News Investigation

Norway just banned AI in primary schools? — should we follow?

Jul 2026 🇦🇺 Michael Carr-Gregg (LinkedIn)

Responding to Norway's June 2026 near-total ban on generative AI for primary-school students, Michael Carr-Gregg argues Australia should not follow suit, distinguishing AI tools from social media platforms he says he supported restricting for under-16s. He argues social media companies build products designed to capture attention and monetise young users, whereas AI, in his framing, is closer to a supervised tool like a calculator, and that banning it in classrooms would push unsupervised use into homes and widen inequality between families. He proposes supervised, education-specific AI use with strict guardrails against AI 'companion' products, alongside a national AI-literacy curriculum. TechKids Foundation includes this essay as Carr-Gregg's own recent position statement distinguishing his stance on AI in schools from his stance on youth social media access.

~9 in 10 workers

Carr-Gregg cites an Australian government labour-market agency finding that nearly nine in ten workers are in jobs AI will reshape.

86% of employers

Carr-Gregg cites a figure that 86% of employers worldwide expect AI to transform their business before current primary-school students finish high school.

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CITATION

Carr-Gregg, Michael. "Norway just banned AI in primary schools? — should we follow?" LinkedIn, 7 July 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/norway-just-banned-ai-primary-schools-should-we-carr-gregg-ao-vuklc

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