Global coalition tells governments to make AI safe for children ahead of UN summit

GENEVA, 6 July - Ahead of the UN's inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance, an international coalition of more than 50 organisations and experts across all continents is calling on governments to adopt ten concrete measures to make AI safe for children.

As governments around the world race to develop new AI laws and regulatory frameworks, the inaugural Global Dialogue is intended to promote international alignment on AI governance.

Coordinated by 5Rights Foundation, a joint statement from organisations including Save the Children and Amnesty International, is calling on governments to move from commitments to action to protect children in the governance of AI. With organisations and experts from every continent, the coalition represents one of the broadest international civil society interventions on children's rights and AI.

Highlighting how untested and unregulated AI products and services are already having a detrimental impact on children, the coalition argues that current approaches too often address individual harms after they occur, rather than tackling the commercial incentives and governance failures that produce unsafe systems. Instead, the international group advocate ten concrete measures, including:

• Precertification: Companies must demonstrate that systems affecting children are safe before they are brought to market.

• Accountability: Companies must be held accountable when their products or services contribute to violations of children's rights, with meaningful penalties for non-compliance.

• Prohibiting manipulative design practices: Particularly those that exploit children's vulnerabilities or encourage engagement and dependency.

• Ending the commercial exploitation of children: Including the misuse of children’s images, voices, biometric information, educational records, and behavioural data.

The statement notes that these proposals do not represent new obligations. Instead, they give practical effect to existing commitments that governments have already made under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its General comment No. 25, the Global Digital Compact and successive UN resolutions strengthened by 5Rights-led coalitions.

The recommendations are reinforced by new findings from one of the largest global consultations of children on AI governance, involving more than 1,100 children from 49 countries. Coordinated by the UN Human Rights Office, the Child & Youth Friendly Governance Project, and 5Rights amongst others, the research found that children’s biggest concern about AI is the algorithmic amplification of fake information (68%) and that they think AI companies have the greatest responsibility to ensure AI is safe.

Leanda Barrington Leach, Executive Director of 5Rights Foundation said:

“Children have given us a clear diagnosis of the problem. They aren't asking us to block AI innovation, but it shouldn’t be a case of cleaning up the mess after harm has happened either. They're asking us to change the incentives that produce unsafe systems in the first place.

“As long as companies are rewarded for speed, engagement and data extraction rather than safety, we'll keep treating the symptoms while the disease becomes endemic. Governments need to think carefully about the desired outcomes and beneficiaries of AI and change the rules of the market, so the AI race is geared to support rather than undermine the next generation. Respecting children's rights must become a condition of doing business, not an optional extra."

Notes to the Editor

About 5Rights Foundation

5Rights Foundation is an international NGO working with and for children to build a digital world that honours their rights as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

5Rights conducts groundbreaking research through our joint centre with the London School of Economics (Digital Futures for Children Centre), spearheads age-appropriate design and child online safety legislation across the world and translates advocacy work into practical service design reforms, by partnering with professional associations. To date, our work has inspired scores of concrete design changes, making services safer for millions of children around the globe.

For more information, visit www.5rightsfoundation.com.