Keep
Childhood
Human

A movement to protect
childhood
in the age of AI

"Children should be friends with each other, not with AI"

Tara Steele,
Director, Safe AI for Children Alliance

We believe that AI should not stand between children and the human experiences that they need to grow - real relationships, creative effort, independent thought, boredom, play, trusted adults and real-world experience.

Because...

The slow, messy and difficult parts of childhood are not problems to automate away! They are part of how children grow.

We are not 'Anti-AI'! We especially support specific narrow-purpose AI systems, such as those used in healthcare to detect diseases.

BUT!...

Childhood should be kept HUMAN.

Children should be protected from the types of AI that present serious risks to their safety, their development and their future.

We are creating a coalition of the many who want to protect the human experiences children need in the age of AI.

You can read about some of the most significant risks from AI to children in our free guide.

It includes the risks from "AI Companions", which have been linked to teenagers taking their own lives, and AI "nudifying" apps which have been used to create criminal abuse images of children, then bribe schools with threats to release the images.

Our 'Keep Childhood Human' campaign encompasses those critical urgent risks, and also reaches beyond them.

Because as well as keeping children safe, we want to protect other aspects of childhood.

We believe that children deserve more than immediate answers to homework and AI-generated bedtime stories.

We believe they need space to be silly and to be bored - not to talk for hours with an AI-powered teddy bear. They need security and space to talk to parents and trusted adults when they have a problem - not to seek advice from a fake person. And they need real-life friends and play, not an app that pretends to be another child.

We created the Human Childhood Charter as a way to develop a shared language and structure for us all to work with in the pursuit of healthy childhoods. It will evolve as more trusted experts feed into our work and as AI itself develops.

The Human Childhood Charter

Children need:

Human relationships, not artificial companionship

Children need real people - parents, carers, teachers, friends, siblings, and trusted adults. AI should not be normalised as a substitute for human connection, comfort or belonging.

Creative development, not automated output

Children need opportunities to imagine, draw, write, build, sing, perform, invent and make things themselves. Childhood creativity should not be reduced to prompting machines to produce polished results.

Independent thought, not machine answers

Children need to wonder, question, reason, struggle, disagree, change their minds and form their own views. AI should not become the default source of answers before children have developed confidence in their own thinking.

Boredom and play, not constant optimisation

Children need unstructured time, daydreaming, silliness, joy, experimentation and play - that is not personalised, monitored and optimised by systems designed to hold attention and maximise engagement.

Real-world experience, not synthetic simulation

Children need real social, physical and sensory experiences: making things, touching things, moving, arguing, fixing, exploring, failing, laughing, trying again.

Protection, not dependency by design

Children should not be exposed to systems designed to capture their attention, simulate intimacy, encourage reliance, or shape their emotions and behaviour for commercial or engagement goals.

We asked leading public figures, celebrities and experts
"What must we protect in childhood as AI becomes more powerful?"

See What They Say Here:

Go

Next Steps...

Simple steps you can take now to build the movement to Keep Childhood Human!

Share the campaign

Help to build a movement and help others find language for what childhood must protect in the age of AI.

Use the Human Childhood Charter

Use the charter to start conversations with families, schools, parent groups, communities and policymakers.

Join SAIFCA’s supporter community

Help sustain independent guidance, public education and advocacy to protect children in the age of AI.

There are three reasons for this campaign

The primary reason is to create a global movement to Keep Childhood Human

We believe that children's core childhood experiences are at risk from AI.

Children deserve a human childhood - we are providing a platform and creating a community of people who want to make sure it isn't taken from them.

The second reason is to raise awareness of the risks from AI to children

Some people who come to SAIFCA through the Keep Childhood Human campaign will go on to explore the other work we do.

In this way, more people become aware of some of the most significant risks from AI to children, and become better equipped to protect them.

For example, we have our Non-Negotiables campaign, to protect children from three critical risks from AI.

The third reason is to keep SAIFCA sustainable

We are a small independent organisation, and have chosen not to accept funding offered from 'Big Tech' and big-tech affiliated organisations.

To keep SAIFCA sustainable, we are building a SAIFCA Supporter Community, as well as inviting one-time gifts.

Our supporters will make it possible for us to continue making an impact at an international level, moving us towards a brighter AI future for children.

Media Enquiry?

If you're interested in running a story on how a growing group of public figures, experts, parents and educators are beginning to ask whether society is moving too quickly towards an AI-mediated childhood, please get in touch

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