UN Coalition to Protect Children From AI Launches Without Poland

Seventeen countries signed a declaration in Geneva on Tuesday establishing a new Coalition for Children's Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Poland was not among the signatories, even though a Polish delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski was present at the summit where the coalition was launched.

What the new coalition is

The initiative is jointly backed by the UN Department of Global Communications, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Telecommunication Union, the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, UNICEF and UNESCO. The agreement is grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world.

The declaration calls for a shift in perspective: children should be treated not merely as technology users protected after the fact, but as rights holders whose voice should shape how AI systems are designed from the outset. Signatories committed to incorporating children's perspectives into the design, deployment and oversight of AI systems as part of fulfilling children's right to participate in decisions affecting their lives.

The coalition's launch was preceded by a call from UN Secretary-General António Guterres for a global commitment to child safety in the context of AI, announced during the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

We were late with social media, and now we have the same problem again. We cannot be late with AI - Óscar López, Spain's Minister for Digital Transformation

The scale of the risks

Figures cited during the summit show why the issue made it onto the UN agenda. Over the past year, 1.2 million children in eleven countries have fallen victim to photos manipulated into sexual deepfakes. In a survey of children aged 10-17 across 49 countries, 68 percent of respondents said they feared AI-generated disinformation, while 63 percent said they use AI tools for schoolwork.

Spain's Minister for Digital Transformation Óscar López, one of the coalition's initiators, spoke of a real wave of mental health problems, suicides and online harassment that children did not have to contend with fifteen years ago.

No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI - António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Poland absent from the list

The list of signatories includes Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, South Korea and Spain. Poland is not among them, even though a Polish delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski attended the Geneva summit and publicly stated the need to put people and their safety at the center of AI policy.

CyberDefence24, the outlet that first flagged the discrepancy, sent questions to the Polish government on the matter. A concrete explanation for not joining the coalition has not been provided so far. Gawkowski's presence in Geneva coincided with the NATO summit taking place in parallel in Ankara (July 7-8), which also addressed digital technology issues.

What this means for Poland

Not signing the declaration does not automatically mean Poland cannot join the coalition later, the organizers have left that door open. For Polish parents, schools and child-protection institutions, however, it means the country currently has no formal voice among the group of states jointly developing standards to protect children from AI-related risks such as deepfakes and disinformation.

The issue carries added weight in light of the EU's AI Act, further provisions of which will take effect in Poland from August 2. The Geneva coalition operates outside the AI Act's framework, but touches the same risk areas, including protection of minors using AI systems, which EU law treats as a priority.

What happens next

Volker Türk, head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced that the coalition will monitor the fulfillment of the commitments made so they do not remain empty words. Organizers expect more countries to join in the coming months, and a first progress report from the coalition is expected to be presented during upcoming sessions of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

Sources: Nowa koalicja ONZ na rzecz dzieci. Na liście nie ma Polski (cyberdefence24.pl), New coalition puts children's rights at the centre of the AI age (news.un.org), 'We were late with social media': Spain launches coalition in Geneva to protect children from AI risks (genevasolutions.news)