مجله حقوق کودک
پیاپی 18 (تابستان 1402)

Artificial intelligence has proven its effectiveness in various fields, and law and solving legal issues have not been immune from this influence. One of these areas is related to children's rights, where the presence of artificial intelligence can manage and organize many problems in decision-making well. In this article, the objective applications of artificial intelligence in solving children's rights are mentioned, and the capabilities and rules of its application in Iran's legal system are examined.

In this study, Science Direct, Ovid, PubMed, SID, Magiran and Google Scholar search engine using keywords and phrases of artificial intelligence, machine learning and children’s rights. "Children's rights", "Convention" were searched. In the case of articles, the years (2015 to 2023) were used. A total of 7 articles related to the purpose of the study were identified and used in the compilation of the study.

By including the responsible use of AI in educational curricula, public participation in decision-making processes, and establishing strong frameworks and regulatory oversight, we can protect the well-being of children interacting with AI-based technologies.

Protecting children in the era of artificial intelligence requires a comprehensive approach that integrates ethics, human rights, and child-centered considerations.

The child's right to mental health in cyberspace has become one of the most important legal issues in the field of international law. This right is very vital for the child and must be protected in cyber space as well. Considering that the virtual space is expanding and children, as digital natives, use it as an interactive and learning space, it is necessary to protect their rights against the dangers in this space. It is very important to pay attention to the physical and psychological harm that is caused by inappropriate and unpleasant content that causes online discrimination and harassment and the use of cyberspace without supervision and control for children. In international law, the protection of children's rights is recognized as a fundamental issue and in this regard, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has defined the principles of protection of children's rights at the international level. In this context, this research aims to answer these questions: and what are the effects of virtual space in his life? From a legal point of view, what are the duties of governments in protecting the right to the health of children in cyberspace?

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of the type of research, which was collected and analyzed by using library resources and examining a wide range of documents and procedures and other research works.

General Comment No. 25, published on 2021, by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, addressed how governments apply the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the digital domain. The committee's purpose of this public commentary was to provide a strategy for legislation and policy making in the field of fulfilling the obligations of governments in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols in the light of the opportunities, risks and challenges of the digital environment.

One of the main components of the right to health is the right to mental health, which is one of the most important examples of children's rights and various factors are effective in threatening or realizing this right of children and cyber space is one of them. The right to health, the right to education, the right to personal security and the right to recreation and entertainment are the rights associated with the growth and excellence of children, which are strongly related to the digital environment in the age of digitalism.

Cyberspace, while having capabilities such as wide range and universality, has destructive content that threatens the children’s social and sexual mental health. Therefore, in order to protect children's mental health, it is necessary to perform pathology at the beginning and to adopt a proportional criminal policy to protect the possible victims. The purpose of this research is to study the harms of cyberspace in children and to adopt a suitable criminal policy to protect the children’s right to social and sexual mental health. The importance and necessity of this research is that these injuries cannot be prevented without identifying the harmful ways and if the victims are not protected against the harmful cyberspace, serious risks will treat their mental health.

The research is theoretical and its method is descriptive-analytical.

Due to the lack of effective criminalization, injured children are not given differential criminal protections. According to the results, social interactions of children who use cyberspace too much decrease and they suffer from social isolation, which increases the possibility of depression in them. With the development of new technologies, children are not immune and are exposed to destructive data, which causes abnormal and dangerous sexual behaviors in them. Victimized children need support from the family, the government, government agencies and Non-Governmental Organization to reduce the amount of damage that has been done to the victim.

In spite of various benefits in different fields, virtual space has unfortunately damaged real social relationships in some cases. Children have not been excluded from this development and since they spend more time online, their physical and mental health is naturally exposed to serious risks. Therefore, by providing solutions such as creating a platform for the healthy and controlled productivity of the cyberspace by families and relevant institutions, a lot of harm can be prevented. Educational institutions can support children by creating culture and providing necessary training. In Iran's legal system, as long as the criminal laws do not provide independent criminal regulations for children’s mental, social and sexual health, the right to health will not be supported by an effective and deterrent criminal law and the vulnerability of the victimized children will be doubled.

Cyberspace is an emerging phonomemon that, despite its advantages, always causes various harms such as moral, personality, family and social harms for people in the society and especially for sensitive groups such as children and teenagers who are the most vulnerable sections of the society. This new phenomenon has been so interwined with people's daily life in recent years that it has actually become an integral part of people's lives, so that it is impossible to imagine life without it.In this regard, the right of children to access cyberspace has been recognized and due to their protection against the harm of cyberspace, laws and regulations have been approved at the international level and in the domestic laws of countries including Iran. With the aim of analying the harm caused by cyberspace on children and providing preventive solutions to reduce the harm caused by it, as well as examining the laws approved in this field in Iran's legal system.

This research is descriptive-analytical and information gathering based on library data.

The findings of the research show that the measures and strategies adopted to prevent and reduce the harm caused by effective and prevent harmful consequences.

The results of research show that many crimes and injuries caused by cyberspace on children are caused by lack of awareness. Therefore, through support-based solutions, including legal laws and preventive measures such as cultural foundation, protion of media literacy and consequently, informing children through teaching how to use this technology correctly by the family and be fruitfuland from the occurrence of many damage caused by cyberspace will be prevented.