A Declaration on Child Dignity and AI

Private audience with Pope Leo XIV, Clementine Hall

 
 

THE 2025 DECLARATON

Rome, November 13, 2025

On the occasion of a high-profile international meeting promoted by the Child Foundation in collaboration with the Child Dignity Alliance, entitled “High-Level Meeting on Child Dignity in the Artificial Intelligence Era,” a declaration of intent was signed reaffirming every child’s right to live, grow, and dream in safety. The document, which calls on governments, institutions, companies, and citizens to jointly build a new human pact for the digital era based on the dignity and protection of the youngest, was presented today to Pope Leo XIV, who received the conference participants in an audience at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

The manifesto is structured around six pillars of action:

  1. Protection and Safety: Prevent all forms of abuse and exploitation of children online and through artificial intelligence.

  2. Education and Empowerment: Promote digital and emotional awareness among children, parents, and educators.

  3. Ethical and Transparent Technology: Support AI grounded in human values such as responsibility, fairness, and compassion.

  4. Global Governance and Accountability: Strengthen international cooperation and the protection of children’s rights.

  5. Research and Innovation for Good: Direct technology toward the well-being, health, inclusion, and education of children.

  6. Interreligious and Intergenerational Solidarity: Unite the voices of different faiths and generations in a shared moral commitment.

This declaration is a call to conscience and to action. The age of artificial intelligence must not be an age of moral indifference. Each innovation must be in pursuit of advancing the common good. We invite leaders, institutions, and citizens of every nation to join this covenant of responsibility — to ensure that technology, guided by wisdom and love, becomes a means of protecting what is most precious: the dignity, imagination, and hope of our children.

Signed and adopted at the High-Level Meeting on Child Dignity in the Artificial Intelligence Era
Vatican City, 13 November 2025, Fondazione Child and Child Dignity Alliance, signatories of the document include:

Baker McKenzie
ChildLight European Hub
Common Sense Media
Fondazione Child
Google
International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children
London School of Economics
Meta
Microsoft
NCMEC
OpenAI
Pontificio Comitato della Giornata Mondiale dei Bambini
Scholas
Shift7
TikTok
UNICRI Centre for AI & Robotics (UN)
WeProtect Global Alliance

 
Download the 2025 declaration