Guia sobre Usos da Inteligência Artificial na Infância e Adolescência (Guide on Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Childhood and Adolescence)

Key Findings

• — Defines 'IA como Companhia' as apps and conversational characters that simulate friendship or emotional support; risks listed for schools are excessive emotional bonds, inadequate responses in situations of vulnerability, confusion between human relationships and AI interaction, and excessive use and social isolation
• — Tells schools that, before adopting or authorising any conversational tool, they should require product safeguards: ending the conversation in a crisis, referral to the CVV helpline (188), no simulation of a romantic bond with a minor, and explicit notice that an AI is responding, and should record this check as part of the institution's risk assessment
• — Recommends no use of AI companions in early-childhood and early-primary settings and, for adolescents, supervised use with a declared pedagogical purpose
• — Cites Brazil's age-rating guidance (Classificação Indicativa), which does not recommend dialogue with generative-AI assistants for children under 10 and sets higher age bands for open-conversation tools and for tools presented as emotional or psychological support; image-generation apps are not recommended under 14 and tools able to produce sexual content or deepfakes under 18
• — Context figures from TIC Kids Online Brasil 2025 quoted in the launch release: 65% of internet users aged 9 to 17 had used generative AI; 10% reported conversations about personal problems or emotions

Methodology Notes

Guidance document, not an empirical study: technical consultancy by George Augusto Valença Santos (Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco) with three UFRPE researchers; presentation signed by the National Secretary for the Rights of Children and Adolescents and the National Secretary for Digital Rights. Prepared within the Plano Brasileiro de Inteligência Artificial with UNESCO cooperation. Launched 15 October 2026 (ministry release 'Publicado em 15/10/2026 18h54'); PDF metadata created 14 October 2026; 72 pages. Usage percentages come from the separately published TIC Kids Online Brasil 2025 survey (Cetic.br/NIC.br). Verified on the gov.br/mj release (HTTP 200) and the linked PDF (HTTP 200, 11.5 MB, pdftotext). Curator re-verified 2026-10-19: PDF (HTTP 200, 11,553,371 bytes, 72 pages, created 2026-10-14) re-read for the school safeguard passage (p. 51), the age-rating passages and the CVV references; release (HTTP 200) re-read for the TIC Kids Online figures.

Sources