Nearly a quarter of children aged 8 to 12 have used generative AI, as experts urge for regulations to take the needs of children into account.

The research and call to action comes from the Alan Turing Institute, which set out to determine how children are interacting with and being affected by AI.

The research, which was supported by the Lego Group, points out that children are most likely to be majorly affected by AI’s continued development when it comes to learning, future job prospects, and transforming technology. Yet, their needs and experiences are often not largely considered in terms of regulation outside of general online safety concerns.

The Alan Turing Institute found that 22% of children used generative AI, with the most popularly used AI tool being ChatGPT.

Teachers are aware of the issue, with teachers at private schools reporting more use of generative AI than teachers at state schools, exposing a class divide in the use of the key technology.

Parents, carers, and teachers all reported concern over the impact genAI will have on children’s critical thinking skills. While teachers tended to see a positive use case of AI for themselves as a workload aid, they are more concerned to see AI in their students’ work, unless it is used as a supporting tool for students with additional needs.

Through a number of workshops run in collaboration with Children’s Parliament in two state-funded schools in Scotland, the Alan Turing Institute investigated further how children felt about AI.

Children had concerns around how generative AI is developed and used; in particular, children had strong concerns about AI’s environmental impacts, with children wanting the environmental effects of AI to be addressed in the future.

School children also seemed concerned about AI-generated misinformation and disinformation.

Children wanted AI to be used in ways to generally benefit society while keeping children safe, and had particular enthusiasm for how the technology could benefit children with additional learning needs.

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• What Do Children Want for the Future of AI?
• What Do Children in Scotland Think of AI?
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“Children’s experiences with this technology are significantly different from those of adults, so it is crucial that we listen to their perspectives to understand their particular needs and interests,” said Dr Mhairi Aitken, senior ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute.

“In doing so, we can mitigate the risks and enable age-appropriate generative AI tools to be developed safely to provide benefits to the young people who use it.”

The report joins a number of advocacy groups in urging the government to take children into account when making laws regulating the use and development of AI.

It also recommended AI literacy as a key part of curriculums to address issues noted by teachers such as plagiarism and bias, as well as the class divide seen in its use levels between private and public schools.

“We are determined to break down the barriers to opportunity to ensure every child growing up in our country gets a cutting-edge education – and that includes access to the best tech innovations for all,” said Early Education Minister Stephen Morgan.

“Child-centred policy making is at the heart of our mission to give every child the best start in life. This includes harnessing the power of technology to support our hard-working teachers and unlock more face time with pupils, driving high and rising education standards that set young people up to achieve and thrive.”

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