Comparative focus (Cairo, Berlin, Silicon Valley)
The project studies Egyptian families across: Cairo: emerging child-safety infrastructure and strong intergenerational authority norms. Berlin: GDPR-driven regulatory environment and diasporic cultural hybridity. Silicon Valley: high exposure to AI tools and “tech-saturated” environments, useful for testing tool assumptions under advanced conditions. This is designed to test what is transferable across contexts vs. what must be localized.
Work Plan:
A systematic literature review (completed).
An industry review of 65 child online safety tools. (completed).
Evidence-backed map of the current market: Most tools still center surveillance and restriction, positioning children as passive subjects.
Cross-context findings on how families perceive safety, autonomy, trust, and AI-driven interventions across Cairo, Berlin, and Silicon Valley.
Co-designed prototype direction: autonomy-supportive “guardrails” that balance teen agency with safety constraints, and reduce exploitation and bias risks.
Design and evaluation guidance for culturally grounded, ethically scalable AI safety tools.