Barack Obama singing ‘Call Me Maybe’, Snoop Dogg reading tarot cards, Breaking Bad starring Donald Trump: all of these are videos that can be found on the Internet. While it is quite obvious that these outlandish ideas were made ‘reality’ using AI, even for adults, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between real content and deepfakes, let alone for children and young people. And that is only one of the many risks posed by prolonged and uncontrolled exposure to online content.

Children experience the adverse mental health effects of constant exposure to—most often unfiltered—content online, which can hinder their performance at school, their outlook on life, societal relationships, and much more.

Hungary has taken action, banning smartphones from classrooms, a choice that sparked outrage across social media. However, UNESCO has called for these very measures back in 2023, stressing that teaching technological skills is necessary, but unrestricted internet access leads to a loss of focus, worse learning outcomes, and little to no data privacy for children.

For these reasons, countries such as Denmark and Greece are also trying to combat over-reliance on smartphones by requiring students to keep their mobile phones in their bags during lessons. In the US, most Americans would support banning cell phones from the classroom, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul plans to propose a similar ban. Even Ursula von der Leyen expressed concern over the youth’s growing social media addiction.

However, we must acknowledge that 92 per cent of jobs now require digital skills, which are often developed through the everyday use of modern technologies rather than something learnt in school. To enhance European competitiveness and economic performance, a strong digital economy is necessary, empowered by an abundance of professionals.

‘Studies show that prolonged screen time has an enormous negative impact on learning’

So, shouldn’t Hungary also strive to teach citizens digital skills to boost the country’s economic landscape? Well, it is doing just that! Studies show that prolonged screen time has an enormous negative impact on learning, and that banning their use for the duration of the lessons at least will lead to better social skills as well as other soft skills for the students.^[1] Additionally, the Hungarian National Social Inclusion Strategy 2030 is in place, which aims to improve the digital literacy of students, parents and teachers alike.

So yes, while digital skills are paramount in today’s workforce, other soft skills, particularly the development of human relationships, cannot be left out of students’ lives either. Taking away smartphones during class does not signify that students should not focus their energy on improving specific skills that will serve them as adults. On the contrary, it is vital that there are lessons dedicated to them learning how to separate reality from the waves of fake material online, how to foster healthy relationships with other humans, and how to understand technology. This is particularly important in today’s day and age, where all social media platforms are filled with disinformation, and misinformation.^[2]

My suggestion would be to help children get the education they need in all areas of life. A small part of it, something that Hungary has tried to achieve by the aforementioned measures, is improving the concentration of young people—which is much needed, as their average attention span has been found to be 47 seconds.

Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy will undoubtedly be of paramount importance in the future, so teaching it, rather than letting children find harmful, addictive or otherwise destructive content themselves online is going to be the biggest challenge of protecting our youth. AI literacy includes knowledge of the basic functions of AI systems, and how to use them ethically in everyday life to help prepare homework or for work. Computational thinking can be developed from early childhood,^[3] but it should be done while keeping children’s emotional and mental wellbeing at the forefront.

‘AI is a powerful tool that can be utilized for the benefit of children, but we must be careful’

AI is actually already being used in certain educational institutions to teach small children a variety of subjects. In June 2021 a social robot was used as a teaching aid in a school for autistic children, with positive results. The robot achieved 330 interactions over 3 weeks with a small group of children, and its presence helped them learn.^[4] Integrating AI technology to educate special needs children can, therefore, lead to better learning outcomes for them, and can help promote inclusive learning. For blind students, tools such as Ask Envision and Be My Eyes are now available, which are able to capture and explain anything to the student. For deaf children, SLAIT, a real-time sign language translator could be a game-changer. Inclusivity could even extend to underprivileged children, who could use Large Language Models in their classroom to learn different subjects, even if there is no internet connection at home.

AI is a powerful tool that can be utilized for the benefit of children, but we must be careful. It is not yet reliable and trustworthy enough to listen to its results blindly. Human oversight is absolutely necessary; just as human-to-human interactions should be encouraged along with the implementation of these solutions.

The way I see it, a ban on smartphones during class is likely to occur in more and more countries in the near future, but this must be complemented with helping youngsters acquire the necessary skills for navigating the online realm. A balanced perspective, coupled with promoting traditional values, will be needed, both in developing AI literacy, digital knowledge, and most importantly, in what AI can never completely replace: building relationships.

^[1] Oluwafemi J Sunday, Olusola O Adesope, Patricia L Maarhuis, ‘The effects of smartphone addiction on learning: A meta-analysis’, Computers in Human Behavior Reports, Vol 4, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100114

^[2] Esma Aïmeur, Sabrine Amri & Gilles Brassard, ‘Fake news, disinformation and misinformation in social media: A review’, Social Network Analysis and Mining, Vol 13:30, 2023.

^[3] Jiahong Su, Weipeng Yang, ‘A systematic review of integrating computational thinking in early childhood education’, Computers and Education, Vol 4, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2023.100122

^[4] Séverin Lemaignan, Nigel Newbutt, Louis Rice & Joe Daly, ‘‘‘It’s Important to Think of Pepper as a Teaching Aid or Resource External to the Classroom’’: A Social Robot in a School for Autistic Children’, International Journal of Social Robotics, Vol 16, 1083–1104, 2024.

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