Governments and technology firms face calls for stronger safeguards, transparency, accountability, and youth participation in online governance.

The United Nations has on 10 Aug 2026 issued a sharp warning that current efforts to protect children online are falling behind the rapid evolution of AI and attention-driven digital platforms, urging governments, technology companies, advertisers, and media organizations to act more decisively to safeguard young users.

In a new policy brief released for International Youth Day, the UN cautions that a “deeply connected generation” of children and adolescents is bearing a disproportionate share of the risks created by today’s information environment.

The document notes that, in lower-income countries, young people are online at nearly twice the rate of the general population, amplifying both opportunities for connection and exposure to harm. According to the brief, this level of connectivity makes the quality, integrity, and safety of online spaces a pressing global policy concern, not just a niche child-protection issue. Also:

  • The dangers young people encounter online are not random or incidental. Rather, they are described as the foreseeable outcome of business models that monetize attention and personal data, combined with design choices that deliberately seek to maximize engagement and spending. Features such as recommendation algorithms that hold users’ attention, manipulative “dark patterns”, loot boxes in games, and other persuasive architectures are highlighted as particularly problematic for children, whose identities, habits, and relationships are still developing. These design strategies are laid out in detail in the UN brief on information integrity.
  • AI is intensifying these dynamics. The brief stresses that AI technologies are evolving more quickly than regulatory frameworks, leaving governance mechanisms struggling to keep pace with emerging risks. This gap, it says, is already visible in harmful applications ranging from AI-generated disinformation and synthetic media to AI-assisted targeting and exploitation of minors.
  • UN Secretary-General António Guterres has responded by calling for an AI Child Safety Pledge, a proposal he launched at the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Emphasizing that children must not be used as test subjects for unregulated technology, Guterres stated that “no child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI” and insisted that accountability cannot be shifted to technology itself: “When a child is harmed, the answer must never be ‘the algorithm did it.’” The pledge is intended to push governments and companies to commit to concrete protections for minors in AI design, deployment, and oversight.
  • The brief also stresses that young people should not be seen only as vulnerable users needing protection. It highlights that children and youth are already acting as creators, advocates, journalists, and organizers who are reshaping civic participation and public discourse through digital platforms. At the same time, the UN acknowledges that these online spaces expose young activists — especially women, minorities, and grassroots organizers — to harassment, intimidation, and surveillance.
  • Charlotte Scaddan, UN Senior Adviser on Information Integrity, underscores this tension by arguing that youth are both among the most impacted by today’s information crisis, and among the most capable of helping to fix it. “Children and young people are among those most affected by today’s information crisis and among those most capable of helping to solve it,” she said, adding that “protecting them and including them are not competing goals. We have to do both.” Her comments echo the broader theme of the brief: genuine solutions require youth participation alongside robust protections.

Practical pathways proposed

Looking ahead, the UN warns that the window of opportunity to embed children’s rights into emerging AI governance frameworks is closing quickly as AI systems become ubiquitous across sectors and regions. The brief outlines several practical pathways:

  • Member states should reinforce and update legal safeguards
  • Technology firms need to strengthen safety features, transparency, and accountability measures
  • Researchers must fill critical evidence gaps, especially in the Global South, where data on harms and effective interventions remains limited.

These recommendations align with ongoing UN initiatives on digital governance and child rights, as detailed in their website. The brief concludes: “The current moment presents an urgent opportunity to move from principles to practical action,” calling for a shift from high-level commitments to enforceable standards and concrete measures that ensure children’s rights and safety are central in how AI and digital platforms are built, regulated, and used around the world.