Four Nations Launch Global Coalition to Shield Children From AI

Leaders of France, Spain, Australia, and Kenya used the U.N. General Assembly to formally launch a coalition demanding that no artificial intelligence product reach a child without prior independent safety assessment — a principle that, if enforced, would mark a paradigm shift from the slow, post-hoc regulation that defined the social media era. With the European Commission simultaneously unveiling a Kids Act that would ban social media for children under 13 and force platforms to prove they are safe, the session produced the most ambitious package of children's digital safety commitments yet assembled on the international stage.

• Four heads of state launch coalition requiring independent AI safety assessments before any product reaches children
• EU unveils Kids Act: no social media under 13, parent-controlled accounts for teens, burden of proof shifted to platforms
• Spain cites explosion of child sexual abuse material from 5,000 cases in 2023 to 1.3 million in 2025
• Australia reports 6 million youth accounts shut down under social media ban, announces national AI standards by year-end
• OpenAI proposes global AI safety institute dedicated to children
• UNICEF: 1.2 million children across 11 countries had images turned into sexually explicit deepfakes in one year