A child plays with her tablet in the audience while experts discuss “How Today’s Children Learn, Play and Thrive.” Photos by Karen Tapia
Children’s well-being takes center stage at forum
Some of the nation’s leading researchers and child development experts gathered July 16 at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering at UC Irvine to make a clear case: when it comes to artificial intelligence and its impact on young people, the conversation must be grounded in science — not fear.
The panel called on policymakers, parents and tech developers alike to adopt a “developmental lens” that puts children’s well-being at the forefront of how AI is designed, regulated and used.
“We are running a massive, uncontrolled experiment on an entire generation of children,” said moderator Gillian Hayes, UCI vice provost for academic personnel and Chancellor’s Professor of informatics, “and sadly, the loudest voices in that conversation are too often the least informed by science.”
The event, “How Today’s Children Learn, Play and Thrive,” was the second installment in the series “Raising the Next Generation in the Age of AI,” presented by UCI's School of Social Ecology, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the Office of Research, and the Connected Learning Lab. It drew 125 parents, educators, researchers and community members for nearly two hours of panel discussion that was equal parts urgent and hopeful.
The conversation resisted easy answers, drawing on decades of research from five panelists who collectively span academia, media, child development and the technology industry.
Katie Salen Tekinbaş, UCI professor of informatics and co-founder and chief designer of Connected Camps, warned that AI risks quietly eroding the one thing children need most: genuine, self-directed play.
“Protecting children’s ability to learn, play and thrive in an age of AI requires us to look beyond risk,” she said, “and attend to what may be quietly disappearing.”
Michael H. Levine, director of strategy and partnerships at Or Initiative and founding director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, said that the current AI moment risks repeating the chaos of the early app revolution — with evidence once again left behind.
He invoked Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney’s simple test for any children’s media: “Does this help a child feel less alone, more capable, more connected to the people who love them?”
Michael Preston, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, called out AI’s genuinely unprecedented qualities — its interactivity, personalization, adaptability and intimacy — and cautioned: “without a developmental lens, those four properties pull against potentially every dimension of wellbeing.”
The question isn’t whether AI is different, he said. “It is. The question is whether we design with a developmental lens, or let those differences undercut everything kids need to thrive.”
Tami Bhaumik, vice president of civility and partnerships at Roblox, traced the company’s civility initiative to a conversation with a mother who felt powerless to protect her daughter online.
“Young people thrive when they have the skills to navigate the digital world with confidence and the support systems to help them do it safely,” she said, pointing to Roblox’s rollout of facial age estimation and age-tiered account settings as examples of structural commitment.
Mimi Ito, the MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at UCI and director of the Connected Learning Lab, challenged the notion that devices and platforms are the independent variable causing harm.
“Kids aren’t addicted to their phone,” she said. “They’re addicted to being in touch with their friends. We need to center our understanding on the activity — how technology can amplify or detract from the things we know are good for kids.”
Social media, she argued, is not a contaminant to be extracted but more like a circulatory system: not something that can simply be removed without consequence.
The panelists agreed: the instinct to protect children is right, but protection alone is not enough. Children need space, in digital environments as in physical ones, to imagine, fail, create and connect on their own terms.
In responding to audience questions, the experts offered the following tips for parents and educators:
- Know your child first. A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. As Levine said, what thriving looks like “is different at age 4, at age 10, and at age 15.”
- Ask three questions before every screen experience. Consider the child, the context and the content. Is this right for my child’s age? Where is it happening? Is the content research-based and developmentally appropriate?
- Protect unstructured play. Guard the time and space where children can imagine and fail on their own terms. “Safe enough doesn’t mean risk-free,” Salen Tekinbaş said. “It means giving young people the support they need to test their limits and build real confidence.”
- Stay connected, not controlling. Resist blanket bans in favor of conversation. Ask what your child is building or playing. Let them teach you. “Connection and mentorship is so much more important than banning and control,” Ito said.
- Make agreements together. A screen-time contract the child helps write builds trust and self-regulation far more effectively than a timer.
- Support neurodivergent children differently. For many neurodivergent children, online spaces provide vital social connection and belonging. Blanket restrictions can cause disproportionate harm. Seek resources designed specifically for neurodivergent families.
- Start with learning goals, not technology. Ask what you are trying to accomplish, then find the technology that supports it — not the other way around.
- Find the soft spaces. Where school district policy blocks innovation in the core curriculum, start with clubs, after-school programs and electives. Build stories of success there, then bring them into the classroom.
- Elevate student voices. Involve students in setting classroom norms around technology. Their voices are often the most persuasive with administrators and school boards.
- Advocate for formal digital literacy training. The U.S. lags behind many countries that begin structured digital literacy education at age five. Push for district-level curriculum and professional development. Teachers should not be expected to become digital literacy experts on their own.
- Resist making technology the villain. The goal is not fewer screens but better design: tools that meet children where they are and expand, rather than diminish, their capacity to grow.
As she wrapped the discussion, Hayes asked the panelists: “if you had a magic wand, what would you want kids to have that maybe they don’t have today or maybe they don’t have enough of?” Their responses:
- Ito: “A supportive and safe space to connect with others who share your interests online.”
- Preston: “Creative agency.”
- Bhaumik: “Places that are not stigmatized where they can connect with friends.”
- Levine: “Interest-driven learning.”
- Salen Tekinbaş: “Places to play where they have power and control.”
The series continues with a Sept. 8 session on parenting teens and tweens in the digital age and a Nov. 18 session on preparing youth for the workforce of the future.
Watch the full event on YouTube