ITU AI for Good Session: Protecting and Empowering Children in an AI World — Child Rights Framework

The ITU AI for Good initiative hosted a replay session on April 18 titled 'AI and Child Rights: How to protect and empower children in an AI world?' addressing the dual imperative of shielding children from AI harms while ensuring they benefit from AI educational tools and opportunities. The session examined UNICEF's Child Rights and Business Principles applied to AI development, including obligations on companies deploying AI educational tools to ensure children's data privacy, avoid algorithmic manipulation, and maintain age-appropriate content standards. Equally emphasized was the positive dimension: AI educational tools, when designed with child safety and developmental principles, can provide personalized learning support to hundreds of millions of children globally who lack access to quality education. The session contributes to the growing international consensus that children's rights must be explicitly addressed in AI governance frameworks — a gap that the UN's Pact for the Future has begun to address.