Artificial intelligence offers education something social media did not: a chance to establish protections before a powerful technology becomes deeply embedded in childhood. Ed Pozzuoli, an expert in education law and CEO of Tripp Scott Law Firm, argues that leaders should seize this opening.

The lesson from social media is not that transformative technology should be feared. Instead, Pozzuoli contends that protections for children must be established before harm occurs, rather than introduced after millions of young people have already been affected.

For years, social media platforms expanded without meaningful protections involving child safety, transparency, design appropriate for different ages, parental visibility and independent oversight. Policymakers began responding in earnest only after evidence of harm had mounted.

AI now presents a rare opportunity to take another path. The technology has extraordinary potential to personalize educational support, expand teacher capacity, widen access and help students learn through new methods.

At the same time, AI can influence how children think, write, reason and engage with the world. Leaders already know the danger of allowing a powerful technology to become embedded in children’s lives before clear standards for safety, accountability and transparency are established.

A responsible educational framework should begin with a direct principle: AI must strengthen human learning rather than replace people or their judgment. Teachers must retain authority over instruction, grading and curriculum.

Parents must also remain the primary decision makers in their children’s education. They should have meaningful visibility into how AI interacts with a child, what information it collects and how it generates recommendations.

Students, meanwhile, must continue developing the habits at the heart of genuine learning. Those habits include reasoning, writing, discernment, persistence and critical thought, all of which could be weakened if technology simply delivers answers without requiring intellectual effort.

That concern is why the debate cannot focus exclusively on artificial intelligence. Pozzuoli argues that education also needs Ethical Intelligence, a framework for asking what is true, good, fair and responsible, as well as what kind of person a technological tool is helping a child become.

AI can make learning faster, more personalized and more efficient. Ethical Intelligence is intended to ensure that the process remains human and focused on more than convenience, speed or automated personalization.

Without an ethical framework, intelligence can provide answers without judgment and efficiency without wisdom. In education, Pozzuoli argues, that outcome should not be mistaken for meaningful progress.

AI systems used directly by students should therefore satisfy clear standards before widespread deployment. Those standards should address transparency, student privacy, data collection, commercialization, teacher authority, behavioral profiling, manipulation, hidden influence, parental oversight and outputs appropriate for a student’s age.

Educational AI should also demonstrate safety and effectiveness before reaching millions of children. Classroom based pilot testing should become the norm, with institutions evaluating tools before introducing them broadly to students.

The warning from social media can be summarized by the approach that defined its expansion: “Deploy first and regulate later.” Education, according to Pozzuoli, cannot afford to repeat that mistake when children’s learning and development are involved.

The deepest protection is philosophical rather than technical. AI should operate as a tutor, coach, research assistant or productivity tool, but it should not substitute for the intellectual and moral development that education is supposed to foster.

Education is not merely a process for obtaining answers. It teaches students how to think, judge, confront complexity and grow in knowledge and character through effort, reflection and struggle.

Resilience, wisdom, creativity and conviction develop through that demanding process. AI can support those qualities, but it should never bypass the work required to cultivate them.

Every transformative technology carries promise and risk. The internet expanded access to knowledge while creating new vulnerabilities, and social media connected billions of people while contributing to serious harms, particularly among younger users.

AI could become one of education’s most beneficial innovations, but only under rules that protect children and preserve the purpose of schooling. Transparency, parental rights, teacher authority, privacy, independent testing and educational accountability can allow innovation while keeping technology in service to education.

Policymakers now have an unusual opportunity to act before AI becomes fully integrated into children’s daily lives. Social media demonstrated what can happen when innovation moves faster than responsibility, while AI gives leaders a chance to reverse that pattern.

Pozzuoli’s central argument is that Ethical Intelligence must shape artificial intelligence before artificial intelligence reshapes childhood. The future of education and the character of the next generation, he contends, depend on getting those safeguards right from the beginning.