Mandatory AI Ethics Education​

Summary of Dabbagh et al. (2025)​

This conceptual article argues that AI-ethics education should be compulsory in primary schools. The authors highlight that children increasingly interact with technologies involving data collection, algorithmic profiling, and automated decision-making, making ethical literacy essential for citizenship.

They propose introducing foundational ethical principles—fairness, privacy, accountability, bias, and responsibility—through age-appropriate stories, classroom scenarios, and cross-curricular activities. Rather than teaching AI ethics as a technical subject, they advocate integrating it into social studies, mathematics, digital citizenship, and general classroom conversations.

The authors also identify risks if ethics education is ignored. Risks include manipulation by persuasive technologies, inability to evaluate algorithmic decisions, and passive acceptance of digital systems. They call for national curriculum guidelines and teacher training to ensure consistent, developmentally suitable instruction.

Implications for Practice

1. Introduce ethical concepts through simple examples in early grades.
2. Train teachers to integrate ethics across subjects.
3. Encourage children to analyze fairness and privacy in everyday tools.
4. Develop national benchmarks for AI-ethics competency.

Table 2.23.4

Reference
Dabbagh, H., Earp, B. D., Porsdam Mann, S., Plozza, M., Salloch, S., & Savulescu, J. (2025). AI ethics should be mandatory for schoolchildren. AI and Ethics, 5, 87–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00462-1

Suggested Citation
Ross, E. M., & Malar, D. B. J. (2025). Mandatory AI Ethics Education. Excellent Educator, 2(23), 4.