Session
China Federation of Internet Societies (CFIS)
Xiuyun Ding, Civil Society, China Federation of Internet Societies
Jiatong Chen, Civil Society, China Federation of Internet Societies
Xinrui Wei, Civil Society, China Federation of Internet Societies
United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF), China
Wenying Su, Intergovernmental Organization, UNICEF China
Communication University of China
Ming Yan, Civil Society, Communication University of China
1.Hui Zhao, Secretery General of China Federation of Internet Societies;
2.Dora Giusti, Chief Child Protection of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund(UNICEF), China;
3.Xuwen Wang, Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd., Shanghai;
4.Xiang Wang, Tencent Security Product Director of Tencent Group
Wenying Su, Intergovernmental Organization, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund(UNICEF), China
Ming Yan, Civil Society, Communication University of China
Jiatong Chen, Civil Society, China Federation of Internet Societies
Presentation & panel discussion
English
In this session, CFIS plans to display the achievements over the last year "Artificial Intelligence for Children-Research Report and Case Study Collection", which showing Chinese enterprises’ achievements made in the field of Artificial Intelligence(AI) for children. The session aims to actively explore and communicate with global participants about the improvement, future development and policy issues involved in AI industry. Through this opportunity, we wish to strengthen international communication and cooperation, to explore the construction of international standards and related policies, and to discuss how AI prompting wave of education reform for children and disabilities.
In September 2020, UNICEF published a draft "Policy Guidance on AI for Children", which is a global policy guide for government and private sector that contains practical recommendations and principles for child-centred AI and AI systems. In addition to topics such as privacy, security and equality, the guideline also pays attention to the applicability of AI for children, taking into account the unique developmental needs of children, emphasizing that AI systems should also be explicable to children, and encouraging the development of AI systems that can enhance children's growth.
To better understand how to protect, provide, and promote children’s rights, help the relevant departments to develop industry standards, to properly deal with the challenges, and to promote sustainable and healthy development of AI, CFIS cooperated with UNICEF and the Communication University of China to deeply research the application of AI for children group. The research team discovered relevant policies, regulations and academic materials, collected and sorted out 39 effective case studies, investigated 6 social organizations, 9 universities and research institutes and 16 enterprises in China, then finished the "Artificial Intelligence for Children-Research Report and Case Study Collection". The material specially analyzes the current situation and development trend of AI and principles, policies and laws of AI that related to children. And we tried best to reflect all types of AI applications for children as much as possible, which including online education, children security, children health, entertainment, public welfare, and vulnerable children groups etc. We believe it is particularly significant and valuable to share the results with people from all over the world.
This session highly focuses on the main focus area of IGF 2021: Economic and social inclusion and human rights, and we will discuss several policy questions, which are shown as follows, from the perspective of AI for children:
1.Economic and social inclusion and sustainable development: What is the relationship between digital policy and development and the established international frameworks for social and economic inclusion set out in the Sustainable Development Goals, the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, and on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? How do policy makers and other stakeholders effectively connect these global instruments and interpretations to national contexts?
2.Promoting equitable development and preventing harm: How can we make use of digital technologies to promote more equitable and peaceful societies that are inclusive, resilient and sustainable? How can we make sure that digital technologies are not developed and used for harmful purposes? What values and norms should guide the development and use of technologies to enable this? Besides, we will also discuss other essential issues related to the main focus areas, such as education, children, people with disabilities, ethics and values, etc.
Agenda:
1) Introduction: 15mins. The moderator will start the session by giving a broad overview of the issue of AI for children and invite speaker Hui Zhao, the Secretary General of CFIS, and Peng Duan, Vice President of Communication University of China, to introduce the achievements and contents of our work "Artificial Intelligence for Children-Research Report and Case Study Collection" .
2) Presentation: 30mins. The moderator will then invite 3 technical experts from enterprises who responsible for the selected case studies to make speeches to introduce the case study, so as to share their experiences, what they see as the actual and discuss future improvements, solutions and policy issues involved in AI. Sharing from each speaker will be set to 10 minutes.
3) Session Summary: 8mins. The moderator(s) will invite Dora Giusti, Chief Child Protection of UNICEF China, to summarize the discussions in the previous section and move forward to explore any potential actions, activities or collaborations for regional initiatives and other stakeholder groups.
4) Q&A Session: 8mins. The moderator will queue up the audience and speakers for questions, responses or comments upon requests.
Given the impact of the COVID-19, we will be using Zoom to organize the meeting and set up an offline parallel meeting in Beijing,China. We will try our best to encourage online interaction and participation.
Report
It is extremely important to continue reflecting on the specific needs of children as well as the opportunities and risks AIs generate.It is central to continue exploring how further research, piloting of new practices, adjustment of current ones as well as dissemination and exchanges can contribute not only to child wellbeing and child rights in the country but also to the global innovation agenda on this front.
Hope government and enterprise follow the 2021 new policy guidance from UNICEF, to support children’s development and well-being, and prepare children for present and future developments in AI. For example, ensure inclusion of and for children; prioritize fairness and non-discrimination for children; protect children’s data and privacy; provide transparency, explainability, and accountability for children.
On December 10, IGF 2021 “Application of Artificial Intelligence for Children - Research Report and Case Study Collection” Launches and Awards was successfully held by co-organizers China Federation of Internet Societies(CFIS), Communication University of China(CUC), and UNICEF in Hybrid way. The session invited guests to share their case studies, such as AI Education: Exploration and Practice of AI Characteristic Education in Western China; Children's health: Application and Practice of Smart Sports Learning and Management System; Using AI System to Promote Content Safety for Children. During the session, participants discussed AI technology conducive to the healthy growth of children and related moral, ethical standards. The summary showing as follows:
Zhao Hui,Secretary General of China Federation of Internet Societies(CFIS), noted that China has always attached great importance to the protection of minors in Cyberspace. The revision of the Child Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, which was officially put into effect on June 1, 2021, added a particular chapter on "Internet Protection", aiming at protecting minors in Cyberspace. Ms. Zhao said that CFIS has paid close attention to and actively participated in the protection of minors in Cyberspace since its establishment in 2018. In the future, CFIS will continue to explore the establishment of cooperation mechanisms on AI for children with its unique advantages and share its ideas on enhancing the healthy development of minors on the Internet environment.
Duan Peng, Vice President of Communication University of China(CUC), pointed out that the rapid development of AI technology not only brings great convenience to children's education, health, and entertainment, but also brings people concerns about privacy protection and fairness. CUC has always attached great importance to the integration of discipline construction related to AI, technological progress, and social responsibility, and has a very deep academic accumulation in the field of intelligent media network. Mr. Duan hoped that through the communication of this meeting, all parties can get inspiration from the application of AI technology for children and contribute to the development and application of AI technology in the children related fields.
Case study introduction:
[Case study: AI Education-Exploration and Practice of AI Characteristic Education in Western China]Chen Chen, Chief of Integrated Coordination Section, Cyberspace Administration of Chongqing, Rongchang District, introduced that Rongchang District pushes forward the systematic and organic integration of AI with education, teaching and learning by strengthening the platform building for "Intelligent Campus", carrying out experiencing programs, integrating teaching resources to build up the teaching staff for AI classes, and developing curriculum for AI which features robotics. The initiative has enriched students' after-school life, improved their hands-on ability, cultivated their interest in scientific research and AI, stimulated their desire for exploration, and helped teenagers improve their network civilization literacy.
[Case study:Children's health-Application and Practice of Smart Sports Learning and Management System]Wang Xuwen, Head of Solution Architect, Education Sector, Alibaba Cloud Computing Co., Ltd. Shanghai, introduced how Alibaba's exploration and practice in using AI technology to help youth with sports and efforts to promote the development of youth sports from a traditional model that relies on experience to an intelligent model driven by data. Wearable devices can sense the physical signs of students’ exercise in real time, and send data to the Cloud through the Internet of Things for continuous monitoring. With the help of data models and algorithms, students can instantly understand their own physical performances. Teachers can make personalized training plans based on each student's physical fitness and state. More importantly, under continuous data monitoring, in the event of abnormal physical signs, artificial intelligence can send alerts to teachers and parents as soon as possible so that necessary measures can be taken to avoid accidental injuries caused by sports. This technology will be widely used in physical education in the future, and play an important role in enhancing the physique of teenagers and improving the health of the whole nation.
[Case study: Using AI System to Promote Content Safety for Children]Wang Xiang, Tencent Security Product Director, said how to use science and technology to ensure that children access the Internet safely and healthily and to help with their growth is a new social issue with both the urgency and protracted nature, raising public concerns. Therefore, Tencent Security launcheda ‘Guard for Children’ project, dedicated to promoting content safety for children by AI technology and risk control in different scenarios. First, Tencent sets up open courses to improve online security awareness of parents and teenagers. Secondly, the company creates high-quality videos and audios for children and then distributes these contents precisely by AI to children with different characters to enhance children's vital abilities like subject knowledge, common sense, EQ education etc. Finally, through AI detection, the company reduces inappropriate internet information to children, such as bullying, bad behavior, bad ACG, etc. At present, they process over 300 billion pieces of content every year and automatically detect over 500 million inappropriate pieces.
Dora Giusti, Chief Child Protection UNICEF China, concluded that all parties keep exploring Children's needs in development and studying both opportunities and risks brought by AI. She said that all parties should strengthen international cooperation, share experiences with other countries and maintain innovative development. She also urged all parties to abide by their social responsibilities, formulate relevant guidelines, further promote the development of AI for children, and effectively safeguard children's rights based on the second version of AI for Children-Policy Guidance released by UNICEF in 2021.
In the Q&A part, the audience and guests exchanged views on social responsibility, children's privacy, data security, and so on. Participants unanimously agreed that while developing AI, we should always adhere to the principle of technology for good, safeguard children's dignity, protect and promote their free development and diversified growth. They also stressed that AI products should protect children's privacy, promote children's physical and mental health, and control potential risks. They call for further international exchanges, as well as new models and ways of international cooperation to promote the research of AI technology for children.