The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is the most widely ratified human-rights treaty in history. In 2021 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued General Comment 25, applying the Convention's rights — to privacy, expression, play, protection, participation — to the digital environment.
States parties are expected to require that businesses, including AI providers, respect children's rights in design, by default, and across the full product lifecycle. The General Comment is the foundational international reference for AI policy affecting minors, and underwrites the design codes and statutes that follow.