Why we need child-centred
AI and how we can achieve it
Steven Vosloo, UNICEF, Presentation at Beijing AI Conference, 1 June 2021

KEY MESSAGES
We need AI policies and systems to be
child-centered
We have ways to do this
We all need to get involved

The child rights
framework
Child rights in
the digital era
The CRC sets out the civil,
political, economic, social, and
cultural rights of children. The
following rights are relevant
to children in the digital world
and set the framework for
UNICEF to ensure the right of
a child are considered in all
aspects of digital work.
CHILD RIGHTS:
Acting in the best
interests
of the child
The right to be
protected from all
types of
exploitation &
discrimination
The right to obtain
appropriate
information
The right to privacy
and express
their views
The right to
education,
healthcare, etc.
The right to
leisure, play
and culture
The right to freedom
of thought and
expression
CHILD RIGHTS

UNICEF OFFICE OF GLOBAL INSIGHT AND POLICY
AI and children: Opportunities
• Aid children’s education and development
• Contribute to better health outcomes for children
• Support the achievement of the SDGs
CHILD RIGHTS
Smart toy Panda Bear by Fisher Price

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
AI and children: Risks and concerns
• Systemic and automated discrimination and exclusion
through bias
• Limitations of children’s opportunities and development
from AI-based predictive analytics and profiling
• Infringement on data protection and privacy rights
• Exacerbating the digital divide

UNICEF OFFICE OF GLOBAL INSIGHT AND POLICY
Opportunities or risks for how
children’s rights are impacted by AI
systems?
• AI-enabled toys
• Future of work
• AI-powered voice assistants and chatbots
• Facial recognition / analysis for biometrics
CHILD RIGHTS
Smart toy Panda Bear by Fisher Price

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Why we need to focus on children
• First generation that will never remember a time before
smartphones. 1/3 of all online users are children
• AI is in their lives – directly and indirectly
• Children are not a homogenous group – they have
developmental stages (early childhood, mid childhood,
younger adolescence and older adolescence)
• They are vulnerable and they have potential
• → Affects their present and future

1.6.2021
AI FOR CHILDREN
8
Excerpts from child
consultations
“I am concerned about exactly the same thing that
excites me, the fact that it accesses information, not
just about things or places, but about people and that
is where the fine line on people's privacy begins to
break.”
“It is also very important to educate from an early age
what AI is, how it can help us and the care we should
take.”
“I am enthusiastic about the idea of being able to
contribute in the future from my point of view as a
woman and to be able to study a career in this area in
order to develop inclusive artificial intelligence.”
“Most of the technologies that exist are not made with children in mind.”.

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Are current policies and practices
enough?
• If we just keep focusing on “human rights” or “vulnerable
populations” is that sufficient to ensure children are
considered in the policymaking process or practice of AI?
• Do national AI policies, strategies and systems include
children?
• Are the 160+ AI principles enough to leverage the
opportunities and mitigate the risks for children?

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
The AI for Children project
• Partnership with the Government of Finland
• How can AI systems uphold children’s rights?
• Provide guidance to policy makers and corporations on
how to create child-centred AI
• Working together with the IEEE Software Association,
Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, 5Rights
Foundation, World Economic Forum and others
We do not have all the answers:
• We put out the guidance for public consultation
(summary of responses)
• Invited anyone to pilot the guidance
• Selected a few piloting organizations to learn from and
write case studies on

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Broad consultation and inputs
• 5 expert consultation workshops with >200 participants in
North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and East-Asia and the Pacific
• 9 child consultation workshops with 245 children consulted in
Brazil, South Africa, Sweden & USA
• Expert survey (33 responses, including from Cameroon,
Jamaica, Nepal, Tunisia)
+ building on existing work, such as GDPR, RD4C, etc.

New York: What excites me about AI?

New York: What worries me about AI?

South Africa: What worries me about AI?

Child-centred AI
Support children's development and well-being
Ensure inclusion of and for children
Prioritize fairness and non-discrimination for children
Protect children's data and privacy
Ensure safety for children
Provide transparency, explainability, and accountability for children
Empower government and businesses with knowledge of AI and children’s rights
Prepare children for present and future developments in AI
Create an enabling environment for child-centred AI
Uphold children’s rights
Through the lenses of protection, provision and participation
Requirements
Foundation

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Support children’s development and well-
being
Let AI help me develop to my full potential.
• Design for a child rights approach
• Improved child well-being as a primary success criterion for
system quality
• Environmentally sustainable AI
• Pilot: Milli chatbot by Helsinki University Hospital (Finland)
• AutismVR by Imìsí 3D (Nigeria)

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Ensure inclusion of and for children
Include me and those around me.
• Meaningful child participation, both in AI policies and in the
design and development processes
• Diversity amongst those who design, develop, collect and
process data, implement, research, regulate and oversee AI
systems

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Prioritize fairness and non-discrimination
for children
AI must be for all children.
• Support the most marginalized children, including girls,
children from minority or marginalized groups, children with
disabilities and those in refugee contexts
• Develop datasets so that a diversity of children’s data are
included
• Pilot: Alerta Niñez by Ministry of Social Development (Chile)

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Protect children’s data and privacy
Ensure my privacy in an AI world.
• Responsible handling of children’s data
• Adopt a privacy-by-design approach
• Special protections for marginalized groups and for particularly
sensitive data, including ethnicity and biometric data

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Ensure safety for children
I need to be safe in the AI world.
• Initial and ongoing child-rights impact assessments
• Leverage the use of AI systems to promote children’s safety
• Pilot: SomeBuddy (Finland and Sweden)

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Provide transparency, explainability, and
accountability for children
I need to know how AI impacts me. You need to
be accountable for that.
• Use age-appropriate language to describe AI
• Keep a human in the loop for key life decisions that impact
children, medical diagnoses, welfare decisions or processing
school applications
• Review, update and develop AI-related regulatory frameworks
to integrate child rights
• Establish AI oversight bodies for child rights and set up support
mechanisms for redress
• Pilot: Haru robot by Honda Research Institute Japan & Joint
Research Centre of the European Commission (Japan and
Uganda)

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Empower governments and businesses with
knowledge of AI and children’s rights
You must know what my rights are and uphold
them.
• Commit to child-centred AI and put in place mechanisms to
realize this in practice
• Pilot: Responsible AI framework and assessment checklist / H&M
Group (Sweden, global)
• Capitalize on customers’ demand for trusted and transparent
AI solutions for children

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Prepare children for present and future
developments in AI
If I am well prepared now, I can contribute to
responsible AI for the future.
• Teaching technical and soft skills needed to flourish in an AI
world, including in the future workplace
• Leverage the use of AI systems in education, when it is
appropriate
• Develop and promote awareness campaigns for parents,
caregivers and society as a whole.

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Create an enabling environment
Make it possible for all to contribute to child-
centred AI.
• Infrastructure and digital ecosystem investment to limit the “AI
divide”
• Provide funding and incentives for child-centred AI policies and
strategies
• Support research on AI for and with children
• Digital co-operation
• Pilot: AI Sweden (Sweden)

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
EC Proposal for a Regulation of AI
• Recognizes the rights of every child (CRC)
• AI should not exploit vulnerabilities of children and people
due to their age, physical or mental incapacities
• Assessment of AI’s impact on children
• List of prohibited AI:
The prohibitions covers practices that have a significant
potential to manipulate persons through subliminal
techniques beyond their consciousness or exploit
vulnerabilities of specific vulnerable groups such as
children or persons with disabilities in order to materially
distort their behaviour in a manner that is likely to cause
them or another person psychological or physical harm.

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Recognising the specific challenges
and opportunities AI presents for
children, we will adopt UNICEF’s
policy guidance on AI for children
which draws on the UNCRC

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Why we need AI policies and systems
to be child-centered
We have ways to do this
We all need to get involved

CHILDREN AND AI POLICIES
Connect with us
Global Forum on AI for Children, Nov 2021
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