Oxford CCAI Attends UNICEF RITEC launch

On November 20, the World Children’s Day, we attended the Lego and ATI’s Children and AI event at the headquarter of the British Computer Society, London.

This marks a new project funded by the LEGO Group with research from The Alan Turing Institute on understanding the impacts of generative AI use on children.

The Alan Turing Institute’s Children and AI team and AI for Public Services team have been exploring the perspectives of children, parents, carers and teachers on generative AI technologies. Their research is guided by the framework for children’s online well-being established by the UNICEF project ‘Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children’. The project aims to seek to examine the potential impacts of generative AI on children’s well-being and investigate the uses of these technologies within the classroom.

Researchers from the Turing shared the research carried out so far, followed by a panel session with representatives from the LEGO Group, the Turing, and the Children’s Parliament centring on children’s right to play in relation to generative AI technologies, child-centred AI, and how to ensure AI technologies are designed, developed, and deployed for the benefit of children. We will conclude with opportunities for networking and an interactive activity.

Following this exciting event, Turing’s Children and AI team have also announced their publication of a “Mapping Study on the Rights of the Child and AI: Legal Frameworks that Address AI in the Context of Children’s Rights”. The mapping study provides a timely landscape view of existing legal frameworks that address AI in the context of children’s rights and the various incentives and obstacles to developing a legal framework. It clearly illustrates the need for AI legal instruments to incorporate considerations of children’s rights within the context of AI systems.

This is truly an exciting time to explore children’s rights in the digital context and how to provide better support for them. We look forward to exploring more opportunities to work together with organisations like ATI and Lego on these important questions.