Children and young people have relatively little awareness of AI and how the technology affects them. And there is a lack of policies on how to develop artificial intelligence in a way that respects children’s rights. UNICEF has developed guidelines that are now being tested through several pilot projects in Sweden.
It is important to include children in the development of AI. However, there is a lack of common guidelines. UNICEF has launched a global project to evaluate guidelines on how AI should be developed to incorporate children’s rights. The guidelines include ensuring safety, protecting children’s personal data and right to privacy, supporting children’s development and well-being, and fostering an environment for child-centered AI.
UNICEF has held workshops with hundreds of middle school-aged youth in several different countries, including Sweden. In terms of knowledge, there are significant differences between countries, but the majority of young people have relatively low awareness of AI and how it affects them. It is therefore important to design the process to include children based on their different circumstances, so that we can also reach those children who are difficult to reach.
“It’s important to support and educate children about how they are affected. But we also need to build on the knowledge children already have about AI,” says Lulu Li, child rights advisor at UNICEF.
Several pilot projects are testing UNICEF’s guidelines for child-centered AI
Several pilot projects are currently underway in Sweden to test UNICEF’s guidelines on the child rights perspective in AI. The “3 Cities” project involves the municipalities of Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. Each municipality has identified one or more pilot projects to test UNICEF’s guidelines for ensuring the child’s perspective in AI. The process is cyclical, meaning that the work is ongoing and the focus is on learning. In addition to the municipalities, AI Sweden and Lund University are participating in the project as one of 15 global pilot projects from UNICEF.
The City of Lund has reviewed and evaluated UNICEF’s nine guidelines on children’s rights and AI, and has implemented preliminary work on AI as part of a digital process that affects children in Lund.
“We’ve highlighted just how important it is to take into account children’s rights—as well as human rights in general—when developing new digital and AI systems, so as not to build in discriminatory features, which is the risk otherwise,” says Ulrika Dagård, a social strategist specializing in social sustainability and human rights at the City of Lund.
Laiban improves accessibility and independence for preschool children
Laiban, an AI system, is an initiative designed to enhance accessibility and independence for preschool children. Laiban gathers information about daily life—such as menus, weather forecasts, and appropriate clothing—and can answer children’s questions about these topics. One of the fundamental principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is children’s right to participation; children are not only users of Laiban but are also involved in its development. Laiban is used, among other places, in preschools in Helsingborg and is available to preschools that wish to start using it, with the goal of eventually providing it to all preschools in the municipality.
“The product is based on the principle of accessibility—ensuring that children have access to information, which also means that Laiban is available in multiple languages,” says Simon Melin, one of the creators behind Laiban.
SomeBuddy helps children and young people deal with cyberbullying
Eija-Leena Koponen, who helped develop the digital service SomeBuddy—another example of a UNICEF pilot project—demonstrates how an app can concretely help children and young people dealing with cyberbullying. SomeBuddy is an AI system that provides support to children and adults who may have been subjected to online discrimination. The app analyzes the situation that has arisen and provides legal and psychological advice in everyday language to the user.
“We want to provide fast, reliable, and effective legal and psychosocial support, and the underlying idea is to use AI to help as many people as possible. AI allows us to analyze cases, thereby reducing the workload on experts, which in turn increases the number of people who receive help,” says Eija-Leena Koponen.
Fact:
Webinar on child-centered artificial intelligence
To share knowledge about child-centered artificial intelligence (AI), Forum for Social Innovation Sweden AI Sweden hosted a webinar on August 26. Interest was high, with over 120 registered participants. Of the 74 people who attended, there were representatives from academia as well as the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Watch the video from the webinar
AI Sweden is the Swedish national center for applied AI, supported by the Swedish government and the public and private sectors across the country. Its mission is to accelerate the use of AI for the benefit of our society, our competitiveness, and everyone living in Sweden.