By Michaela Gordoni
A recent study found that 57% of children ages 9 to 17 have received body advice from AI tools.
“It is clearly a very prominent part of childhood already,” said researcher Michael Robb.
The study did not examine what kind of body questions children asked the AI.
Just over 80% of 9-to 12-year-olds, 89% of 13-to 15-year-olds and 92% of 16-to 17-year-olds say they use or interact with AI. Nearly a third of 13-to 17-year-olds use it daily, CNBC reported.
Children report they use AI tools to get advice about the future and social interactions and to talk through issues.
Robb said chatbots “subtly reinforce what people want to hear in their answers through varying degrees of sycophantic behaviors.” He added, “There’s a very natural instinct for some kids to want to avoid embarrassment and not have to personally make themselves vulnerable to parents or others.”
Children can develop an unhealthy trust in AI and may not know how to critically examine an AI tool’s reply to determine truth.
Related: Are AI Chatbot Companies Doing Enough to Protect Our Children?
Nearly a third (27%) of children go to AI for a question before they go to an adult. But children need personal connection for proper development.
“We have biological structures that are rewarded when we see people deeply, or when we experience them deeply in all their imperfections,” child psychiatrist and author Suzan Song said.
“Identity is shaped by the friction between your peers and your parents,” explained Song, adding that AI “smooths over all of that friction.”
Parents can help their children by asking questions about their AI use.
Robb gave examples: “How are you using AI? What do you see? What do you think the best uses are?”
“Did you consider asking a person first, why or why not?” Song added, and “Who would you have gone to if you were to ask a person in your life that question?” Chatbots are just one kind of AI tool that represents issues for children A California high school senior noted that she and her peers have trouble distinguishing authentic images in videos from AI dupes.
She said, “Artificial intelligence is just that: artificial. When some of the main tools you use as a teenager to connect with real friends — memes and social media — are corrupted with artificiality, how do you make real connections? When the main way teenagers learn about the bigger world outside of their schools and towns is the internet, can we ever understand the world?”
On X, minors have posted pictures of themselves that strangers have used AI to sexualize or “undress.”
It’s important to educate children about all aspects of AI — they’re going to encounter it in many ways throughout their whole lives — and they need to know how to navigate it.
Read Next: Parents Want Justice After AI Chatbots Pushed Children to Suicide
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