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AI Literacy for Children: New Skills for a Changing World

Generative AI tools – including chatbots such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Snapchat’s My AI, or Google’s Gemini, to name a few – are rapidly becoming part of our daily lives. Adolescents are among the most active users of this technology, often exploring its capabilities before understanding its risks and ethical implications. At the same time, parents frequently find themselves underprepared to guide their children through these digital landscapes.
The project “AI Literacy for Children: New Skills for a Changing World” was launched by UNICRI Centre for AI and Robotics, with the generous support of the Walt Disney Company. 
The goal of this joint initiative is to build the skills of children, parents and caregivers to boost their understanding of AI systems and foster a responsible and safe use of this powerful technology. 
To maximize the results of the project, UNICRI has established an Advisory Board of international and regional organizations including UNICEF, Bracket Foundation, Berkman Klein Center - Harvard University and Bodhini India. 

 

AI literacy resources

To promote AI literacy worldwide, UNICRI provides children and parents with an initial grounding in the basics of AI, and particularly generative AI, through the following resources: 

  • AI Literacy – Guide for Parents
    A factsheet for parents and caregivers, with recommendations and further resources to guide their children in the responsible use of generative AI. The factsheet is user-friendly and accessible to all knowledge levels and include the main challenges of generative AI and how to address them in relation to their children. 
    Read the factsheet here.

AI guide button

 

  • 3D animation video “What to be? – A journey through AI”

One short animation video targeting adolescents on how to responsibly interact with generative AI. The video includes a brief explanation of the technology, its benefits and risks. 

Mia, a teenage girl, needs to do a school presentation about her dream career. The only problem is that she is completely unprepared. However, she has the perfect solution: to ask for help from an AI chatbot. Through a fantastic journey into a digital world, Mia learns about generative AI, whether it can help her future profession, and most importantly, about herself. 
Watch the video here:

 

To develop these resources, UNICRI has engaged with parents, children and experts in the field in order to collect relevant information: 

  • A survey was distributed worldwide to collect parents’ perceptions of their children’s adoption and the impact of generative AI in terms of cognitive and social development. A paper reporting the results of the survey, which collected the views from 160 parents from 19 countries on 5 continents was published at the Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference 2025. Read the article below:

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  • A workshop for adolescents about AI literacy was performed in a high school in the Netherlands to collect the perspective of the students on this matter. It brought together 20 students from Rijswijk Lyceum along with their teachers to learn how to use generative AI consciously and deliberately.

  • A series of interviews with experts working in this field, including UNICEF, OpenAI, Lego, Harvard University, OECD, Bodhini, Bracket Foundation, Common Sense Media, and Everyone.AI were conducted to further inform the development of recommendations for parents and caregivers on how to properly guide digital parenting.  

These results were disseminated at the AI for Good Summit 2025, during the AI Film Festival.

Our research shows that most parents are not fully aware of how their children use generative AI. Besides the lack of communication in this context, our analysis indicates that parents’ perspectives are significantly influenced by their own familiarity with the technology, with parents who use generative AI tools feeling more positively about their impact on adolescents’ development than those who have no experience with generative AI. These results confirm that AI literacy programs, both in formal education and informal family settings, can benefit parents and adolescents alike, bridging the knowledge gap between generations and promoting informed, critical, and responsible use of AI technologies. 

For more information, contact us at unicri.aicentre@un.org.