Snapshot of AI Usage and Concerns Among Children and Parents
Insights from 10 countries
About
Despite the rapid uptake of AI systems by children, there remain significant evidence gaps: How many children use AI in each country and for what? What are different children concerned about when it comes to AI? And what factors influence the answers to these questions?
This brief helps address these gaps by sharing new AI-related evidence from children and their parents or caregivers in a diverse range of countries. Key takeaways include:
- Up to 50 per cent of surveyed children are already using AI, with millions relying on it for homework and one in ten turning to it for advice about things that worry them. While AI uptake is substantial among many children in this study, it is uneven.
- Children are over three times more likely to be users of AI systems than their parents or caregivers. Addressing the usage divide within families requires comprehensive AI literacy and support programmes.
- Children’s concerns around AI’s risks are uneven, signalling a strong need for AI literacy and safer AI systems to protect those who are less aware of its risks.
- The use of AI for child sexual abuse and exploitation is significant. Recent estimates published by UNICEF suggest that AI was used to create fake sexual images or videos of at least 1.2 million children in 11 surveyed countries, within the span of one year. Children need urgent protection from these harms.
- Overall, evidence is sparse and is far outpaced by the rate of AI adoption. There is a pressing need for research to better support children through evidence-informed AI policy and design, as well as programmes to support children and their families to thrive in the digital environment.
This brief draws on data from the second phase of the Disrupting Harm project, a research project led by UNICEF’s Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti, ECPAT International and INTERPOL, with funding from Safe Online. The countries included in this brief are Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Pakistan and Serbia.
Suggested citation: UNICEF Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti, Snapshot of AI Usage and Concerns Among Children and Parents, UNICEF Innocenti, Florence, June 2026.
