Rumana Khan opens AI governance advisory enquiries for child tech

Rumana Khan, founder of Child CEO and Psy Buddy, is inviting advisory enquiries on how AI should be governed in children’s education and emotional wellbeing tools. The pitch centers on developmental frameworks, human oversight and lower-risk design choices as schools, edtech founders and community groups weigh child-facing AI.

Why it matters: - Child-facing AI tools can shape what children learn, how they respond to stress and when adults step in. - Khan’s advisory model pushes governance to address developmental impact, not just technical performance. - The approach targets education and emotional wellbeing apps, where poor design can create over-reliance, mistaken labels or unsafe advice.

What happened: - Rumana Khan, founder of Child CEO and Psy Buddy, opened AI governance advisory enquiries focused on children’s education and emotional wellbeing technology. - Khan is offering the advisory work to edtech founders, schools, mental health and community organisations, researchers and advisory bodies. - The invitation is framed around using human development principles to shape the behaviour, limits and oversight of AI applications. - A scoping conversation can be requested using the phrase “AI GOVERNANCE ADVISORY”.

The details: - Khan’s proposed advisory approach is built on three proprietary frameworks: Human Development Intelligence (HDI), EMOTE and Human Growth Intelligence (HGI). - HDI considers emotional, relational, behavioural, cognitive, adaptive and character capabilities in context. - HDI is intended to guide support without turning a difficult moment into a permanent label. - AI interpretations must stay distinguishable from information the child actually provided. - EMOTE covers exploration, making sense of an experience, considering responsibility and other perspectives, taking action and reflecting on what follows. - Proposed governance controls would define permitted prompts, boundaries around sensitive disclosure and when a human response is required. - HGI looks at how capability changes through practice, growing independence and use beyond the app. - HGI design principles treat needing fewer digital prompts as a possible positive outcome. - Growth observations require defined evidence and context. - Engagement statistics alone do not establish developmental benefit. - Khan’s governance specification calls for minimal data collection and purpose-limited access. - The specification also separates personal support, safeguarding records and institutional reporting. - Proposed advisory work would examine accountability for decisions, how human review operates, and how teams test inappropriate advice, dependency risks and failures in escalation. - The proposed outputs include a product risk and responsibility map, a human oversight and escalation design, and an evaluation plan. - Scope would be agreed for each engagement. - Workshop, panel and speaking enquiries are also welcome.

Between the lines: - The framework treats AI governance as a child-development issue, not only a privacy or compliance issue. - The focus on independence, reduced prompting and evidence-based growth suggests Khan is arguing against engagement metrics as the main success measure. - The advisory offer also signals growing demand for practical guidance on how to build safer child-facing AI products before deployment. - Khan said the design questions should begin in the build from the beginning, including what a system can infer, remember and when it should stop and involve a human. - Khan also said the goal is a child who can use a skill in real life with increasing confidence and independence.

What’s next: - Child CEO’s 40-module annual online curriculum is ready for Australian school rollout. - The curriculum includes a one-term pilot option. - Psy Buddy’s working MVP is available for demonstrations focused on ages 8 to 12. - The frameworks remain subject to evaluation and are not clinical assessments or a certification of compliance. - Specialist legal, safeguarding and clinical input would be scoped where required.

The bottom line: - Khan is packaging AI governance for child-focused products around development, human oversight and measurable real-world growth, not just system safety checks.