The Flourishing Generation

A Whole-of-Society Strategy for Children, Youth, and AI

A whitepaper published by Noēsis Collaborative in partnership with the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge

Download Full Report Here
Download Summary Brief Here

We believe technologies should be tools to enhance, develop, and help integrate a young person’s full range of human capabilities to achieve their aspirational goals in the communities and contexts where they live.”

About this Resource

The purpose of this whitepaper is to address one of the most urgent policy challenges of our time: How should we design policies to advance child and youth well-being in a world of Generative AI? 

This new world includes but is not limited to Generative AI (Gen AI) use in toys, gaming, mental health, assistants, social media, and  AI companions. This paper is primarily focused on Gen AI that is conversational, human-like in behavior, and social in function, including general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. 

While human development extends into a person’s mid-twenties and growth of human capabilities continues throughout the lifespan, this paper is primarily focused on children and youth from birth to the age of 18, a widely used legal boundary between minors and adults in many jurisdictions. The paper includes: 

  • The risks and potential benefits of Gen AI use by children and youth, grounded in the principle of human flourishing. 

  • Gaps in AI governance that often overlook the developmental needs and rights of children and youth and fail to foster human flourishing. 

  • A design paradigm for developers and builders of AI systems to align their products to the potential benefits and ensure impacts support the full, integral development of human capabilities. 

  • A model policy framework for AI and youth in a whitepaper for policymakers that is able to be adapted to different jurisdictions and contexts. This whitepaper will be used to inform public dialogues and debates about AI and youth policy.

Explore Our Recommendations

  • Policymakers have the responsibility to put the well-being of children and  youth as a north star for policy and regulation, aligning legal protections for minors with human development research. To support this responsibility, this paper puts forward a model policy framework with the following three elements: 

    1. Gen AI systems should be held to the same rigorous pre-market and post-market safety audits as high-stakes consumer goods like pharmaceuticals, toys, or car seats. These audits should establish that Gen AI products support the healthy development of human capabilities and/or do not degrade  a child or youth’s capability development before market access by minors. 

    2. Restrict to adults only the use of conversational Gen AI products that mimic a rich human-like inner life (including emotions, internal states, and motivations) and encourages emotional dependence. 

    3. Restrict to adults only the use of Social AI that primarily function as companions or are specifically designed, marketed or optimized to form ongoing social or emotional bonds with users.

    Download Section Here for More Details

  • Developed through collaboration with technology companies, researchers across the social and behavioral sciences, and civil society organizations, this whitepaper offers a practical approach for designing AI systems that support the healthy development of children and youth. Grounded in the science and philosophy of human flourishing, it moves beyond risk mitigation alone to provide a positive vision for how AI can strengthen human development. Our guiding design paradigm is simple:

    We believe technologies should be tools to enhance, develop, and help integrate a young person’s full range of human capabilities to achieve their aspirational goals in the communities and contexts where they live. 

    Following from this paradigm, we recommend a set of Design Principles that can embedded throughout the development process, from model architecture and training to product design and deployment:

    1. Protect children and youth from unvetted AI Deployment

    2. Respect the needs and rights of children and adolescents to develop

    3. Parents, caregivers, and youth should have confidence that engagement with these products will advance and not degrade the full range of human capabilities as children and youth develop.

    4. Be honest about the nonhuman nature of chatbots.

    5. Protect human-to-human intimacy and friendships.

    Download Section Here for More Details

  • This whitepaper sets out a recommended ‘whole-of-society’ strategy for collective action for policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, faith communities, civil society organizations, educators, family, and young people to work together to ensure the next generation flourishes in the age of AI. We have organized the strategy around the following priorities: 

    1. Mitigate known harms and minimize extreme risks through impact audits, age assurance, and safety by design standards for child and youth-facing Gen AI products.

    2. Invest in independent, longitudinal research, data access, and independent benchmarking of  Gen AI’s impact on child and youth flourishing.

    3. Build public and private capacity to monitor, regulate, and respond to emerging harms.

    4. Center the voices of children, youth, and families in AI governance by structuring mechanisms that ensure their input informs product design, evaluation, and regulations.

    5. Equip families and communities with accessible, evidence-based information and clear, plain language disclosures.

    6. Develop positive visions for child and youth interactions with AI by convening multi-stakeholder visioning exercises that center children, youth, and families.

    Download Section Here for More Details

Co-Authors

Black and white portrait of a smiling man with dark hair, wearing a collared shirt.

Ron Ivey

Founder and CEO, Noēsis Collaborative

Research Fellow, Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University

A man with shoulder-length dark hair and a beard smiling in black and white.

Henry Shevlin

Associate Director, Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge

Programme Director, Kinds of Intelligence Programme

Contributors, Workshop Participants, and Working Group Members

  • A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and fair skin, wearing a black blazer, a red top, and a silver necklace with a cross, posing against a white wall with a window in the background.

    Maria Axente

    Founder & CEO, Responsible Intelligence

  • Portrait of a man with light brown hair, glasses, wearing a dark suit, light blue shirt, and patterned tie, against a white background.

    Dean Ball

    Senior Fellow, The Foundation for American Innovation

  • Adam Billen

    Vice President of Public Policy, Encode

  • Portrait of a smiling older man with gray hair, wearing a dark suit, light blue shirt, and yellow tie, standing outdoors with a blurred background of buildings and colorful elements.

    Andrew Briggs

    Emeritus Professor of Nanomaterials, University of Oxford and Executive Chair, QuantrolOx

  • Portrait of a smiling man in a suit jacket and plaid shirt, standing in front of a bookshelf filled with books.

    Ian Marcus Corbin

    Founding Director, The Public Culture Project, Harvard University

  • Paddy Crump

    Director, FlippGenn

  • A smiling young man in a dark suit and tie, with a neutral gray background.

    John Ehrett

    Chief of Staff and Attorney Advisor, U.S. Federal Trade Commission

  • Nathanael Fast

    Professor of Management and Executive Director, Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making, USC Marshall School of Business; Co-Founder and Co- Director, Psychology of Technology Institute: Design Principles and Practices

  • Portrait of a young woman with dark hair smiling outside during daytime.

    Amina Fazlullah

    Head of Tech Policy Advocacy, Common Sense Media

  • A woman with long dark hair smiling outdoors on a sunny day.

    Thao Ha

    Associate Professor and Director of the @HEART Lab, ASU

  • Sam Hiner

    Sam Hiner

    Executive Director & Co-Founder, Young People’s Alliance

  • Tomasz Hollanek

    Assistant Research Professor at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI); Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge

  • Black and white portrait of a woman with shoulder-length hair, smiling, wearing a dark top and earrings, posed with her hand near her chin against a plain background.

    Julianne Holt-Lunstad

    Professor & Director of the Social Connection & Health Lab, BYU

  • A man with short dark hair wearing a blue and gray plaid shirt, smiling slightly, against a white background.

    Ravi Iyer

    Managing Director, USC Neely Center & Psychology of Technology Institute

  • A young man with light brown hair, wearing glasses and a blue button-up shirt, smiling with arms crossed against a dark gray background.

    Will Jones

    Futures Program Associate, Future of Life Institute

  • A bald man in a light blue suit and tie smiling against a wooden background.

    Konstantinos Karachalios

    Former Managing Director, IEEE Standards Association

  • A man with short brown hair wearing a dark suit jacket and light blue dress shirt outdoors.

    Martijn Lampert

    Co-Founder and Research Director, Glocalities

  • A man with a beard and short hair wearing a dark suit and tie, smiling against a white background.

    Brad Littlejohn

    Director of Programs and Education, American Compass

  • A woman with curly gray hair smiling in front of a background of green leafy plants.

    Sonia Livingstone

    Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science

  • Timothy Lomas

    Research Scientist, Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University

  • A woman with shoulder-length light brown hair wearing a dark blue blazer, smiling in front of a plain gray background.

    Kim Malfacini

    Product Policy Lead, OpenAI

  • A woman with long blonde hair smiling in front of a mountainous landscape with green trees.

    Amanda McCroskery

    Research Scientist, Applied AI Ethics & Governance Researcher, DeepMind

  • Katie McNerney

    Founder and Partner, Leaderfit; Senior Advisor, Noēsis Collaborative

  • Close-up of a smiling middle-aged man with gray hair, wearing a dark shirt, standing indoors with plants in the background.

    Andrew McStay

    Director, The Emotional AI Lab and Professor of Technology and Society, Bangor University

  • Portrait of a young woman with light brown hair, wearing glasses, a white turtleneck, and a blue blazer, against a plain gray background.

    Amy Orben

    Research Professor and Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and a Fellow at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge; Lead Digital Mental Health Group

  • Woman with glasses and long curly hair wearing a yellow scarf and blue jacket, smiling outdoors.

    Dorian Peters

    Assistant Professor in Ethical Design at The University of Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity; Senior Research Associate at the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College Cambridge

  • Giada Pistilli

    Principle Ethicist, Hugging Face

  • Jenny Radesky

    MD Professor of Pediatrics, Division Director, Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School; Co-Medical Director, American Association of Pediatrics Center of Excellence in Social Media and Youth Mental Health

  • Jennifer Tacheff

    Founder & CEO, Manifest Advisors

  • A portrait of a smiling woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a sleeveless top.

    Felicity Tan

    Founding Executive Director, The Risman Foundation

  • A woman with long red hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, smiling and wearing a dark blazer.

    Terri Taylor

    Strategy Director for Innovation & Discovery, Lumina Foundation

  • Jonathan Teubner

    Research Associate, Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University; Program Lead, Flourishing and AI Initiative

  • A man in a blue suit holding a microphone, speaking at an indoor event with a patterned wall and banner in the background.

    Austin Tiffany

    Senior Director, Good Faith Partnership, AI Faith & Civil Society Commission

  • Mick Tobin

    Co-Founder & Advocacy Director, Young People’s Alliance

  • David Vasquez

    Executive Director, Noēsis Collaborative

  • A smiling woman with long red hair wearing a black top with a ruffled collar standing against a neutral background.

    Angy Watson

    Chief People and Tranformation Officer, Paymentology

Launch Event Calendar

We will have live, virtual events coming this fall. Check back for updates!

For questions, media inquiries, or opportunities to collaborate, please contact us at hello@noesiscollaborative.org

© Noesis Collaborative and the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, May 2026. All Rights Reserved. Full references and methodology are available in the complete report.

Related Resources

Where it Started

Check out our event page to for the Gen AI and Youth Policy Workshop at the University of Cambridge, October 2025.

Read

Read our “Social AI and Human Connections: Benefits, Risks, and Social Impact” Whitepaper.

Watch

Watch our presentation on Designing AI to Help Children Flourish including recommendations given to the G20.

Review

Check out our AI & Youth Impact information webpage designed for parents.