6.3 KiB
IGF 2026 WS #336 AI in Schools: elevating learning or embedding exploitation?
Description
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, educational technologies (EdTech) has become a permanent fixture in children’s education across the world. AI promises to democratize learning, respond to individual children’s needs, and reduce teachers’ burdens. Yet, untested, unregulated, and unaccountable systems are too often designed and deployed to prioritize commercial objectives over children’s best interests.
As a consequence, global evidence shows that the rapid rollout of AI in education is exposing children to a range of serious and growing risks, including pervasive commercial surveillance and profiling, the entrenchment of discriminatory assumptions, and exploitative data practices.
The growing use of AI in education also raises important questions about its long-term effects on learning, critical thinking, social development, and educational outcomes. The deployment of AI in schools should be guided by evidence of educational benefit, not unproven assumptions about technological progress.
While children remain largely absent from national AI strategies and governance frameworks, the OECD found that 78% of those it analyzed prioritized regulation in the education sector. This highlights the global consensus that – particularly in the classroom – innovation should not depend on the commercial exploitation of children and the erosion of their privacy, agency, or critical thinking.
This panel will explore how implementing well-established human rights obligations can ensure AI is designed and deployed in education with children's rights and developmental needs at its core.
Panelists will share evidence-based assessments of the impact of AI in education on learning outcomes across different contexts and communities. Building on UNCRC General comment No. 25 and international best practices, they will explore how to ensure AI in EdTech respects children's rights to quality education, privacy, safety, and freedom from exploitation as enshrined in the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Policy Question(s)
A. How can we ensure AI in education prioritizes pedagogical value and children's best interests over engagement metrics and commercial interests? B. How can governments and regulators fulfil their obligation to protect children’s rights in the context of AI in education across different educational contexts and jurisdictions? C. How should children’s rights be embedded in AI governance before a product reaches the classroom, and which stakeholders bear responsibility?
Expected Outcomes
Participants will develop a greater understanding of the often-overlooked issues surrounding AI in education, including relevant risks relating to children’s privacy and safety and the lack of evidence for EdTech's claimed benefits. They will also gain appreciation for how the impacts of AI in education vary across different socioeconomic environments, with particular attention to digital divides across different contexts.
The session will also equip participants with knowledge of emerging best practices for embedding children's rights to privacy, protection, and quality education in EdTech design, procurement, and classroom implementation.
Finally, the session will also provide attendees an opportunity to contribute to the development of shared frameworks and tools such as a standardized taxonomy and assessment framework to facilitate consistent analysis and solution-focused discussions across sectors and jurisdictions.
Reference Document
Reference Document
Format
Theater Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: As EdTech remains a frequently overlooked area in internet governance discussions, this session will primarily aim to raise awareness as to the risks children can be exposed to in educational settings, and what practical solutions exist to ensure respect for their distinct rights.
Leading experts from diverse contexts and stakeholder groups will contribute to the conversation by reflecting on children’s lived realities and emerging best practices to protect children’s rights in the rollout of AI in education.
The diverse impacts of AI and EdTech on children – in light of their contexts, communities, and lived experiences – will be highlighted through meaningful youth participation, and children will share their demands for global governance efforts.
Several polls and collaborative displays will be used at different points during the session to capture participants’ perspectives and sentiments and invite them to contribute to the conversation.
Hybrid Format
Hybrid Format: As our session showcases global perspectives, it is vital to us that it is accessible to all interested participants – which requires inclusive online and onsite engagement strategies.
We seek to include online and onsite participants equally, including by alternating between speakers and providing equal opportunities for participants to intervene.
We will establish efficient internal communications to ensure the online and onsite moderators can coordinate and give due representation to the voices in the room and online.
We also intend to use online tools such as Mentimeter to foster onsite and online participation through live polls and surveys.
Organizers
Organizer 1: Marie-Eve Nadeau, 5Rights Foundation Organizer 2: Sami Jaber, 5Rights Foundation
Speakers
Speaker 1: O'Flaherty Michael, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization Speaker 2: Philip Colligan, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 3: Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit Prapaporn, Government, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 4: Sonia Livingstone, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 5: Jennifer Kaberi Kaberi, Civil Society, African Group Speaker 6: Marie-Eve Nadeau, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Moderator
Marie-Eve Nadeau, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator
Sami Jaber, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Rapporteur
Sami Jaber, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Participant Benefits
What will participants gain from attending this session?
SDGs
10.3 12.6 12.7 16.2 17.6