Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

As the rapid development of AI-based technologies transforms many systems across the world, various international governance bodies continue to grapple with the challenge of ensuring that children are not victims of this progress, and that their unique vulnerabilities are not exploited as they explore their rapidly expanding digital environment. Children, defined as human beings under the age of 18, are distinct rights bearers whose rights must be distinguished from those of autonomous adults. Children's inherent vulnerabilities necessitate a special approach, and the opportunities that AI affords them to realize their rights are the proper backdrop for analyzing any policy measures – including the recently issued Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child. 

Opportunities: How is AI Advancing Children’s Rights?

AI’s integration into children’s lives is expanding rapidly, particularly in the field of education. AI-powered platforms tailor content to individual students’ learning pace and style, and can offer personalized adjustments suited to each learner. Large Language Models (LLMs) can assist in breaking down complex concepts into simple terms, helping children build their understanding of the world and nurture their curiosity. AI tools offer children with special needs crucial accessibility features such as speech-to-text functions that can facilitate their participation in learning environments. 

In addition, AI shapes digital environments in which children interact, learn, and socialize. Recommendation algorithms influence the information children encounter online, while AI-driven moderation tools determine the safety of digital spaces. These interactions can significantly influence how children form relationships, develop critical thinking skills, and understand the world around them, underscoring the reality that AI is a governance issue that can have profound developmental implications for young minds, and consequently, for future generations. The question is no longer whether children will interact with AI, but how those interactions – and the tremendous opportunities they represent - will be governed.

Risks and Vulnerabilities for Children 

At the same time, children’s particular vulnerability necessitates safeguards. Children often lack the capacity to fully understand how AI systems function or how their personal data is collected and used. Without appropriate governance, such systems could expose children to harm. As an example of such harm, X users periodically report inappropriate images of children generated by Grok users, a phenomenon that various nation states have already begun to grapple with and formulate policy responses to. 

However, an exclusively protectionist approach risks undermining the broader objective of children’s rights, which is to enable children to fully engage their digital environment and build digital literacy skills which will serve them for a lifetime. Shielding children entirely from the world of AI would rob them of the many opportunities it presents, as earlier indicated. As various commentators and governance bodies have increasingly emphasized, the aim should be to ensure that these systems actively support the full realization of their rights. Governance frameworks ought to balance protection with empowerment, ensuring that children can be beneficiaries of the full privileges of technological innovation. 

The recent Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child – issued by over 10 UN entities and 50 organizations – attempts to accomplish this balance. It emphasizes that states and technology developers must consider children’s rights throughout the entire lifecycle of AI systems, from design and development to deployment and monitoring. It enjoins States to undertake risk assessments that specifically consider children, and to consider transparency in how AI systems operate, and accountability mechanisms where harms occur. 

The Statement represents a shift in governance models towards integration of child rights considerations into AI governance as a foundational principle, rather than a reactionary approach. It also builds upon an existing body of governance frameworks that seek to address children’s rights in the context of artificial intelligence in a proactive manner. UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, for example, explicitly recognizes children as a group requiring particular consideration and calls on governments to ensure that AI systems promote their well-being and development. Similarly, research published by UNICEF Innocenti reveals that digital technologies must be designed with children’s rights and developmental needs in mind – and in particular the purpose of play – reflecting a shift toward governance models grounded in responsible innovation.

Importantly, the Joint Statement crystallizes a governance approach that the UN has set out in previous documents. UN General Comment No. 25 – issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to help interpret the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which did not envision AI when it was drafted in 1989) – includes “an international consultation with 709 children living in a wide variety of circumstances in 28 countries in several regions.” This approach treats children as participants, not merely as subjects of the governance process, and is reflected in the Joint Statement, which encourages states and technology developers to consider children’s perspectives while designing and deploying AI systems.

Collectively, these developments demonstrate the evolution in the governance of artificial intelligence as it relates to the rights of the child. The central question is how AI can be developed and deployed for the promotion of children’s rights. This is an approach that State actors should welcome and pursue in their approach towards AI policy; governance must no longer be reactive to harm but must instead proactively anticipate risk while enabling opportunity, and must recognize children’s views as active stakeholders.  As AI continues to evolve, its governance will play a defining role in shaping whether technological progress advances or undermines the rights and well-being of future generations.

References

1. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/24/10/impact-ai-childrens-development

2. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/secretary-of-state-statement-to-the-house-of-commons-12-january-2026

3. Sonia Livingstone, Amanda Third and Gerison Lansdown, ‘Children Vs Adults: Negotiating UNCRC General Comment No. 25 On Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment’ in Handbook of Media and Communication Governance (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024) 414.

4. UNESCO, Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2021) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137> accessed 26 February 2026.

5. UNICEF Innocenti, Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (2024) https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/responsible-innovation-technology-children> accessed 26 February 2026.

6. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, para 5. 

7.  International Telecommunication Union, Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child, para 8.