Children and Generative AI- Safeguarding Development, Privacy, and Digital Well Being

ABSTRACT
Generative AI has infiltrated lives and societies across all demographics, opening up avenues for innovation and creativity in multiple sectors. It is most readily adapted by children, for various needs in their day to day lives, from academic commitments to emotional connection. AI is used by games and social media platforms for engagement, which children interact with daily. Generative AI is however, trained on data collected through these platforms; ChatGPT and Gemini are popular GenAI Chatbots, and the information collected by them through the questions asked are used in databases by the developers to further train their models. This raises questions about violation of the right to privacy. This affects children more acutely who are unaware of these dangers. Further, artificially generated content can be harmful for development, as they are prone to inaccuracies, and can promote unethical perspectives. Thus, this article will discuss the issues faced by children engaging with AI with regard to privacy through the lens of inadequate consent. It will focus on AI training and children’s privacy. It will discuss how the legal framework regulating information in digital spaces is inadequate in governing harmful AI generated information. Lastly, it will discuss the consequences faced by children as a result of these legal shortcomings.