CHILDREN'S SAFETY ONLINE

• Tech companies are facing mounting protests globally, not only due to privacy concerns but also regarding the safety of users, particularly children.
• Parents and activists are advocating strongly for tech companies to take responsibility for ensuring platforms are either inherently safe for children or provide robust safety measures.
• Last year, a UNICEF report titled "The Metaverse, Extended Reality and Children" sought to analyse the potential evolution of virtual environments and their likely impact on children and young adults.
• While these technologies offer numerous potential benefits in areas such as education and health, there are also significant concerns about their impact on children's safety online.

• The risks to children highlighted in the report are indeed significant. These risks encompass exposure to graphic sexual content, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and abuse, all of which can feel more intense and realistic in immersive virtual environments compared to traditional platforms.
• Moreover, the extensive collection of data, including nonverbal behaviour, by large tech companies raises concerns about hyper-personalized profiling, targeted advertising, and increased surveillance, ultimately jeopardizing children's privacy, security, and other rights.
• Although the full immersion promised by the Metaverse has yet to materialize, various virtual environments and games already indicate the potential dangers inherent in navigating this digital world.
• For example, in the widely popular game Grand Theft Auto, there are adult versions with instructions that could influence adolescent players in concerning ways, such as encouraging inappropriate behaviour
• towards characters. Recent reports have also highlighted how children are utilizing Artificial Intelligence to produce illicit child abuse images.
• Beyond these immediate dangers, there are significant mental health implications for children, including the risk of trauma, solicitation, and abuse online, which can have profound and lasting effects on their well-being in the real world.
• Even innocuous sharing of images online can be exploited by malicious individuals. Ensuring end-to-end encryption is crucial to safeguard the information children share online, as emphasized by experts. 

• Generative AI holds significant promise, as outlined in a paper from the Davos World Economic Forum last year.
• It can offer opportunities such as homework assistance, simplified explanations of complex subjects, and personalized learning experiences tailored to a child's individual learning pace and style.
• Additionally, children can leverage AI to engage in creative activities like art, music composition, and storytelling, even without advanced coding skills.
• For children with disabilities, generative AI opens up new avenues for interaction and collaboration with digital systems through various interfaces like text, speech, or images.
• However, there are also concerns highlighted in the report regarding the potential misuse or unintended consequences of generative AI, which could detrimentally impact children's well-being and prospects.
• Generative AI has demonstrated the ability to produce text-based disinformation that is virtually indistinguishable from human-generated content and potentially more persuasive.
• Similarly, AI-generated images can be remarkably realistic, blurring the line between fact and fiction.
• Given that children's cognitive abilities are still developing, they are particularly vulnerable to the risks posed by misinformation and disinformation.
• Additionally, there is ongoing debate surrounding the potential effects on young minds of interacting with chatbots that mimic human conversational tones.

• Ensuring children's safety online requires concerted efforts from multiple stakeholders. Tech companies bear primary responsibility and must prioritize "safety by design".
• Recent Congressional hearings underscore the awareness among these companies regarding the negative impacts of their apps and systems on children.
• Drawing from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF offers crucial guidance, outlining nine requirements for child-centred AI.
• These include provisions for supporting children's development and well-being while safeguarding their data and privacy.
• UNICEF recommends that tech companies adhere to the highest data protection standards for children's data within virtual environments and the metaverse.
• Governments also play a crucial role, tasked with regularly evaluating and adjusting regulatory frameworks to ensure that emerging technologies uphold children's rights.
• They must use their regulatory powers to combat harmful content and behaviour that endanger children online.
• All stakeholders must operate under the principle that the same protective rules governing children in the physical world should extend to their online experiences.

6. The Way Forward

Creating a safe online environment for children demands a collective effort. By holding tech companies accountable, supporting government regulations, and actively contributing to digital literacy, we can work towards a future where technology empowers and protects children in the digital world.