Germany’s main Protestant and Catholic church bodies have joined a children’s media association in launching an initiative “that calls for binding standards on artificial intelligence products used by children, including a code of conduct for developers and new legal obligations for providers,” Christian Daily International reported.
The initiative, “KI kindgerecht!” (“Child-Appropriate AI!”), was announced Oct. 14 by the Evangelical Church in Germany, which is the umbrella body of the country’s regional Protestant churches. Its partners include the EKD, the Church and Society Department of the German Bishops’ Conference secretariat, the Protestant media agency GEP and Seitenstark, a network of German children’s websites, the report said.
The organizers said they are responding to 56 recommendations issued in June by a federal expert commission “on protecting children and young people online,” Christian Daily International reported. In the EKD argued that shielding children from harm is insufficient on its own and that children also need access to good digital services, adult guidance and the skills to use AI themselves. They rejected a blanket ban on AI for minors as unworkable.
‘Clear mandate’
“AI is already embedded in many digital applications,” said Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the bishops’ conference’s Commission for Media. He noted Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas gives the church “a clear mandate” to defend human dignity in the age of AI, “especially where children are easily exposed to dangers.”
Bätzing said responsibility “must not be shifted onto parents alone,” and named providers, policymakers, educational institutions, civil society and families as sharing it. “Technology must serve people, not purely economic interests,” he said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is an excerpt of an article originally published by Christian Daily International.
