“AI is here. It is becoming a part of our lives and is already shaping childhood around the world, for better or for worse,” UNICEF said in a statement ahead of the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, Anado Agency reported.
The agency estimates that at least 20 million children use AI, and says more than 2 million of them, or one in 10, turn to AI for advice about something they are worried about.
An estimated 13 million children say they use AI to support their learning and homework.
“Children are exposed to more AI systems, including how they are designed, the business models that underpin them, and how their own data is used, but they have far less power to circumvent or challenge them,” the statement said, adding that children “will be the first to feel the effects of weak governance and the ones who will endure the consequences the longest.”
According to UNICEF, a third of children in 10 countries surveyed reported concerns that AI could be used to trick or deceive others or spread misinformation, and a quarter feared their images or videos would be altered into sexually explicit deepfakes.
“Too many systems are being delivered to children without guardrails. Safety appears to be an afterthought,” the agency said.
UNICEF called on governments, the private sector and partners to integrate children’s rights into global AI governance, including by investing in research on the risks of AI to children, strengthening laws against AI sexual exploitation, ensuring safe and transparent AI design, building AI literacy and closing the digital divide.
“This is a defining moment. The choices made now regarding AI will shape children’s safety, privacy, well-being and equal access to opportunity for decades to come,” UNICEF said.
