01 / Formation
Identity, Belonging & Purpose
What happens when boys grow inside powerful digital environments without equally powerful structures for identity, responsibility and purpose?
Digital@UNGA Affiliate Session
Who Is Forming the Boy in the Digital Age?
AI, digital life, identity, education, healthy masculinity and the future of boys and young men.
120Minutes of focused dialogue
7Cross-sector voices
4Continents represented
1Central question
Programming Themes
The environments shaping boys are changing.
Artificial intelligence, algorithms, family, schools, culture and public systems increasingly overlap. This session asks not simply what technology is doing, but what kind of human beings our institutions are helping to form.
02 / Technology
AI, Algorithms & Agency
How should boys learn to use AI critically, creatively and responsibly while retaining judgment, attention and human agency?
03 / Education
Learning, Skills & Future Work
What should schools and institutions build beyond access to technology so boys can create, contribute and navigate a changing economy?
04 / Family
Adults, Mentors & Healthy Masculinity
How do fathers, mothers, mentors, teachers and trusted adults remain formative forces in an increasingly networked childhood?
05 / Policy
Safety, Governance & Responsibility
What responsibilities do governments, civil society and technology institutions hold for the digital environments surrounding young people?
06 / Nations
Human Formation as Infrastructure
If the boys of today become tomorrow’s workers, fathers, citizens and leaders, what does their formation mean for the future of nations?
Featured Voices
A deliberately interdisciplinary room.
Technology alone cannot answer a human-development question. The program brings together perspectives from AI governance, boys’ development, family systems, policy, civil society, leadership and international practice.
Owolabi Williams
Founder, Boys Lead Foundation · BEXT Institute for Boys and Men
United States · Convener
Joe Jones
Director of Research & Insights, IAPP · AI Governance, Privacy & Digital Responsibility
United States
Nurbanu Küçük
International Affairs & Advocacy · UN & Multilateral Engagement, KADEM
Türkiye
Praise Fowowe
Family Systems, Parenting & Human Development
United States
James Earl Hollywood III
Boys’ Education, Mental Health, Fatherhood & Youth Leadership
United States
Wale Omolade
Leadership, Enterprise & Youth Development
Nigeria
Modupe “Mo” Adara
Boys’ Development, Culture & Healthy Masculinity
Canada
+
Curated Participants
Policy · Education · Technology · Research · Civil Society · Youth
New York · UN High-Level Week
September 23 · Program
A session designed for depth, not a parade of speeches.
Two focused dialogues converge into a shared set of principles for institutions shaping boys in the digital age.
The Human Question Beneath the Technology
Opening frame: boys, formation, artificial intelligence and the future of nations.
Owolabi Williams
Who Is Forming the Boy in the Digital Age?
AI governance, youth safety, digital responsibility, identity, agency and the institutional environment.
Joe Jones · Nurbanu Küçük · Modupe Adara
From Boys to Men, From Families to Nations
Formation, family systems, healthy masculinity, leadership, opportunity and the social architecture surrounding boys.
Praise Fowowe · James Earl Hollywood III · Wale Omolade
The New York Commitment on Boys
From conversation to practical principles, responsibilities and future collaboration.
All speakers · Curated room
Closing: The Boys We Build, The Nations We Become
A final nation-building proposition and invitation to continue the work.
Owolabi Williams
New York · UN High-Level Week
What enters a boy eventually enters society.
The future is not only being negotiated in institutions. It is being formed every day in the lives of boys.
From Dialogue to Direction
The New York Commitment on Boys.
The gathering is designed to surface a practical cross-sector agenda for strengthening the environments surrounding boys and young men, especially as artificial intelligence and digital life become formative forces.
Boys’ Development
AI Literacy
Education
Healthy Masculinity
Youth Safety
Research
Public Policy
Future of Work
Event Details
- Date
- Wednesday, September 23, 2026
- Time
- 3:00–5:00 PM
- City
- New York City, USA
- Venue
- 880 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022 - Format
- In-person multistakeholder dialogue
- Access
- Strictly by invitation only
Owolabi Williams
The Boys We Build,
Formation · Human Capital · Nations
The Boys We Build,
The Nations We Become
The Intellectual Foundation
The formation of boys is part of the infrastructure of nations.
The New York conversation extends the central argument of Owolabi Williams’ work: the environments that form boys today influence the families, institutions, economies and nations of tomorrow.
Invitation Confirmation
Strictly by invitation only.
Invited guests may confirm their participation below. Attendance is limited to a curated group spanning technology, policy, education, research, civil society, youth development and international institutions.