An interview with Professor Natalia Kucirkova of the University of Stavanger, Norway, and The Open University, UK.
AI is making rapid advancements in the fields of daily life and learning, accelerating and expanding children’s use of digital tools and the resulting impacts. These effects are also reaching increasingly younger age groups. According to a nationwide AI literacy survey of elementary and middle school teachers and students conducted by the CommonWealth Education Innovation Hub in Taiwan, the percentage of middle-grade students using AI has already reached 88.45%. Its usage and influence extend across classrooms, homework, daily life, and even casual conversations.
Professor Natalia Kucirkova—an expert in early childhood development and reading at the University of Stavanger in Norway and The Open University in the UK—has long advocated for educators and parents to help children choose “slow-paced media.” In a recent exclusive interview with the CommonWealth Education Innovation Hub, she discussed the impact of AI development on children’s learning, cognition, emotions, and behavior. In addition to sharing her latest research findings, observed trends, and international best practices, she also pointed out how parents, educators, and even governments, developers, and investors can respond.
Natalia Kucirkova_nøytral_liggende©Læringsmiljøsenteret foto Elisabeth Tønnessen
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(This interview has been edited for length and clarity)
Q: You have long studied the behavior of children using digital technology and receiving digital content and its impact in various aspects. Now, the way these tools operate and the content they produce have also changed significantly due to AI. Could you share with us the multiple impacts of accelerated AI development on children's cognition, learning, emotions, and behavior?
A: It is challenging to predict the long-term impact of technology, including AI, because it is a moving target; what we see today will be different tomorrow.
However, based on current observations and research, we can discuss the impacts in certain areas.
First, let's look at the cognitive and learning aspects. Many digital technology products designed for young children, including those with generative AI features, are often designed with overwhelming features. This design negatively impacts young children's cognitive engagement—how they use their language and engage their brains—to be overdriven by the high stimuli from these technologies.
If the technology is poorly designed and young children use it on their own without adult support, it can negatively influence their cognitive skills, their ability to engage, and their social skills. These are all very important abilities in their early age.
For example, the "deeply precise personalization" brought by generative AI can generate content based on a child's input and usage habits, making the technology "get to know" the user better. This personalization can be beneficial for engagement and motivation, but it can also lead to children spending more time with these technologies, becoming very hooked and finding it harder to step away, which is why some people talk about addiction.
And when children are under the impression that these technologies know them and trust them, they might reveal personal information that they would not normally reveal to an adult. This is a key concern if we know that many AI companies don’t follow the recommended ethical guardrails and sell or misuse children’s data for commercial purposes.
Furthermore, developmental psychologists are concerned that a lot of the dialogue and conversation that should happen between the child and family members is delegated to technology. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, if children spend a lot of time with technology instead of interacting with family and friends, it will affect their social development.
Q: Could you give some examples for educators or parents to notice and identify which of their children's behaviors or cognitive functions have been negatively affected by AI development?
A: Our research has found that parents noticed that when children use conversational AI tools like Google Home or Alexa, they develop impolite language habits, such as not saying "thank you" or "please," but giving direct commands instead. The same may happen when some adults let children use the conversational features of generative AI.
This is because these technologies will do whatever you ask them to, regardless of whether the user is polite or not.
A further problem is that AI responds instantly, gives answers, and doesn't refuse to respond, but the real world doesn't work that way. This makes it difficult for children to learn how to handle their emotions when their needs are not met immediately in real life. And this is why a loving adult needs to be always present when they use these technologies ( and as we know, unfortunately, not all children have loving adults all the time with them).
Q: On the other hand, we also see that the application of AI in educational technology could be very helpful for personalized learning. How can we balance the benefits and negative impacts of AI tools on learning?
A: As mentioned earlier, "deeply precise personalization" technology can generate content based on a child's input and usage habits. The more children use these technologies, the more the technology "knows" them and produces responses they want. Personalization can be beneficial for engagement and motivation.
However, these technologies are developed for adults, not according to the brain development of children. For young children, their cognitive development is not advanced enough to understand the difference between the advice they get from an adult and the advice they get from a bot that speaks just like any other adult.
If these technologies provide inappropriate advice without considering their brain maturity (advice usually designed for adults), children might take it as what they should do and just do it, but they cannot process this unsuitable information properly. This can lead to negative effects like overstimulation that exceeds their capacity.
Therefore, before letting children use new technologies, adults should think through whether it is necessary and what value or added benefit it can bring to the child. If the answer is not clear, then there is no need to follow the trend and rush to let children use it.
If adults find that it really helps the child, for example, by promoting communication or creativity, then they should select a technology that makes sense for both the child and the family.
I recommend parents take some time to sit down, understand the tool, download it, and check its content and quality before deciding whether to let their child use it.
When making a choice, don't judge solely based on popularity or superficial positive reviews. Popularity doesn't always mean good quality, and many reviews might not be genuine. Moreover, each child is unique; a tech tool that works for one child may not work for another. Parents should judge based on their own child's specific situation and family needs, rather than following trends blindly.
Additionally, I encourage adults to actively engage in these usage behaviors. Even if a technology has a bad design, if parents can use it with their children, engage in a lot of conversation while using it, and turn off overwhelming features when necessary, they can override the impact of the bad design. The problem arises when adults leave children to their own devices, letting them face these tools alone. In such cases, if the tool is poorly designed, there is no supportive adult nearby to mitigate the negative impact.
I am also aware that many parents don’t have the time to go through countless offers on the digital market and select the right technology. That is why researchers like myself and educators should work with policy-makers and local government representatives to ensure that only high-quality technology is made available and accessible to our children.
Q: We have just talked about the impact on cognition and learning and how to balance the negative impacts. In terms of life and social-emotional learning, what advice would you give parents to notice and reduce the side effects of AI?
A: Parents can pay attention to changes in their child's behavior after using digital products. For example, signs of being fussy, irritated, or responding to prompts in an unusual way, such as becoming impolite or showing unusual social responses, could be warning signs of inappropriate use or inappropriate technology.
In an era where AI permeates our lives, it's even more important to value human relationships. Parents should understand that technology can never replace a loving, caring adult or the relationships we have with other human beings. They should ensure that a child's social development comes primarily from dialogue and interaction with family, friends, and other adults, rather than being entirely delegated to technology.
Q: What roles can policymakers and product developers play, or how can they cooperate, to ensure that the development of digital technology and AI considers children's cognitive and mental well-being?
A: Governments and technology developers can invest in high-quality design. For example, in some countries, national media houses. like PBS in the US and NRK in Norway, invest in the development and design of technologies, they typically work with developmental specialists. They have the resources to engage researchers.
Such apps and learning platforms are known to have positive effects on children. Unfortunately, they are in very minority on the market and they are not available in every country.
The learning benefits of these technologies really depend on their design. Developers and researchers must fully consider the maturity of children's brains and their mental development when designing technologies, ensuring that the content and advice provided are age-appropriate. Currently, many technologies are developed for adults, and their training data is not suitable for young children.
To this end, we need to ensure there is a dialogue and collaboration between different stakeholders, including developers, researchers, users (family members, teachers, and children), and funders or investors.
Actually, the funders are often overlooked but those who provide funding or investment should not only consider profits and downloads but should be motivated by what is best for the child. At the moment we are not getting it right. Many investors and the developers are doing whatever gives them the most reach, the most money, the most downloads. That is what is motivating many of these technologies.
Another way is to promote certification schemes. I encourage the national certification programs that have been implemented internationally, such as those promoted by EduEvidence.org. It is a global certification scheme according to international standards of safe, inclusive and proven educational technology.
In conclusion, the impact of digital technology on child development is multifaceted and constantly evolving. The key lies in the quality of technology design, the active participation and guidance of adults (parents and educators), and cross-disciplinary collaboration to ensure that technology supports, rather than hinders, children's healthy development.