Children and Youth as Stakeholders in the Metaverse- Ethical Implications
Ethic Minds Institute
Session 224
The session seeks to give weight to the underemphasized topic of child and youth participation and well-being in online spaces as we move now into Web3 and Metaverse spaces. Participants will engage in discussions around child safety, the role of young users as agents within virtual environments, and the broader societal responsibilities in creating a safe and empowering digital future for younger generations.
Child Safety in the Metaverse
As the Metaverse continues to expand, ensuring the safety of children within these virtual spaces becomes increasingly critical. This workshop will touch key areas such as:
**Online Protection**: the mechanisms needed to safeguard children from online predators, bullying, and exposure to inappropriate content.
**Data Privacy**: the importance of protecting children's personal information and the ethical considerations of data collection in the Metaverse.
**Parental Controls and Monitoring**: the effectiveness of parental control tools and the balance between supervision and autonomy for young users.
Children as Agents in the Metaverse
Children are not just passive participants in the Metaverse; they are active agents who interact, create, and influence these digital spaces. We will engage questions around:
**Digital Literacy**: the need for education on digital literacy to empower children to navigate the Metaverse responsibly.
**Creative Expression**: the creative potential of children and ensuring their contributions are recognized and respected.
**Participatory Rights**: the need to and potential of involving young users in decision-making processes regarding the design and governance of Metaverse platforms.
Complexities of These Issues
The intersection of child safety and agency in the Metaverse introduces several complexities:
**Balancing Freedom and Protection**: Finding the right balance between protecting children and recognizing / allowing their freedom to explore and grow in the Metaverse.
**Evolving Technology**: Keeping up with rapid technological advancements and their implications for child safety and agency.
**Global Standards**: Developing, agreeing on, and incentivizing implementation of a baseline of safety and ethical standards, taking into account the diversity of contexts and cultures.
Importance of Addressing These Issues
Putting these issues on the agenda is crucial for several reasons:
**Preventing Harm**: How can we respond the dangers we are already well area of in online spaces for children and become more proactive about planning for the risks that will come with increasing Web3 and Metaverse spaces?
**Empowering Future Generations**: What are the implications of recognizing and fostering the role of children as agents?
**Ethical Responsibility**: How can we incentivize stakeholders, including tech companies, policymakers, educators, and parents, to rise to their ethical duty to ensure that the Metaverse evolves into a space that is safe, inclusive, and supportive of young users?
Join us in this essential workshop to collaboratively explore the ethical dimensions of children and youth in the Metaverse and to shape a future where they can thrive safely and creatively.
Grant Lenaarts is an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader – with specialization in product development, strategy & execution, and angel investing - who is developing ethical technologies and systems to contribute to human flourishing in the Ai Age. His proposal is that the impact of technology design is the most important ethical and systemic issue that faces civilization and humanity and that, in entering into this new Age of Decision, Team Human needs the infrastructures and institutions that allow us to adapt and navigate a new kind of civilization. Mr Lenaarts is working, writing, and presenting on this reality.
Current work projects:
AiUi - The most important project in the Ai Age. The human interface to machine intelligences.
Impact Awareness - The New Profession of Impact - a framework & a code of conduct for the measures that matter.
Vaulted Ventures - An Ecosystem of Internet Technologies - What the internet is missing.
Current Businesses:
Multilateral Group - Think Tank, R&D, IP consultancy/ https://multilateralgroup.com/
Affirmative.Ai – Compliance, Duty of Care Frameworks./ https://affirmative.ai/
Historical Successes:
First Press Coffee - Australia’s Top Cold Drip Coffee Company/ https://www.firstpresscoffee.com/
The Spiral - Personal Coaching and Transformation./ https://thespiral.com/
Roarings - Digital Art Auction House/ https://roaringauctions.com/
Investment Portfolio - Notable Holdings
U- Topia Metaverse - Children’s Metaverse/ https://www.u-topia.com/
Vaulted Ventures/ https://vaulted.ventures/
Alaa AlFaadhel is an accomplished leader with a proven track record in project management, strategy development, international cooperation and strategic partnerships leading to several impactful initiatives. As General Manager for Initiatives and Partnerships at the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, she engaged in the development of key initiatives and the abolishment of strategic partnerships at national and international levels centered around cyber resilience and socio-economic aspects of Cyberspace.
Alaa is also leading partnership efforts in the Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF), bringing a unique blend of business acumen, relationship-building expertise, and a keen eye for identifying growth opportunities and championing actions that tie cybersecurity with social impact to directly benefit global communities.
Alaa is Stanford Business School alumini after she completed Executive Leadership program, she holds Master’s degree in Cybersecurity from Prince Sultan University and Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from King Saud University.
Nadia Balgobin is an international expert, advisor, trainer, and consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the field of ethics, sustainable public procurement (SPP), and organizational excellence.
After 13 years at the SGS Group where she spearheaded a Global Ethics & Compliance Programme worldwide for 32,000 employees in 140 countries, she became an independent consultant in 2002. Since then, she has been advising multinationals, NGOs, government organizations, faith-based organizations, SMEs, such as UNEP, U4E, AFREC, UNECE, World Bank, OECD, and several bilateral development agencies. She is currently the Lead Expert on Sustainable Public Procurement for the Government of Rwanda.
Ms. Balgobin has expertise in programme management and capacity development in diakonia, legal contracts, sustainable finance, ethical investment, and sustainable assets resource management. She is the initiator of sector Ethics Model of Excellence Framework for Public Procurement and Higher Education Institutions. Her multi-sector focus ranges from education, banking, insurance, infrastructure, health, construction, media, agriculture, food, waste, water, energy-efficiency to consumer products. She founded ETHIC Minds Institute and the Local Community Prosperity Alliance (LCPA), to build the capacity of local communities to develop sustainable and ethical prosperity.
D.J. Bodden is an author and business leader who has spent the last 25 years navigating medium- to high-risk roles, from being a helicopter pilot and leading civil-military engagements in the U.S. Marines to visiting farms in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as a coffee trader. He is currently the Director of Operations in his second startup, STORM Partners, a Geneva-based consulting company that helps web3 businesses and innovation projects comply, grow, and profit, with a particular focus on blockchain protocols, infrastructures, and launchpads.
Mr. Bodden is also the author of over 10 fiction novels in the Science Fiction, LitRPG, and Urban Fantasy genres, for both young adult and adult audiences. Understanding the world, helping others explore it safely, and taking readers on a journey regarding "How should we live?" is near and dear to his heart. His international background has also made him sensitive to the sometimes wide subjectivity of cultural norms.
He is a recurrent speaker to other authors and readers on the topics of AI, AI in art, storytelling, professional ethics, and what makes people tick.
Christine Housel is a respected leader in the fields of youth development, ecumenical work, human rights advocacy, and education. She has turned her attention to discovering how she may contribute to human centered and community based Ai through tech projects and partnership in the Metaverse, policy discussion, education, and speaking. She seeks to inspire others with non-tech backgrounds to develop the responsibility, knowledge, and confidence to play an active role as human stakeholders in the emerging Ai Age.
With an academic background in philosophy and theology (Master of Divinity from Yale University), 25 years of international and intercultural life, and work that keeps ethics and human community at its heart, she is convinced that now is the time to train ourselves to think deeply about the implications of our actions, individually and corporately, and to find incentives needed to apply strong ethical foundations to the way we build, employ, educate about, govern and guide, and self-regulate our technology.
Ms. Housel's expertise includes facilitating and holding space for better conversations, and she believes that now is a good time to nuance and deepen our dialogue, as we also broaden it to include the diversity of stakeholders.
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C3. Access to information and knowledge
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C5. Building confidence and security in use of ICTs
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C10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
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C11. International and regional cooperation
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Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
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Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
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Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
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Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
