Children are adopting AI technologies more than three times faster than adults

NEW YORK/FLORENCE, 30 June 2026 – “AI is here. It is a growing part of all of our lives. And it is already shaping childhood around the world – for better and for worse.

“New evidence is laying bare the scale and speed of its uptake by children worldwide, while exposing the risks and divides emerging alongside it.

“Analysis by UNICEF drawing on new data from 10 countries estimates that at least 20 million children have used Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many are outpacing adults by adopting it at rates more than three times faster.

“More than 2 million children – or 1 in 10 – said they turn to AI for advice on things that worry them, and an estimated 13 million children said they use it to support their learning and homework.

“As children’s use of AI accelerates, the rules that govern its use – including protections for children – are struggling to keep up.

“Children are more exposed to AI systems – including how they are designed, their underlying business models, and how their own data is used – yet have far less power to avoid or challenge them. They feel the effects of weak governance first and will live with the consequences the longest. Yet most AI governance does not prioritise children.

“While AI has potential to bring opportunities for children to learn, play, or be creative, evidence about its role in cognitive development, emotional dependency, and exposure to harm is just emerging. In effect, a generation is growing up inside a global experiment.

“Children themselves recognise the risks. In the 10 countries, a third of children reported concerns about AI being used to scam and trick others, or spread misinformation, while a quarter feared having their images or videos manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes. Too many systems are reaching children with no guardrails – safety, seemingly, an afterthought.

“Ahead of the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, UNICEF is calling on governments, the private sector, and partners to embed child rights, especially the right to safety and protection, in global AI governance by:

• Investing in research on AI's impact on children’s development and well-being, especially the risks.
   
• Strengthening laws, governance frameworks, and corporate accountability to stop AI-enabled sexual exploitation and abuse.
   
• Ensuring that AI systems are designed with maximum safety and transparency, so all children have a chance to be protected while benefiting from opportunities.
   
• Building AI literacy and providing support for children and their parents or caregivers to thrive in the digital environment.
   
• Investing in digital infrastructure and meaningful connectivity for every child and their parents or caregivers, at home and at school to close the AI divide between and within countries.

“This is a decisive moment. The choices made about AI now will shape children’s safety, privacy, well-being, and their equal access to opportunities for decades to come.”

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Notes to editors:

Download UNICEF’s Snapshot of AI Usage and Concerns Among Children and Parents here

This brief draws on survey data from Disrupting Harm Phase 2, the second phase of a research project led by UNICEF’s Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL, with funding from Safe Online. Countries included in this analysis are Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Pakistan, and Serbia.

The estimates presented here are based on nationally representative household surveys implemented by UNICEF and IPSOS across these 10 countries. Approximately 1,000 internet-using children aged 12-17 and 1,000 of their parents or caregivers were surveyed per country, using a sampling design aimed at achieving full or near full national coverage (91–100 per cent). National point estimates were used to model the population-level figures, weighting them by UN 2024 population-level data and estimated child internet-use rates. The research was carried out across countries representing diverse regional contexts.