Keynote Speaker
Search and recommender systems increasingly shape (and even generate) the content children encounter online, yet they are rarely designed with young users in mind. During this talk, I will explore what it means to take children seriously as users of AI-mediated information access systems, revealing the gap between how these systems are built and evaluated and how they are experienced in practice. These tensions are not only technical; they reflect broader societal questions that our systems are increasingly expected to support. Drawing on insights from research and real-world contexts, I will also discuss where current approaches fall short and how these challenges expose where assumptions in IR and RecSys research no longer hold. Along the way, I will outline pathways for moving beyond treating children as edge cases toward building systems with them -- not just for them -- ultimately supporting more meaningful and grounded information access for this growing group of users.
Dr Sole Pera is an Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology, working at the intersection of information retrieval, recommender systems, and human-centered computing. Her research explores how search and recommendation algorithms shape real-world information access, particularly for children. For over a decade Sole has examined where these systems fall short in practice and how they can better reflect the people who rely on them. Through her research and outreach, she works with her team and collaborators to bridge gaps between technical development, real-world contexts, and policy, supporting safer and more meaningful information access. Sole's work has appeared widely in leading venues, and she is an active contributor to the IR and RecSys communities, including through leadership and service roles such as Program Chair for RecSys 2025, SIGIR Student Travel Chair, and ACM Global Engagement Chair.