It feels as though artificial intelligence is quietly taking over every facet of modern life. Adults encounter AI daily, whether it is recommending consumer products, curating streaming entertainment, filtering out spam in email inboxes, or tracking vital health statistics through smartwatches.
Increasingly, this technology is also becoming a permanent fixture in the daily lives of children and teenagers. Young people access artificial intelligence capabilities on smartphones, integrate them into their daily schoolwork, and, in some cases, develop deep personal relationships with AI chatbots. Fearing a potential repeat of the negative consequences that accompanied unfettered teen access to smartphones and social media during the early 2010s, many parents are expressing understandable concern over this fast-moving technological frontier.
Experts are sounding alarm bells as well, warning that the stakes are high. Former Google trust and safety executive Tom Siegel recently told Reuters that artificial intelligence poses a greater potential harm to children than social media did, highlighting severe risks such as suicide, psychosis, and a noticeable reduction in critical thinking skills among adolescents.
While the impulse to completely ban children from using artificial intelligence may sound appealing to anxious families, experts emphasize that such a measure is simply not feasible. Unlike social media, which is largely contained within standalone applications, AI is deeply threaded into the underlying technology that kids use every day, ranging from search engines to mainstream video games. That is precisely why educators and child development experts argue that parents must focus on proactive AI education to prepare young people to safely interact with the technology in all its various forms.
Whether children are just beginning to explore artificial intelligence or are already frequent users, experts are stepping forward to help answer the most pressing questions parents have about teens and the digital landscape.
How are teens using AI?
According to a comprehensive study by the Pew Research Center, more than half of all teens report having used artificial intelligence to search for information or get assistance with their schoolwork. They are turning to generative AI, which creates content dynamically from user prompts, to generate images, gather research for academic topics, and solve complex math problems.
Teens are also interacting at high rates with chatbots, which are computer programs specifically designed to simulate human conversation. Many adults are already familiar with popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. Roughly two-thirds of teens report utilizing these conversational programs, with three in ten engaging with them on a daily basis.
What are the biggest risks AI poses for kids academically?
While schools are fundamentally entrusted with educating young minds to become independent critical thinkers, artificial intelligence frequently removes the cognitive heavy lifting from the equation. According to the Pew Research Center study, 59 percent of teens believe that students regularly use AI to cheat on academic assignments. Furthermore, of the 15 percent of teens who believe AI will negatively impact them personally over the next two decades, one-third specifically cited an overreliance on the technology and a subsequent loss of critical thinking or creativity as their major concerns.
While many students view artificial intelligence as an easy shortcut to finish their work quickly, doing so carries tangible consequences. Students who rely too heavily on AI during high school often struggle when they reach college, where professors are increasingly deploying advanced detection methods to identify unacceptable AI use and handing out failing grades on tests and papers as a result.
Illustrating this academic tension, Alcorn State University professor Jason Gibson recently hid a prompt in invisible white text within a midterm assignment asking students to compare the Industrial Revolution to the modern digital age. The hidden instruction forced generative AI to insert the word "Madagascar" into the response in a way that made no contextual sense. Gibson immediately knew which students had relied on AI when he saw the misplaced word in their submitted papers, resulting in 32 out of 35 students failing that portion of the midterm exam.
What are the emotional risks AI poses for kids?
The academic repercussions are only part of the broader picture. In 2025, Common Sense Media and Stanford Medicine’s Brainstorm Lab for Mental Health released research showing that three in four teens are utilizing AI chatbots for companionship, including emotional and mental health support. However, the report cautions that these programs do not provide reliable help and consistently fail to recognize and appropriately respond to the mental health conditions affecting young people.
In some instances, the reliance on these programs has led to tragic outcomes. In August 2025, Matthew and Maria Raine filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, following the death of their 16-year-old son, Adam, who died by suicide. The parents allege in the lawsuit that ChatGPT coached their son on how to die by suicide, going so far as to offer to draft a suicide note. According to the legal filing, Adam initially began using ChatGPT for homework help before the chatbot gradually evolved into what he considered his closest confidant.
Common Sense Media notes that because chatbots display a relative competence when handling homework questions and general inquiries, teens and parents unconsciously assume they are equally reliable for guidance regarding mental health. However, the organization stresses that they are not. The empathetic tone and professional presentation common in these applications mask fundamental limitations that render these systems entirely inappropriate for mental health applications affecting millions of teenagers.
Does AI have any benefits for my teen?
Despite the serious risks, experts acknowledge that artificial intelligence can also produce positive impacts when managed correctly. According to a formal statement from the American Psychological Association regarding AI and adolescent well-being, the technology can assist in brainstorming, creating, organizing, summarizing, and synthesizing information, as well as offering resources and potential solutions for challenging problems. When utilized as a tool for guided learning rather than an outright replacement for human critical thinking, AI can prompt users with questions designed to challenge them to approach topics analytically.
How are schools using AI?
There is currently no uniform, one-size-fits-all approach to artificial intelligence in educational settings. Depending on the local school district, students may encounter drastically differing institutional expectations. Some districts are attempting to enforce a temporary pause on AI within the classroom environment. For instance, New York City Public Schools announced a moratorium on student-facing generative artificial intelligence through the eighth grade for the 2026-27 school year, while permitting limited use in high schools.
However, enforcing a ban on a technology that is deeply embedded in the modern digital ecosystem presents significant enforcement challenges. According to a report by Common Sense Media on teens, AI, and schoolwork, 44 percent of teens who use AI for academic purposes attend schools where AI tools are officially blocked, leading many students to simply switch to their personal devices to access the platforms.
When educational institutions implement strict bans, teachers are often unable to properly instruct their students on how to use these digital tools responsibly. Ash Brandin, an educator in Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District who creates content helping parents and educators navigate digital literacy under the social media handle @thegamereducator, notes that their district prohibits student access to generative AI platforms on school property. Brandin points out that such restrictions can complicate the educational process, making it difficult to discuss a technology that is actively being pushed away from the classroom.
Compounding the issue, a staggering 70 percent of teens report that they have never had a teacher discuss how to use artificial intelligence safely with them, and only 27 percent have ever discussed what AI is or how it functions with an educator.
Should I ban my teens from using AI?
Child development experts offer a direct answer to the question of outright bans: No.
Trying to eliminate artificial intelligence from a teenager’s life is compared by educators to putting toothpaste back into the tube—a largely fruitless endeavor. Brandin observes that, much like adults, kids are seeing AI woven directly into the fabric of their everyday existence.
Instead of prohibition, teenagers require proper AI education so they can comprehend what the technology is, understand the risks it introduces, and learn how to use it wisely. If a teen is utilizing AI for potentially harmful activities, such as cheating or seeking inappropriate emotional companionship, parents are encouraged to help them identify healthier alternatives. Brandin advises parents to evaluate what the child is attempting to get from the chatbot and determine what alternative activity would be preferable, collaborating directly with the teen to establish a constructive plan.
How can I help my child learn how to use AI responsibly?
Teaching children how to navigate artificial intelligence safely requires proactive exposure rather than isolation. Brandin compares digital readiness to teaching a child how to swim, noting that parents do not introduce a child to a pool only at the exact age they are expected to swim independently. Instead, children are introduced to bodies of water as early as possible, starting close to parents as babies, remaining within arm’s reach with floating devices as toddlers, and eventually swimming independently while adults supervise from poolside.
With each progressive step, the focus remains on building the specific skills required to navigate the environment safely. Artificial intelligence requires the exact same developmental approach. Parents are encouraged to begin explaining what AI is and how it functions in daily life as early as possible, utilizing resources such as Common Sense Media’s free digital literacy and well-being curriculum to guide age-appropriate conversations.
Experts also suggest simple interactive exercises, such as asking a chatbot to generate a random number and discussing whether the result actually appears random, or asking the chatbot to explain a complex topic that the child already understands deeply to reveal where the technology makes factual errors. Modeling safe behavior, such as speaking aloud about how to verify AI-generated search results and check underlying sources, can further demystify the technology.
Ultimately, experts emphasize that when parents feel anxiety or fear regarding artificial intelligence, they should interrogate those feelings to determine the specific skill sets their teenagers need to develop. By prioritizing open communication, guided exposure, and digital education within the home, families can better manage the challenges of an evolving technological landscape.
