The United Nations is calling on governments, technology companies and advertisers to act on what it describes as a pressing and consequential policy challenge — the safety, rights and digital future of the world’s most connected generation, Christian Daily International reported.
According to the report, the United Nations is calling for urgent, coordinated action to protect children and young people from escalating dangers in digital information spaces, warning that business models built on capturing attention and harvesting personal data are shaping the online experiences of a generation with little recourse against harm.
‘Serious’ threats
A new UN report released ahead of International Youth Day on Aug. 12 found that disinformation, algorithmic manipulation, targeted advertising, online harassment and opaque AI systems now pose serious and compounding threats to children’s safety, development and rights. The brief, published Aug. 10 by the UN Department of Global Communications, is the third in a series examining how to strengthen integrity across global information environments.
“No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, according to Christian Daily International’s report. “When a child is harmed, the answer must never be ‘the algorithm did it.'”
More than 80% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are now online worldwide, the brief reported. In lower-income countries, young people are nearly twice as likely to use the internet as the broader population — even as significant digital divides persist within and across regions. In higher-income countries, children’s relationship with digital platforms often begins in early childhood and deepens through adolescence.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is written by and originally published by Christian Daily International.
