CHAILD: Children’s Agency in the Age of AI: Leveraging Interdisciplinarity

AI systems are increasingly central to children's digital environments, encompassing connected toys, apps, voice assistants, and online learning platforms. While these systems offer valuable opportunities for children’s development and learning, they also pose significant risks, such as screen time addiction and various forms of online harms. Current approaches to children's digital experiences are largely dominated by restrictive and protective measures, neglecting children’s potential to exercise control and make age-appropriate, informed choices themselves. While it may be challenging for younger children (especially those under five) to make meaningful decisions, such approaches make little contribution to fostering children’s autonomous agency in a digital context. There is an urgent need for new frameworks, guidelines, and strategies for policymakers, developers, parents, and educators to better support children’s development, well-being, and safety in an increasingly datafied environment. The two-year UKRI-funded project CHAILD—Children’s Agency in the Age of AI: Leveraging Interdisciplinarity—aims to establish a foundational understanding of children’s agency in the age of AI. 

The project is led by the Department of Computer Science in collaboration with Institute for Ethics in AI and University College London (UCL Knowledge Lab).