Guiding the AI generation: Why safeguarding and digital literacy must go hand-in-hand
Editor’s Note: Google's 2026 report, created with youth consultancy Livity, explores how teens across the UK navigate the digital world, from using AI to seeking balance online. In a guest series, we invite experts — ranging from child safety to digital rights — to share what they believe the report says about the future of digital policy, covering everything from parental support to the need for better regulatory guardrails. The views of these experts do not necessarily reflect those of Google. We are pleased to share their insights.
Children do not need adults to panic about the internet, but they do need us to keep up. The debate about children, rapidly evolving technology and online harm has become urgent.
However, urgency can narrow our thinking and the current debate risks collapsing critical and complex questions of risk, opportunity, agency and rights into the single, oversimplified question: should children under 16 should be banned from social media?
A ban might reduce some exposure if it is proportionate, evidence-led and enforceable. But a ban on its own will not teach a child how to recognise manipulation, protect themselves from cyberbullying, crucially assess misinformation, threats to their privacy or how to respond to sexual pressure.
The most important question to ask ourselves is: what do children need from us as they grow up in a world that is, in part, online, with maturity and experience?
New research commissioned by Google, based on data collected from more than 6,000 teenagers in the UK shows AI being used in myriad ways, from learning to creating, revising, translating, problem solving and preparing for future employment. The report finds that 67% of teens use AI for creative projects daily or almost daily and 65% use it for learning more than once a week. It finds that 77% always or often think about the trustworthiness of information when using the internet or AI for learning.
Young people are asking us to understand that online life is already part of how they learn, socialise, seek support and build identity. Children do not move from vulnerability to competence in one jump at 16, where they ‘grow up’. That is why the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that children’s views be given weight based on their evolving capacity to make decisions about their lives.
The report’s age breakdown shows that for 13- to 15-year-olds, AI is largely a learning tool - 21% use it for homework research. They are also still developing critical literacy with only a third always considering whether online information is trustworthy. Parents remain a safety net for them with over 80% saying they would turn to parents for problems such as cyberbullying or privacy issues.
As teenagers grow older, these patterns change. By 16 to 18 AI-use is less about homework and more about life management, self-improvement and transitioning into employment. They are also more sceptical with 52% always verifying trustworthiness and half actively checking for bias. Even with this growing autonomy, they still need adults, with a quarter worrying their parents lack the skills to recognise AI or fake information.
This transition - and insight from teenagers themselves - is a warning: static control is not good safeguarding. Good safeguarding acts as scaffolding that starts with stronger boundaries and supervision, gradually turning into coaching and shared decision making with trusted backup.
This does not mean leaving platforms to self-regulate or placing the burden on families. We need stronger regulation of harmful design features including tackling compulsive loops, weak reporting routes and the amplification of distressing content.
Even with the best regulation, risks will remain and children will still need adults who can talk to them about what they see, help them to interpret what feels confusing and respond calmly when something goes wrong. This is why we should be thinking seriously about a national behaviour change campaign for trusted adults. Parents are right to want to protect their children from risks they barely feel able to keep up with, they need support not another list of settings that feels outdated by the time they are printed.
A successful campaign could promote three key adult behaviours to support children online. First, adults should ask about digital activities without panic to build trust. Second, they should establish boundaries that evolve with the child’s maturity and experience. Finally, they must act early and respond to issues without shaming, ensuring children feel safe seeking help without fear of punishment or losing access to their devices
Parents have always helped children to navigate friendship, relationships, education and careers, and children growing up online need that same support and increasing trust and autonomy in digital spaces. The test of success is whether fewer children are harmed and more children can ask for help and children already disadvantaged offline can benefit from technology safely. Children need adults to keep up, stay close and know what to do when it matters.
