The key facts
- The UAE joined dozens of countries that signed the Children First declaration at the Paris Peace Forum
- Countries committed to working across five areas to achieve results by 2045
- OpenAI, Anthropic and AI safety organisations pledged €8 million ($8.9 million) for research
The Children First Declaration
The UAE has become one of dozens of countries to sign an artificial intelligence safety declaration aimed at protecting children from untested models. The initiative was championed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Paris Peace Forum, reports The National. According to him, the countries' commitment means that 'no AI should reach children's hands without first being tested, assessed and, consequently, authorised.' Macron called the declaration 'a major step forward.'
Who signed and what they pledged
Alongside the UAE, the Children First declaration was signed by Australia, Egypt, South Africa, Spain and Germany, as well as the United Nations. Participants committed to expanding efforts across five areas — health, nutrition, education, protection and psychosocial wellbeing in the digital age — with the aim of achieving tangible results by 2045. The announcement came ahead of the Child Summit convened by the Paris Peace Forum, an annual platform launched by Macron in 2018 to improve global governance. The summit is expected to provide AI market players with indicators and best practices, as well as to create a public-private sector platform called the Action Hub for Children.
Funding and context
At the summit, AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, along with leading AI safety organisations, pledged €8 million ($8.9 million) to fund research and tools on the interaction between AI and child development. The goal, as formulated by Paris Peace Forum President Philippe Étienne, is to 'protect children from the risks of technologies such as AI by equipping researchers with the resources needed to understand the impact of these technologies on child development and to inform science-based policy.'
The UAE's place in the bigger picture
The signing of the declaration continues a series of steps to regulate the digital environment for children. Earlier, France, Spain, Kenya and Australia formed a coalition on children's rights during the latest UN General Assembly in New York; it was backed by 26 states and the UN. France is also pushing for a Europe-wide ban on social media for teenagers, modelled on the UK and Australia, while the UAE, according to The National, became the first Arab country to announce such a ban — in the Emirates, social media is prohibited for those under 15. Thus, the UAE's signature on the declaration logically complements the measure already adopted domestically, while for the other participants the document sets out commitments on a horizon up to 2045. Macron devoted a significant part of his participation in the forum to AI safety: ahead of the summit, he received at the Élysée Palace experts from a government commission who presented a report on AI safety for children, which, according to the palace, 'builds on the discussions [Macron] began more than a year ago on the consequences of digital technologies for our democracies, extending this analysis to generative AI.' The forum will conclude on Tuesday evening with a dinner at the palace.
