SAN FRANCISCO, September 6, 2026 — The Digital Dignity Institute of California today released Children in the Behavioural Machine, a major new research report by founder Emily D. Bauman examining how AI-driven behavioural systems shape the lives, choices, and developmental environments of children and young people.
Drawing on more than 200 citations across law, child development, education, technology policy, and human rights, the 65-page report documents how AI systems increasingly influence what young people see, learn, purchase, and believe. It argues that current governance approaches too often treat children as future users rather than rights-holders whose development deserves meaningful protection now.
Children in the Behavioural Machine identifies a central governance gap: the systems that optimize attention, infer vulnerability, and personalize digital experiences are often deployed without a clear duty to protect the best interests of the child. The report calls for a shift from reactive safeguards to child-centered design and enforceable public accountability.
Among its recommendations, the report urges policymakers to include children and youth voices in AI policy-development spaces; prohibit engagement optimization for minors; require meaningful assessments before high-impact systems reach young people; and establish rights to explanation, contestation, and human support where automated systems affect a child’s opportunities or wellbeing.
The report also calls on technology companies, schools, regulators, and civil society to recognize that the question is not whether young people will encounter AI, but what conditions will govern that encounter. DDI’s framework centers dignity, developmental autonomy, and the right of every child to grow without being treated as a source of behavioral data.
More than ever, we must place the best interests of the child at the centre of AI governance. That means bringing children and youth into the policy spaces where their futures are decided, refusing business models that optimize engagement at the expense of wellbeing, and building systems that respect a child’s right to develop with dignity.
About DDI
The Digital Dignity Institute of California is an independent research institute advancing human dignity, democratic integrity, and accountable governance in the design and deployment of emerging technologies.