The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), through its Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, and the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) convened a group of 27 ethics experts to bring an external perspective to the analysis of the ethical and legal considerations of the AI for Safer Children initiative and the concrete measures envisioned or already being implemented to address such considerations.
The AI for Safer Children initiative seeks to support law enforcement and related authorities in exploring the positive potential of AI to combat online sexual exploitation and abuse of children. In addition to network-building, awareness-raising and advocacy on the issue of online child sexual exploitation, UNICRI and the Ministry of Interior of the UAE are developing a unique centralized platform which contains information on the available AI tools to prevent and combat this crime. The platform also offers guidance on how to navigate the challenges faced throughout the development and use of AI technologies. Due to the sensitivity of both the use of AI tools in a law enforcement context and the topic of online child sexual exploitation, UNICRI and the Ministry of Interior of the UAE have established an ethical and legal process to ensure that the AI for Safer Children initiative is ethically and legally developed from the outset; a process which has led to the draft of the Ethical and Legal Report.
The Ethics - Expert Meeting served as an opportunity to collectively discuss the Report and gather the views of independent experts on the considerations highlighted therein and on how to best address them. These considerations included, for instance, promoting global inclusiveness in a digitally divided world, gender mainstreaming and protection of personal data processed within the initiative. The final report will be used to guide UNICRI and the Ministry of Interior of the UAE in the implementation of the AI for Safer Children initiative.
