AI and Children’s Privacy: Challenges and Regulatory Approaches 

AI is increasingly omnipresent and shaping children’s development and online experience – from education and learning to relationships and play. However, AI regulation and governance worldwide is struggling to find a shared approach and cater for the specific needs of vulnerable groups, notably children. In turn, existing data protection policies and regulatory frameworks specifically consider children’s rights and vulnerabilities and are increasingly aligning globally on the matter. They can thus help policy-makers and industry in ensuring that children’s rights are protected and promoted in all digital products and services that they access, including AI systems that train and function based on personal data, including of children. The panel will discuss how privacy and data protection approaches can inform and reinforce efforts to regulate AI and make it safe and empowering for children, starting from the upcoming EDPB guidelines on children.

• What are the specific challenges that AI poses to children’s privacy, and how do these privacy risks interact with children’s safety and security?
• Why are data protection and privacy so important for children’s interactions with AI systems?
• How can existing approaches to data protection for children help govern their interaction with AI systems, notably as they are aligning around principles of age-appropriate design and safety by design?
• The EDPB is drafting guidelines on children’s data protection. What will they mean and how can they help in this framework?