BACKGROUND TO PRE-STUDY
One in four municipalities in Sweden have not yet implemented the Convention on the Rights of the Child, despite the fact that it became Swedish law on 1 January 2020. According to the Children’s Rights in Society (BRIS), 40% of the municipalities have no strategy for integrating the Convention on the Rights of the Child into their activities or policies.
While municipalities struggle with the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, new strategies and working methods are required to provide the municipalities with the conditions needed (eg. new skills, organizational infrastructure / processes) to meet current and future digitalisation requirements.
Together with Lund University and the cities of Lund, Malmö, and Helsingborg, AI Sweden and the project “Child-Centric AI in 3 cities of Sweden” has been selected by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to host one of fifteen pilot projects globally on the use of AI for children. The project will evaluate the policy guidelines on AI for children developed by UNICEF, by applying them to ongoing projects. The aim is to document how AI policies can become more child-centred in order to protect and secure children’s rights.
OUTCOMES
As one of UNICEF’s 15 selected pilot partners in the world, this pre-study intends to map the knowledge needs in the municipalities of Lund, Malmö, and Helsingborg with regards to the areas of Child Rights and AI. This is done in cooperation with researchers, authorities, municipalities, stakeholders and other experts.
In doing so, the pre-study aims to evaluate and define the key components required to provide a supportive framework that optimizes the capacity, expertise and opportunity for Child-centered AI in both theory and practice. Learnings from the ongoing municipal projects, and the collaboration with UNICEF, will be used as a foundation to map and plan on how to structure, build and gather around a national knowledge and collaboration arena for authorities, municipalities, research communities, and experts with regards to Children, digitalisation, technology, AI, legal and Ethics – establishing a unifying national knowledge and collaboration platform.
GET INVOLVED
Do you have expertise in AI or children’s rights? Or want to contribute to the UNICEF pilot and to build the national arena for child centered AI through funding or in-kind contributions?
Please contact our CEO Ola Svedin to discuss ways of becoming part of the project. There are also opportunities for local government, experts and other stakeholders to get involved.
WEBSITE
UNICEF: AI Policy Guidance for Children
CONTACT
To learn more about the UNICEF pilot, please contact Ola Svedin: ola.svedin@mobileheights.org
