long as the users abide by the rules of academic integrity and properly attribute borrowed materials.
Should students use QuillBot?
This inherently concerns the individual circumstances and the mode of applying the QuillBot. So, there isn’t any definite answer to this question. Here are some considerations for parents:
- Responsible Use: It will be useful if your child uses QuillBot for homework, wants to enhance the level of writing, learns new words, or wants to stop thinking of writer’s block.
- Academic Honesty: QuillBot will only be an issue if one is using it to skip classes and essays in the hope of copying content from existing sources. For you to be able to explain the importance of academic integrity, you have to sit down with your child and have a heart-to-heart talk with him/ her.
- Skill Development: QuillBot is great for students to use to polish their writing but overusing it will not help. You should make your child limit the use of the tool and they should depend on their skills instead.
All in all, QuillBot may turn into a tool that is beneficial from time to time. But, it is in no way should be a substitute for learning. It is best theorized when considered as a supplementary tool used alongside conventional linear writing methods.
How to know if your kids use the Quillbot app on their phones?
Every parent can wonder how much time their child spends on the phone using the QuillBot. In this, parents can use FlashGet Kids which is a parental control application that can assist track the application usage of their kid. The FlashGet Kids comes with usage reports and notification features. These features will inform you of the apps your child is using on their phone.
Here’s how to get started with FlashGet Kids:
1. Download and install FlashGet Kids on your phone.
2. Launch the app and create the parent account.
3. Download and install the kid’s version of FlashGet Kids on your child’s phone.
4. Pair both apps by following the in-app instructions.
5. Open the parental control dashboard on your phone and tap on the notice section on the bottom left.
6. Review the notifications and updates your child gets on their phone.
7. Go back to the dashboard and tap on the usage reports at the top of the app window.
8. Review your kid’s daily app activity.
With FlashGet Kids you will always know what kind of applications your child is using. This will reduce the risk of them using tools such as QuillBot inappropriately.
Bonus: Is QuillBot the same as ChatGPT?
As can be seen, QuillBot is an example of a tool similar to the well-known ChatGPT. Both are AI-powered tools designed to assist with language, but they serve different purposes:
- QuillBot is intended for paraphrasing, proofreading for grammatical mistakes, and condensation of the content. The main idea is to assist users rewrite the texts and enhancing their skills.
- On the other hand, ChatGPT is a conversational AI created by OpenAI. It is capable of providing answers to as many questions as one may ask and even holding a conversation with the questions asked. ChatGPT is more general and useful in creating new content while QuillBot is designed specifically for paraphrasing the existing text.
Comparing QuillBot and ChatGPT, it is concluded that they are two different tools with different merits. QuillBot is best for editing and polishing the material, whereas ChatGPT is more effective in creating human-like content.
Closing thoughts
Overall, as a writing tool, QuillBot is safe for kids. However, kids should use QuillBot in a safe environment. When kids use these writing tools, it should be under parental supervision, or parents use parental control apps like FlashGet Kids to help parents know what they do.
