Pedro Sánchez: "A digital world without rules is not a playground; it is a lawless jungle"

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has taken part in the High-Level Dialogue on the Protection of Children's Rights in the Context of Artificial Intelligence in New York, at a meeting organised by Spain, France, Australia, Kenya and other international partners. During his speech, he argued for the need for a regulated digital world because "a digital world without rules is not a playground; it is a lawless jungle".

The head of the Executive opened the meeting alongside the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and the President of Kenya, William Ruto. In his speech, he pointed out that, whilst Artificial Intelligence holds great promise - for example, in curing diseases - it also entails "enormous risks".

In this regard, he stated that "some techno-oligarchs concentrate power and wealth, and shape values and preferences", by developing technology that "exacerbates problems such as cyberbullying, hate, sexual offences and loneliness". The President also pointed out that warnings about the dangers of this technology are coming even from those who develop the most advanced AI models.

Finally, Pedro Sánchez highlighted the harm that an unregulated digital world can inflict on children. "Companies must be held accountable for the impact of their activities on children. They cannot privatise the profits and socialise the costs", said the president.

In this regard, he highlighted Spain's drive to introduce legislation setting the minimum age for accessing social media at 16, as well as the fact that it is the first country to develop an effective age verification system based on the European Digital Identity Card.

Non official translation