It seems that people in the Nordics think that the earliest age to start using AI is during their teenage years. More specifically, 80 percent of Finns believe that children under the age of 13 should not use AI. 38% of Finns believe that children should start using AI tools at the age of 16 at the earliest. Swedes (39%) and Danes (40%) agree with the Finns on this issue. One in ten Finns believe that children should not use AI tools at all.
So in other words, people in the Nordics are critical about the use of AI by children and young people. This study was made by a technology company Solita, and reported by Finnish STT.
Very few Finns, 6%, think that it would be appropriate to start using AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, at the age of ten. According to the study, Swedes are even more critical of the use of AI by children than Finns. The new report is based on Kantar Media's survey of over 3,000 Finnish, Swedish, and Danish office and information workers.
There has been an active global debate recently about young people's use of social media. A new study shows that the Nordic countries are also cautious about the use of artificial intelligence tools by children and young people.
"The research results clearly show that the Nordic countries value media and AI literacy at a high level. Utilizing AI tools is seemingly 'childishly easy', but in reality it requires the maturity of a wide range of cognitive skills and the ability to question different content," says Lasse Girs, head of Solita's internal AI unit.
On the other hand, brain researcher and PhD in psychology, Mona Moisala, believes, that AI tools can help children to learn. "In the hands of a skilled teacher, artificial intelligence can be a tool that promotes learning, as long as the child does not learn to outsource thinking, generating ideas or solving problems to AI - then the development of cognitive skills are threatened."