As part of the Safe AI for Children Alliance’s Keep Childhood Human campaign, we invited people working across education, psychology, parenting, child safety, and technology to share their perspectives.

Their contributions explore children’s relationships, creativity, agency, identity, and opportunities to experience the world. Together, they offer a starting point for conversations about what children need and how decisions about AI should account for those needs.

Marisa Zalabak

IEEE Co-Chair of AI Ethics Education, Educational Psychologist

We must protect children's rights to play and interact with the physical world...and real people. They are essential keys to healthy childhood development physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Things every child needs to thrive.

Al Kingsley MBE

UK Multi Academy Trust Chair, Institute of AI Education Advisory Board Chair

We must protect agency, human connection, equity of access, and the messy, unoptimised space where childhood actually happens. Not by blocking AI out, but by being genuinely intentional about how we let it in.

Anil Raghuvanshi

President, ChildSafeNet

We must protect children’s right to question, create, and learn independently. As AI becomes more capable and increasingly present in their lives, we must ensure that it enhances, rather than replaces, children’s critical thinking, creativity, human connections, and sense of agency.

Sue Atkins

Parenting Author, Broadcaster & Former Deputy Headteacher
President, Montessori Society AMI (UK)
Founder of Together at the Table™
Host of the Navigating the Digital Jungle Podcast

As AI becomes more capable, we must protect the deeply human experiences of childhood — real relationships, conversation, play, creativity, boredom, curiosity, empathy and connection.

Children need opportunities to think for themselves, solve problems, make mistakes, develop resilience, and build meaningful relationships with trusted adults and friends. Technology can be a wonderful tool, but it should support childhood, not replace the experiences that help children grow into confident, capable and compassionate human beings.

Carolyn Freeman

CyberPsychologist

We must protect a child’s sense of identity and how they fit into the world around them. Digital technology in general, and AI in particular, has the potential to distract children from interacting with real people, learning fundamental emotional and social skills, and discovering who they are through their own actions towards others and how others respond to them.

AI is not human and cannot substitute for the human relationships through which children develop self-knowledge. The tendency of some AI systems to flatter or agree with users does not help children learn to navigate disagreement, compromise, and boundaries. These skills help them build lasting friendships, relationships, and a sense of community, all of which contribute to their sense of place and value in the world.

Erik Passoja

SAG-AFTRA, founder ProofGen

We must protect the likeness of our children with parental consent that's machine-readable and travels with their image.

Edith Utete

Co-Founder, Digital Wellness Africa

We must protect children's sense of identity, wonder and ability to remain rooted in their humanity.

Explore the campaign

The Human Childhood Charter sets out six principles for protecting children’s relationships, creativity, independent thought, play, participation, and freedom from manipulation.

Read the charter and explore practical ways to support the Keep Childhood Human campaign.

Keep Childhood Human Campaign