The United Nations on Sunday urged governments to introduce more effective online regulations to address children’s increasing exposure to AI-generated content.
Experts detailed how bad actors use AI and digital technology to target children, noting that “predators may use AI to analyze children’s online behavior, emotional states, and interests and adjust their grooming strategies.”
AI has also facilitated sexual extortion by allowing criminals to generate blatantly fake images of real children. The ChildRight Global Child Safety Institute found in an October 2025 study that there was a “1,325% increase in AI-generated harmful online abusive content from 2023 to 2024.”
The announcement acknowledged several countries that have taken steps to regulate children’s use of digital technology. Australia will ban social media accounts for children under 16 in December 2025, and the UK and EU are also considering whether children should be over 16 to access social media accounts. However, some rights groups have criticized the effectiveness of this type of ban, calling it an “ineffective band-aid.”
In November 2025, the United Nations agency, along with a number of other United Nations agencies, issued a joint statement on artificial intelligence and the rights of children. The statement exemplified the “collective inability” to protect children from the dangers of AI. In particular, authorities observed a lack of understanding of AI among children, teachers, parents, and caregivers, as well as a lack of technical training on “AI frameworks, data protection methods, and child rights impact assessments.” Additionally, technology companies often do not create AI tools with children’s well-being in mind.
The joint statement set out a number of online protection guidelines and emphasized the need for countries and international organizations to prioritize child safety in AI regulation. The experts called on countries to “clearly criminalize, investigate, appropriately sanction, and bring to justice perpetrators of all forms of online child sexual abuse or exploitation committed through or with the aid of AI systems, tools, and platforms.”
In 2021, the United Nations added a general comment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child addressing children’s rights in the digital environment. Children’s right to life, survival and development must be protected from risks such as “violent and sexual content, cyber-attacks and harassment, gambling, exploitation and abuse, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and the promotion and incitement of suicide and life-threatening activities.”
Furthermore, the “provision, regulation, design, management and use” of online platforms must prioritize the best interests of children.
