My research has been funded by the KOALA project (EPSRC IAA/Oxford University COVID Rebuild) and the Ethical Web and Data Infrastructure project (Oxford Martin School). I work closely with children, families, innovators, and policymakers to understand the technological, societal, and regulatory challenges that we are facing, to inform national and international policymakers, technology designers, and families. 

From February 2025, my research will be further funded by a new UKRI research grant: CHAILD – Children’s Agency In the age of AI: Leveraging InterDisciplinarit. 

I have been part of the IEEE P2089 Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework Working Group and the CDEI Online Safety Data Initiative Expert Group. I was included in the 100 Brilliant Women in AI and Ethics global initiative 2019-20, for promoting diversity and equality in this critical research area.

I regularly contributes to UK policy discussions in this space and offer consultancy for NGOs, government agencies and start-ups, promoting children's digital rights and designing for children. If you are interested to get in touch please email: jun.zhao[at]cs.ox.ac.uk. 

People

I have been very privileged to work with many talented young researchers (see current and past students) and be supported by colleagues in Oxford HCC (see HCC page). 

If you are interested to learn more about applying for D.Phil (PhD) in Oxford, please see the studentships page for further details.  Should you consider applying for a doctoral position in our group, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

publications

Google scholar has the most comprehensive list of my publications [Scholar]

NEWS

2024

• Dec'24: Recruitment of CHAILD RA is now open till 20 January 2025 [link]

• Dec'24: Proud to the part of the new AI in Education at Oxford University (AIEOU)

• Dec'24: Proud to launch the Ethical AI Design Grand Challenge with FamStudio

• Nov'24: Attend UNICEF's launch of the RITEC toolkit

• Nov'24: Podcast on Digital Parenting with ParentZone [link]

• Nov'24: Attend Oxford Roundtable with the UK Information Commissioner

• Nov'24: Attend ATI's launch of project on GenAI, jointly with Lego Foundation

• Nov'24: Attend LSE Roundtable for Australian Children's Commissioner

• Nov'24: Speak on Creating Moral Machines for Children at Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI

• Oct'24: Speak at Oxford Department of Social Policy and Interventions on Designing for Children's Autonomy

• Oct'24: Speak on Designing for children's autonomy at Frankfurt Goethen University

• Sep'24: Speak on Ethical Design for Children at Reuben College Global AI Challenge

• Sep'24: Policy paper on Digital Parenting published by the British Academy [link]

• Sep'24: Receive a two-year UKRI grant on children's digital agency: https://chaild.org

• Jul'24:  Speaking on Digital Parenting at the International Congress on Infant Study [link]

• Jun'24: Publication of "Understanding children's perception of datafication online in China" accepted by International Journal of Human-Computer Interactions (IF: 4.5)

• May'24: Excited that our paper "CHAITok: A Proof-of-Concept System Supporting Children's Sense of Data Autonomy on Social Media" received Honourable Mention (Best Paper) award at CHI'2024 [link]

• May'24: Priviledged to speak about "Challenges and opportunities in translating ethical AI principles into practice for children" at Oxford Reuben College's Global Challenge Workshop [link]

• Mar'24: Excited that my paper with Prof. Hertog and Prof. Weinstein on digital parenting was accepted by the British Academy, to appear in May

• Mar'24: Our Nature Machine Intelligence paper is now officially published [link],  as featured at [Oxford University] and [OMS] sites.

• Feb'24: Pleased that our paper proposal on Digital Parenting, jointly with Professors Hertog (OII) and Professor Weinstein (Reading) has been accepted by the British Academy, to appear in March

• Feb'24: Thrilled to announce the acceptance of our perspective piece by Nature Machine Intelligence, to appear in March [link]

• Jan'24: Again, begin the new year 2024 with two papers accepted by CHI'2024, detailing our prototype support children with their data autonomy development, and our final evaluation of the KOALA toolkit, for helping families manage data privacy risks. [link]

2023

• Dec'23: To celebrate Christmas, KOALA shares the Data Cards with families, helping them to navigate data privacy risks.

• Dec'23: Pleased to annouce the launch of our Special Issue on Child-Centered AI at IJHCS.

• Jul'23:  Excited to present our research at the Oxford Chinese Student and Scholars Association.

• Jun'23: Excited to be on the RigthCon'23 panel with Rys et al for our work with young people from 4 countries to understand their trust perception of digital technologies

• Jun'23: Wrapping up a successful 4-week long AI+Ethics workshops for children

• May'23: Best paper award for our work on "Before and after China’s new data laws: privacy in apps" at ConPro ’23 [pdf]

• May'23: Kicking off our 4-week long AI+Ethics workshops for children (link)

• Apr'23: Two papers accepted by CSCW'23 and IMWUT'23 for our work with app developers for children (link)

• Apr'23: A great first Child-Centred AI workshop in Hamburg at CHI'23 (link)

• Apr'23: Best paper and honourable mention for CHI'23 (link)

• Mar'23: Excited to talk about Age-appropriate AI for children at the Upper Norwood Library Hub in South London (link)

• Feb'23: Excited to see our work with young people from 4 countries appearing at IEEE Technology & Society (link)

• Feb'23: KOALA featured at the Oxford University Short Stories (link)

• Jan'23: We start the new year 2023 with Three papers accepted by CHI'2023, covering co-designing new recommender systems with children, a systematic review of digital autonomy for children, and a novel study with gig workers

2022

• Dec'22: Excited to see that my book chapter outlining a new data governance for education data in the UK appears in the DFC Book Collection Education Data Futures (link) [pdf]

• Dec'22: Proud to see our research on children and datafication [pdf] won double awards @ CSCW'22 (link)

• Sep'22: Very pleased to see my DPhil @GeTiffanyWang  received the Honorable Mention Award from the UK @DoctoralAwards, based on her work on informing Age-Appropriate AI

• Jul'22: Pleased to see our blog on demystifying parental control apps is now published by @digitalchildau [link]

• Jun'22: Present the design journey of KOALA at IDC'22 [link]

• Jun'22: Talk about the journey of Oxford CCAI at Oxford Computer Science Conference [link]

• Jun'22: Submitted our contribution to UK Online Safety Bill call for evidence [link]

• May'22: Our paper on "Don't make assumptions about me!': Understanding Children's Perception of Datafication Online" has been accepted by CSCW'22 [link]

• May'22: Pleased to see the joint report with TdH on Child safety by design against online sexual exploitation of children

• Mar'22: Our paper on "Informing Age-Appropriate AI: Examining Principles and Practices of AI for Children" has been accepted at CHI'22 (video) and received an honourable mention!

• Feb'22: Official launch of the IEEE 2089-2021 Standard for Age Appropriate Digital Service Framework [PDF] (see my blog post)

Current Projects