I have a tradition, loosely kept since 2009, of writing a personal annual review – a looking back and ahead. In 2025, I honed in on the intersection of children’s lives and emerging tech: AI, neurotechnology and evolving digital design.

Children’s voices centered towards global digital policy spaces.
I led the first-ever global child consultations on children’s best interests in the digital world. 208 children, 17 consultations, 7 countries from Spain to Sierra Leone, alongside 3 expert consultations, and co-authoring a working paper on the topic. We also pioneered a novel approach: engaged a youth network that interpreted the children’s data into policy recommendations. We now have direct evidence on which to draw to inform how governments, tech companies and the UN should think about digital governance, design and accountability.

Global AI guidance reflected the fast-changing reality.
As lead author of the updated UNICEF’s Guidance on AI and Children, I helped future-proof the only UN guide on the topic – responding to generative AI opportunities and risks. The focus will now be on using the guidance to shape policy and tech practices around the world.

The conversation shifted from ‘skills for jobs’ to ‘skills for development.’
Through expert consultations and a pilot with children in Rwanda, I helped launch work on children’s skills in an AI world – reframing skills as something deeper than employability: creativity, safety and agency in the use of digital systems.

A new guidance was put on the mind map, for children.
I led UNICEF’s work on Neurotechnology and Children’s Rights to help surface ethical and developmental risks before these technologies scale into classrooms, clinics or consumer products. Recommendations on how to safely leverage the opportunities were developed in consultation with global experts.

Ideas traveled – and resonated.
Through six thought leadership articles (such as here) and presentations at RightsCon, the AI for Good Summit and UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week, I pushed a consistent message:
👉 children are not future users of technology – they are leading tech adoption today, yet we’re not doing enough to uphold their rights and co-create a better digital environment with them.

Taken together, this work contributed to a clearer, more child-centered understanding of how digital technologies shape childhood – and how they must be designed, deployed, and governed differently.

Looking forward to: In 2026, we will learn from children in five African countries about skills and AI, publish the best interests of children report with global recommendations, work on safety guidance for digital games, and produce a report on AI in education.

My mantra for next year remains the same: With young people, shape the digital future we want instead of putting out fires on the internet we have.

With enormous gratitude to colleagues and experts I worked with: Bella Baghdasaryan, Ross Duncan, Daniel Kardefelt Winther, Shai Naides, Adam Sharpe, Fisayo Oyewale, Tom Dreesen, Cecile Aptel, Bo Viktor Nylund, Susie Alegre, Didem Ozkul, Samia Firmino, Jen Kotler, Emily Cashman Kirstein and Ronda Zelezny-Green + the many specialists in our advisory groups + the many children and youth who engaged in our research.