Mr. John Church:

Chair, committee members and colleagues, thank you for inviting ISPCC here today. ISPCC’s purpose is to protect childhood. We are a long-standing partner in the Irish Safer Internet Centre, under the co-ordination of the Department of Justice, and funded by the European Commission. We are also involved in novel research projects with TU Dublin, demonstrating that AI can be used for good. We have three recommendations. First is enhanced education. Children and young people require enhanced education to support them to learn and to think critically about AI. Second is robust regulation. Legislators must champion a robust regulatory system that supports safe and ethical design of AI technologies. Third is policy co-ordination. A cross-government co-ordinated approach with a national policy focus is needed, situated in the Department of An Taoiseach.

ISPCC’s contribution here today is grounded in the reality that children are using AI technologies. Therefore, our collective focus must be on ensuring that these technologies are designed safely and ethically for them and that children are educated on how to use these technologies responsibly and productively. ISPCC’s service interventions are based on the child-facilitator relationship, that essential human connection. Members of our youth panel questioned whether their interactions with Childline were with chatbots. Once reassured that this was not the case, they stressed the importance of the human element of such exchanges.

In preparation for our appearance, we surveyed our colleagues who have direct daily engagement with children. Children between the ages of eight and 12 are actively using AI through the chatbot features in their online games, with little actual understanding of AI. AI has come up in approximately two thirds of recent engagements with children, who told us they mainly use AI for homework, but they recognise it can be incorrect, and support, but they are curious about who they are talking to and whether their conversations are safe and private.

The ISPCC has numerous concerns about children using AI. These include the use of AI for support with mental health. AI cannot pick up on slang, cultural references or subtle emotional cues that may risk leaving a child in a vulnerable position. The use of AI for educational purposes presents a challenge for children who lack the necessary critical thinking skills to interrogate what is being served up to them. As for AI in the proliferation of cyberbullying, sexual extortion and child sexual abuse material, the prevalence of sexual extortion is hugely concerning among young people, with perpetrators stealing images to cyberbully, blackmail and extort their victims via popular apps.

Children interacting with AI may find themselves in an echo chamber, reinforcing how they feel rather than offering alternative perspectives. It is important that maladaptive thoughts and behaviours, assumptions and bias do not go unchallenged. The ISPCC has been working with TU Dublin for several years on research projects underpinned by AI technologies. GroSafe, funded by Research Ireland, aims to develop a technology-enabled solution to build societal resilience against child grooming. N-Light, funded by Safe Online, is a deployable text analysis tool that allows for better data and sentiment analysis of our Childline webchat service.

Before another joint committee in 2018, the ISPCC stated that children are often and invariably the "guinea pigs" when new apps are released into the marketplace. That was true in 2018 for social media, and it is true seven years later for AI. We do not want to be here again in another seven years’ time, or less, testifying that children are still an afterthought in the design process and that harm continues to happen. Better can be done and better ought to be done to ensure childhood is protected. I thank the committee for its attention and we are happy to answer any questions members may have.