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Where we stand

Childhood needs a line. AI needs guardrails.

Screens were the warning. AI is the threat. Protecting children's development can't depend on a parent finding the right guide. It has to be the default, for every child. Below: what we stand for, and real policy moving right now that you can support.

Our standing positions

Who can use AI

Position

An age line for every interactive AI product

Not just companion chatbots. Children need a strong foundation in core human skills first. Learning about AI can start earlier, through vocabulary and teacher-led lessons. Independent use of any interactive AI product should wait until 11 to 12.

Beyond development, we have no safety regulations for general AI use yet. How can we morally and ethically hand it to minors?

Position

Readiness, not the calendar

An age line should set the floor. Past it, generative AI should enter a child's life only once they've built enough of their own mind to check it against: concepts before tools, understanding before creating. This aligns with UNESCO's 2024 AI Competency Framework for students.

Much like with screens and social media, we allowed persuasive technology with minors and saw the outcome.

Guardrails for everyone

If safety can't rest on an adult user, it can't rest on a child.

Position

Protection by Design

Children's attention, language, and development should be protected by a product's default settings, not dependent on a parent finding the right toggle. The burden belongs on platforms and products, not exhausted parents.

Position

Safety built into the system

Safety can't just be in the user. Not all users act without malicious intent, and a system can pursue the goal we give it in ways we never intended. The guardrails belong in how AI is built and released.

From the essays

The full argument

Who can use AI, and guardrails for everyone

Evelyn Metta, M.Ed., former K–2 teacher, on who should be able to use AI and the safety standards it needs for everyone.

Read it on Substack
Kept current

In the news: research & policy we're tracking

A running log of outside developments relevant to children, screens, and AI: research findings, proposed regulation, and frameworks worth knowing about. This section is maintained by hand and dated, so you always know how fresh it is.

Aug 2026 · U.S. Senate

The Kids Online Safety Act is moving right now

On August 5, 2026, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced KOSA toward a full Senate vote. The House passed its own kids-online-safety package in June, but left out KOSA's duty-of-care standard, the part that would require platforms to design with children's wellbeing in mind. The two chambers now have to reconcile. If you contact your senators about one thing this year, ask them to keep the duty of care.

Source: U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Aug 2026
Aug 2026 · U.S. Senate

First federal bill aimed at AI in children's toys

The Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act (S. 5171) advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee alongside KOSA, an early sign that lawmakers are starting to treat AI aimed at children as its own category. Worth watching, and worth telling your senators you care about.

Source: U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Aug 2026
Apr 2026 · U.S. Senate

A ban on AI companions for minors cleared committee

On April 30, 2026, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the GUARD Act. It would bar AI companions for anyone under 18 and require every chatbot to disclose that it is not human and holds no professional credentials. It is the clearest federal age line on AI so far, and it only covers companions. We think the line should reach every interactive AI product a child can use.

Source: Office of Sen. Josh Hawley, Apr 2026
Feb 2026 · International

AI safety scientists say safeguards aren't keeping pace

The International AI Safety Report 2026, chaired by Yoshua Bengio and written by more than 100 independent experts with backing from over 30 countries, found that AI capabilities keep climbing while safeguards lag behind. Bengio called that gap a critical challenge. It is the reason guardrails can't be left to the user.

Source: International AI Safety Report, Feb 2026
Since Jan 2025 · South Carolina

Our home state's school days are phone-free, and it's working

Under the Free to Focus SC initiative, every South Carolina district has implemented a phone-free school day since January 2025, with exceptions for medical needs and IEPs. If your child is in an SC school, this standard is already protecting their attention. Support your district's enforcement of it.

Source: SC Department of Education, Free to Focus SC
2025–2026 · Nationwide

Phone-free schools are becoming the American norm

By early 2026, more than half the states had adopted phone-free classroom or school-day policies, and eleven states passed or strengthened their laws this year alone. If your state isn't one of them yet, this is the most winnable childhood-protection fight in the country right now.

Source: ExcelinEd in Action, Jan 2026
This log reflects independent reading and interpretation by a former classroom teacher, not a legal or regulatory filing. It is updated as new, credible research and policy developments come to our attention, not on a fixed schedule.
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