New Study Reveals AI’s Blind Spot: Children

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Study focuses on the use of generative AI by children 8-12 in the UK getty While regulators and educators scramble to make sense of generative AI’s impact on adults, a quieter, more urgent reality is emerging. Children are already deep into using these tools, and the tools weren’t built with them in mind. A new study released this week from The Alan Turing Institute, supported by the LEGO Group, finds that 22% of the 780 UK children aged between 8 and 12 surveyed had already used tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Snapchat’s My AI, many of them on a regular basis. That alone would be surprising. But what’s more telling is that none of these tools were designed with children in mind. “Children’s experiences with this technology are significantly different from those of adults, so it is crucial that we listen to their perspectives to understand their particular needs and interests,” said Dr. Mhairi Aitken, Senior Ethics Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. AI Is Already Dividing Schools and Futures The research, combining survey data from over 1,700 children, parents, and teachers with in-depth school workshops, surfaces several surprising conclusions. One of the starkest findings? A growing access gap between children in private versus public schools. In private schools, over half of children reported using generative AI. In private schools, 52% of children had used generative AI, compared to just 18% in state schools. Children in private schools also used the tools more frequently and teachers in those schools were significantly more aware of student use. “This has the capacity to widen the digital divide with impacts for the competence of state school students in a key future technology,” the report warns. Vulnerable Kids Are Diving into AI Without Guardrails Children with additional learning needs stand out in the data.…