Children should have a say in how and what they learn about A.I because the future will be A.I.
Member of Children’s Parliament
The Exploring Children’s Rights and A.I project (2022-2025), delivered in partnership with the Scottish A.I Alliance and The Alan Turing Institute, was an internationally trail blazing investigation into children’s views of A.I and its impact on their lives and rights.
Over the course of the project, our team worked with 140 children aged 8 to 12 years from 6 schools across Scotland. The children were optimistic about A.I possibilities, but they had real concerns about the impact that A.I could have on their lives, and they shared ideas for what needs to change now to prevent potential future harm.
The project’s outputs included films, reports, resources, and children’s Calls to Action.
Click the timeline to enlarge.
Taking a children’s human rights approach, we asked Members of Children’s Parliament to think about what needs to change for A.I to play a positive role in keeping all children healthy, happy and safe. The participating children were aged 8 to 12 years and attended primary schools in Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, Shetland and Dundee.
Following the children’s investigation and direct engagement with A.I, they developed and shared 12 Calls to Action under the themes of Fairness and Bias, Safety and Security, A.I. in Education, and Learning about A.I. The children’s Calls to Action have already influenced policy and guidance on the use of A.I across Scotland.
Read our detailed reporting on the process, findings and impact of the work, including case studies on the work the children did with professional partners on current uses of A.I in Scotland.
Watch the Stage One and Stage Two project films, showing the creative ways children engaged with the topic, along with a video of them explaining their calls to action in their own words and the animated videos they made to explain A.I and children’s rights to other children.
Discover our eLearning course on A.I and children’s rights for professionals, and our teaching pack for educators and children. Both resources were developed through our direct work with Members of Children’s Parliament.
Explore the results of our two national surveys where we surveyed children and school staff in Scotland to hear their views on A.I and its potential impacts on children’s rights, the help they need to feel more confident using A.I tools.
Alongside our work on children’s rights and A.I, Children’s Parliament facilitated the delivery of a research project with our partners The Alan Turing Institute, supported by LEGO.
To learn more about the project, Generative A.I Use and Children’s Rights, visit the page here.