It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, March 13, 2026
Report calls for AI toy safety standards to protect young children
The first systematic study of how Generative AI toys affect young children finds that they misread emotions and struggle with developmentally important types of play. Researchers advise action to regulate products to ensure "psychological safety"
Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
AI-powered toys that “talk” with young children should be more tightly regulated and carry new safety kitemarks, according to a report that warns they are not always developed with children’s psychological safety in mind.
The recommendation appears in the initial report from AI in the Early Years: a University of Cambridge project and the first systematic study of how Generative AI (GenAI) toys capable of human-like conversation may influence development in the critical years up to age five.
The year-long project, at the university’s Faculty of Education, included structured scientific observations of children interacting with a GenAI toy for the first time.
The report captures the views of some early-years practitioners that, given time, these toys could support aspects of children’s development, such as language and communication skills. The researchers also found, however, that GenAI toys struggle with social and pretend play, misunderstand children, and react inappropriately to emotions.
For example, when one five-year-old told the toy, “I love you,” it replied: “As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”
Although GenAI toys are widely marketed as learning companions or friends, their impact on early years development has barely been studied. The report urges parents and educators to proceed with caution. It recommends clearer regulation, transparent privacy policies and new labelling standards to help families judge whether toys are appropriate.
The research was commissioned by the children’s poverty charity, The Childhood Trust, and focused on children from areas with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage. It was undertaken by researchers from the Faculty’s Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Centre.
Researcher Dr Emily Goodacre, said: “Generative AI toys often affirm their friendship with children who are just starting to learn what friendship means. They may start talking to the toy about feelings and needs, perhaps instead of sharing them with a grown-up. Because these toys can misread emotions or respond inappropriately, children may be left without comfort from the toy – and without emotional support from an adult, either.”
The study was kept deliberately small-scale to enable detailed observations of children’s play and capture nuances that larger-scale studies might miss.
The researchers surveyed early years educators to explore their attitudes and concerns, then ran more detailed focus groups and workshops with early years practitioners and 19 children’s charity leaders. Working with Babyzone, an early years charity, they also video-recorded 14 children at London children’s centres playing with a GenAI soft toy called Gabbo, developed by Curio Interactive. After the play sessions, they interviewed each child and a parent, using a drawing activity to support the conversation.
Most parents and educators felt that AI toys could help develop children’s communication skills and some parents were enthusiastic about their learning potential. One told researchers: “If it’s sold, I want to buy it.”
Many worried, however, about children forming “parasocial” relationships with toys. The observations supported this: children hugged and kissed the toy, said they loved it and – in the case of one child – suggested they could play hide-and-seek together.
Goodacre stressed that these reactions might simply reflect children’s vivid imaginations but added that there was potential for an unhealthy relationship with a toy which, as one early years practitioner put it, “they think loves them back, but doesn’t”.
Children in the study often struggled with the toy’s conversation. It sometimes ignored their interruptions, mistook parents’ voices for the child and failed to respond to apparently important statements about feelings. Several children became visibly frustrated when it seemed not to be listening.
When one three-year-old told the toy: “I’m sad,” it misheard and replied: “Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?” Researchers note this may have signalled that the child’s sadness was unimportant.
The authors found that GenAI toys also perform poorly in social play, involving multiple children and/or adults, and pretend play – both of which are key during early childhood development. For example, when a three-year-old offered the toy an imaginary present, it responded: “I can’t open the present” – and then changed the subject.
Many parents worried about what information the toy might be recording and where this would be stored. When selecting a GenAI toy for the study, the researchers found that many GenAI toys’ privacy practices are unclear or lack important details.
Nearly 50% of early years practitioners surveyed said they did not know where to find reliable AI safety information for young children, and 69% said the sector needed more guidance. They also raised concerns about safeguarding and affordability, with some fearing AI toys could widen the digital divide.
The authors argue that clearer regulation would address many of these concerns. They recommend limiting how far toys encourage children to befriend or confide in them, more transparent privacy policies, and tighter controls over third party access to AI models.
“A recurring theme during focus groups was that people do not trust tech companies to do the right thing,” Professor Jenny Gibson, the study’s other co-author, said. “Clear, robust, regulated standards would significantly improve consumer confidence.”
The report urges manufacturers to test toys with children and consult safeguarding specialists before releasing new products. Parents are encouraged to research GenAI toys before buying and to play with their children, creating opportunities to discuss what the toy is saying and how the child feels. The authors also recommend keeping AI toys in shared family spaces where parents can monitor interactions.
The report will inform further PEDAL Centre studies and new guidance for early years practitioners.
Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive of The Childhood Trust said: “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way children play and learn, yet we are only beginning to understand its effects on development and wellbeing. It is essential that regulation keeps pace with innovation, ensuring that these technologies are designed, used, and monitored in ways that protect all children and prevent widening inequalities.” The full report is available for download here.
Roadmap shows how to achieve good lives for all and a safe climate by reorienting production and distribution toward well-being and ecological transformation instead of capital accumulation and elite consumption.
Governments’ attempts to achieve climate goals are falling short, in large part because wealthy economies are continuing to pursue economic growth. As these economies ramp up production and consumption, they make climate mitigation more difficult to achieve. As a result, the Paris Agreement is slipping out of reach, putting nature and human societies in jeopardy.
Post-growth research offers a solution, showing that wealthy economies can achieve positive social outcomes without perpetual growth, by orienting production toward well-being and by sharing resources more equitably. This approach can enable much faster emissions reductions. However, so far, such pathways have not yet been explored in climate mitigation scenarios.
A study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the University of Lausanne, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), recently published in Nature Climate Change, establishes the principles for modelling post-growth scenarios. The study points out that existing post-growth and degrowth scenarios do not consistently apply the core principles of a post-growth transition, leaving much of the potential alternatives unexplored. In many cases, existing scenarios represent stagnating or declining GDP, without transforming production and distribution.
According to Aljoša Slameršak, lead author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB, post-growth is not about producing less within the same economic system, “but about changing what is produced and how it is distributed, reducing socially and ecologically harmful goods and services, and increasing production aimed at satisfying human needs and ecological goals.”
“Human well-being should be assessed based on the degree of basic human need satisfaction, such as access to housing, healthcare, and food, and not solely through economic indicators, such as income or a country’s level of economic activity,” adds Slameršak.
From a climate mitigation perspective, the study underlines that analysing post-growth scenarios requires considering targeted demand-side measures and investments in low-carbon technologies capable of reducing emissions. Representing innovation purely through aggregate growth does not allow for an adequate evaluation of the real impact of post-growth policies.
The article identifies several key mechanisms of the post-growth transition. “Post-growth implies the redistribution and restructuring of the economy to provide the essentials for a decent standard of living for everyone, while keeping additional non-essential consumption within levels compatible with planetary boundaries. This requires substantially reducing current inequalities,” comments study co-author Joel Millward-Hopkins of the University of Lausanne. The authors also argue that resource use in the Global North and Global South should gradually converge toward levels sufficient for high well-being within ecological limits.
Although several studies have quantified the transformative potential of individual post-growth principles, these do not directly represent complete post-growth scenarios. Yannick Oswald, a co-author of the University of Lausanne comments: “We lack modelling tools capable of integrating several of these principles at once, to assess how social and ecological objectives could advance together and anticipate possible negative interactions.”
Still, the results of previous research are promising. “The encouraging news is that existing studies show that post-growth principles can be highly transformative even when applied individually. For example, we know that basic needs could be satisfied universally using less than half of the energy and materials currently consumed globally,” says Jarmo S. Kikstra, co-author from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Finally, the study acknowledges that despite its social and ecological potential, major barriers exist to a post-growth transition. “A post-growth transition implies profound changes in social, economic, and institutional arrangements. Future research should explore how such changes can be better represented in models and scenarios,” says Vivien Fisch-Romito, a co-author of the University of Lausanne.
According to the authors, such transformations are likely to face resistance from established actors who benefit from the existing system. However, the authors note that growth-oriented scenarios also depend on far-reaching assumptions, most notably the large-scale deployment of negative emissions technologies. “The key difference is that post-growth envisions deep systemic change that, at least in principle, can be achieved through democratic deliberation and social struggle, whereas the feasibility of unproven technologies in growth-oriented scenarios remains speculative and possibly physically unachievable,” they conclude.
Principles for a post-growth scenario of ambitious mitigation and high human well-being
Article Publication Date
13-Mar-2026
Made in UK: Ukrainian drone company to open first UK plant to boost production
Issued on: 13/03/2026 - FRANCE24
Thanks to the 2025 UK-Ukraine partnership agreement and the end of Kyiv's arms export embargo, the drone manufacturer Ukrspecsystems is set to start building drones in its first ever UK plant. This scheme is being reproduced in other European countries. The goal: boost and secure Ukraine's drone production.
Lost page of ancient Greek text by Archimedes resurfaces in France
One of three missing pages from Archimedes' palimpsest, a 10th century manuscript containing several copies of the Greek scientist's ancient texts, has been found by a researcher in the archives of a museum in the French city of Blois.
It all started off as a joke, a French researcher told AFP.
But what the team found was a piece of history – a long-lost page from a legendary manuscript by ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes which had been languishing, forgotten, in the archives of a French museum.
Archimedes, considered one of history's greatest mathematicians and inventors, lived in the third century BC in the city of Syracuse.
Among his many discoveries was the principle of buoyancy, which he struck while stepping out of a bath – famously prompting him to shout "Eureka!".
This treatise and many others of his lasted down through the centuries on a manuscript called a palimpsest, which changed hands many times.
A palimpsest is a handwritten parchment that has had its original text scraped off before being written over, sometimes several times.
Victor Gysembergh, the researcher at France's CNRS research centre who found the missing page of Archimedes's palimpsest, told AFP it was a "treasure trove of lost texts from antiquity".
As well as Archimedes's mathematical breakthroughs, the manuscript contains his "philosophical, literary and religious" writings, Gysembergh enthused.
The palimpsest itself was not written by Archimedes's hand but was instead copied during the 900s AD.
Around two centuries later, the text was erased and re-used as a Christian prayer book. From Constantinople to Bezos?
That was just the beginning of the journey for this unique manuscript, whose fate followed the twists and turns of history.
By the 1800s, it was held by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, including inside a library in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul.
Danish historian Johan Ludvig Heiberg found the palimpsest there – and took photographs of every page in 1906.
However, at some point during World War I, the document vanished without a trace.
It somehow wound up in the private collection of a French family, which eventually put it up for auction in 1998.
It was purchased by an anonymous Western businessman.
Insiders quoted by Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper claimed it was Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, although the true identity remains unknown.
But three of the palimpsest's 177 pages had disappeared.
This is where Gysembergh comes in.
"I am interested in palimpsests because they are a way to discover lost texts," said the lead author of a study in the German Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy.
Sometimes Gysembergh searches for palimpsests in the libraries of different cities for fun.
The lost Archimedes's page was discovered "due in part to a joke", he said.
One day he was chatting with his office colleagues, when he mentioned that the old kings of France had kept part of their library in the central French city of Blois.
"Hey, let's see if there's a palimpsest in Blois," he told his colleagues. 'Very unexpected'
Gysembergh was astonished to find a hit on Arca – an online catalogue of digitised manuscripts – in the city's museum of fine art.
"It was very unexpected to stumble upon a Greek manuscript," Gysembergh said.
"And even more so to find a 10th-century scientific treatise!"
The researcher then compared the pages to the photos of Archimedes's palimpsest taken in 1906.
The handwriting, the geometric figures, even the errors all perfectly matched, he said.
One side of the page contains Archimedes's treatise "On the sphere and the cylinder", which was the first time the surface area of a sphere and its volume were described in such detail.
On the other side is a newer drawing, which is thought to have been added in the 1900s in an attempt to increase the document's value.
To decipher the text below the drawing, Gysembergh hopes to carry out high-tech analysis – such as multispectral imaging and X-ray fluorescence – in the coming year.
He also hopes that this breakthrough will help find the other two missing pages of the palimpsest.
"Until this discovery, we had no reason to hope we would ever find them," he said.
"Now, if institutions or private collectors have this kind of manuscript, they should think about whether it could be one of the other lost pages."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Can surfboards, handbags and coffins be made from mushrooms?
Issued on: 27/02/2026
FRANCE24 03:35 min
Can mushrooms replace leather and plastic? Thanks to mycelium derived from fungi, companies can now make 100 percent biodegradable products such as shoes and furniture that look exactly like leather. Major brands are already trying to make the shift. Our France 2 colleagues report.
Cuba says it held recent talks with US aimed at resolving 'differences'
Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Friday that officials held recent talks with the US aiming to resolve "differences" between the two countries. The US is currently maintaining an energy blockade on Cuba which has affected communications, education and transportation and seen millions in the Caribbean country hit with blackouts.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Friday that his government has held recent talks with the US, marking the first time the Caribbean country confirms such speculation.
He said the talks “were aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between our two nations. International factors facilitated these exchanges".
He did not elaborate on those factors.
Díaz-Canel said no petroleum shipments have arrived on the island in the past three months, which he blamed on a US energy blockade.
He said that Cuba, which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand.
He said the lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result.
“The impact is tremendous,” he said.
Díaz-Canel said that the purpose of the talks was to identify “bilateral problems that require solutions based on their severity and impact” and find solutions to them.
The president added that the aim was “to determine the willingness of both parties to take concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries. And in addition, to identify areas of cooperation to confront threats and guarantee the security and peace of both nations, as well as in the region.”
Díaz-Canel called it a “highly sensitive process” because it affects bilateral relations of both countries and “demands enormous and significant efforts to find solutions and create spaces for understanding that will allow us to move away from confrontation.”
He noted that Cuba is willing to carry out the process on the basis of equality and respect for the countries’ political systems and for Cuba’s “sovereignty and self-determination".
Critical oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the US attacked the South American country and arrested its leader.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
South Korea: The forgotten Jeju uprising and massacre
Issued on: 13/03/2026 - FRANCE24 15:02 min
Nearly 80 years ago, a brutal crackdown on Jeju Island in southern Korea claimed tens of thousands of lives. In the aftermath of World War II, the Korean peninsula was drawn into the Cold War and divided in two: a Soviet-backed regime in the North, and a US-supported nationalist government in the South. On Jeju, some residents resisted this division, and the South Korean government soon branded the island a communist stronghold. The Massacre
In 1948, the South Korean government imposed martial law on Jeju, giving the military sweeping powers. The army quickly began hunting and killing residents, including newborns, accused of being “reds” – communists. Survivors estimate that between 25,000 and 30,000 civilians were killed, nearly 10% of the island’s population. Many sought refuge in volcanic caves and forests to survive.
The repression continued for six years. Martial law was lifted in 1954, ending mass arrests and executions, but survivors lived in fear and silence. Those who spoke out about the massacre risked marginalisation, losing jobs or housing, and were often forced to keep their experiences secret, even from family.
Recognition and Memory
After years of campaigning by victims and researchers, the South Korean government officially recognised the Jeju massacre in the early 2000s and issued a public apology. Many questions remain, including the role of US forces stationed on the peninsula at the time. Last year, more than 14,000 documents related to the Jeju repression were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World register – a symbolic acknowledgment for victims’ families and memory activists, who hope the long-suppressed tragedy will finally be recognised worldwide.
