In research about children, children are participants. Sometimes subjects. Occasionally consulted. Almost never the researchers. We are changing that. Mtoto News is launching CHILD. The Children Hacking and Innovation Lab of Design. A research centre by children. CHILD is the Children's Research Panel. Not an advisory board attached to adult research. The Panel is the research body itself. ✅Children set the agenda. ✅Children design the study. ✅Children collect the data. ✅Children analyse it. ✅Children decide what the finding is. ✅Children publish under their own names. ✅Children present at conferences. Adults at Mtoto News hold four roles and no others. Facilitator. Trainer. Safeguarding lead. Administrator. Adults are credited as facilitators. Adults are not credited as authors. We open from age four. A four year old is not a subject who supplies data to adults. A four year old sets agenda through what they choose to show, and analyses through what they choose to sort, rank and keep. Analysis in a different register. The problem is not only ethical. It is epistemic. When adults set the agenda, the questions children would have asked are never asked. Evidence about childhood is built without the people who hold the primary knowledge of it. Africa carries this twice over. Research about African children is designed elsewhere, funded elsewhere, interpreted elsewhere. The child who lives the reality is last in the chain and first absent from the byline. When children are the researchers, the ethics architecture inverts. Consent runs both ways. Child researchers need protection from what they hear in the field. Authorship is contractual. Stipends, not extraction. We have written those positions down. We are looking for funders, research institutions, conference slots where the child is the speaker, and governments willing to respond to evidence children produce. Children understand their world. They should be the ones researching it. Children are players, not spectators. @YSTKenya

Four days. So many young minds. Mtoto News and Kutunga joined the Young Scientists Kenya 9th Science & Technology Exhibition under the theme “Shaping Kenya’s AI Future Using STEM.” From Shajara to Toto on Podcast, our booth was buzzing with curious children exploring AI, child rights, storytelling and technology. And the best part? Children were behind the microphones, interviewing fellow young innovators about their ideas and solutions. One message stayed with us: “I like what you do. I want to be part of Mtoto News.” ❤️ Children aren’t just preparing for Kenya’s AI future. They’re already shaping it. #YSK2026 #YoungScientistsKenya #AI #STEM #ChildLedInnovation #MtotoNews #Kutunga @YSTKenya @Kutunga_

What does AI look like through the eyes of a child in Kibera? 🤔 Today we launched the AI & Maths Literacy Hackathon at SHOFCO Kibera School for Girls two days of 30 local children using AI, math and their own lived experience to tackle real environmental & WASH challenges in their community. 🔍 Real problems, real evidence 🤖 Guided AI inquiry 🔢 Math for real solutions 🛠️ Prototyping ideas 🎤 Pitching with confidence Because the best solutions for Kibera come from Kibera. 🌍 @hope2shine #AILiteracy #MathLiteracy #Hackathon #Kibera #WASH #YouthInnovation #STEM #EdTech #ChildLedInnovation