Joint letter to the EU: Children’s rights in the Artificial Intelligence Act
EU AI Act must ensure all AI systems likely to be accessed by children respect their rights, say children’s organisations, parents and mental health professionals in joint open letter to Members of the European Parliament.
Internal negotiations are ongoing at the European Parliament regarding its position on the EU’s draft Artificial Intelligence Act. As the draft seeks to ensure AI systems that present an unacceptable level of risk to users do not access the EU market, and high-risk systems submit to a robust authorisation process, it must include specific provisions for children, recognising their specific rights and vulnerabilities.
Children access a wide range of systems not intended for them, so the risks to their health, safety and development are distinct and higher than for adults. Therefore, AI systems that exploit or may be reasonably foreseen to exploit the vulnerabilities of children should be banned, the burden of proof for compliance should be on operators, not children, and AI systems likely to impact on children’s safety or personal development should be consider high-risk.
In this joint open letter to the Members of the European Parliament’s responsible for the file, 5Rights is joined by European networks for children’s rights, parents and mental health professionals in calling for a final compromise text of the AI Act that will ensure that AI systems are designed in a way that minimises risk and gives children the privacy, safety and security to which they are entitled. Read the letter here.
