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European School Education Platform

Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child: Towards an Integrated Agenda for Research and Policy

EU publication

Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child: Towards an Integrated Agenda for Research and Policy

Children and adolescents use social media applications, music recommendation platforms and intelligent tutoring systems on a daily basis. In this context, researchers are currently experimenting with social robots and how they can be used to improve education in the future. One common element of these applications is that they are all based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.
two children programming a robot
Image: Adobe Stock / zinkevych

While there is increasing scientific evidence regarding the benefits of AI for children’s development, there are also growing concerns about the emerging risks to children’s fundamental rights. To mitigate these risks, policy institutions have realised that we need a coordinated child-centred approach to promote children’s rights during the design, development and use of AI for children.

 

In June 2022, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission published their Science for Policy Report on Artificial Intelligence and the Rights of the Child: Towards an Integrated Agenda for Research and Policy. This report offers an overview of the current policy initiatives on AI and children’s rights, and reviews the scientific evidence for three applications: conversational agents, recommender systems and robotic systems. This is followed by a presentation of the results of a series of workshops with children, policymakers and experts in the field. The report concludes with a set of recommendations, methods and knowledge gaps that need to be pursued in the future.

 

Additional information

  • Education type:
    School Education
  • Evidence:
    N/A
  • Funding source:
    European Commission
  • Intervention level:
    N/A
  • Intervention intensity:
    N/A
  • Published by:
    Joint Research Centre / European Commission
  • Target audience:
    Government staff / policy maker
    Head Teacher / Principal
    Parent / Guardian
    Researcher
    Student Teacher
    Teacher
    Teacher Educator
  • Year of publication:
    2022