Artificial intelligence is becoming part of childhood earlier than many parents might expect. Children can now ask chatbots questions, get help with schoolwork and hold conversations with systems that respond with striking confidence and increasingly human-like language.
For parents, the challenge is no longer simply deciding how much screen time is appropriate. AI is interactive, personalised and capable of remembering previous conversations, creating a different set of developmental questions.
Paediatrician Dr Edith Bracho-Sanchez, who hosts the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Healthy Children podcast, argues that parents need to consider not only how often children use AI, but what they are allowing it to do for them.
Why AI is different from ordinary screen time
Traditional concerns about screens generally focus on the amount of time children spend using devices and the quality of the content they consume.
AI introduces another dimension because it responds directly to a child. Unlike television or conventional digital media, a chatbot can answer questions, maintain a conversation and appear to give an individual its full attention.
The concern is that excessive reliance could reduce opportunities for children to practise skills themselves.
If AI provides a homework answer immediately, a child may lose the opportunity to reason through a problem, make mistakes and try again. If a chatbot becomes a regular confidant, it could also begin occupying space normally filled by conversations with friends, parents or other trusted people.
Age matters
Children of different ages understand AI in very different ways.
Young children are developmentally inclined to trust information presented confidently. They may not yet have the ability to consistently question a source, assess its credibility or recognise that an authoritative-sounding answer could be wrong.
They may also find it difficult to understand exactly what a chatbot is. It is not a person, yet it communicates like one and can sound like a knowledgeable adult.
Teenagers are generally better able to understand that an AI system is not human, although that intellectual understanding does not necessarily prevent emotional attachment.
This can become particularly relevant when an adolescent is dealing with loneliness, rejection, anxiety or questions of identity and belonging. A chatbot that is always available and seemingly non-judgemental can become appealing as a source of emotional support.
The issue has also been explored in the Chasing Life with Dr Sanjay Gupta podcast, including an episode asking whether AI is reshaping children’s developing brains.
Why struggling is part of learning
For younger children in particular, Bracho-Sanchez argues that AI should have a limited role in education.
Children need time to encounter a question they cannot immediately answer, experiment, make mistakes and eventually arrive at a solution.
That seemingly inefficient process is a fundamental part of learning and creativity.
AI can dramatically shorten the distance between “I don’t know” and “here is the answer”. While that efficiency can be extremely useful for adults, it may not always benefit a developing brain.
Sometimes, when a child does not know something, the most useful response remains a simple question: “What do you think?”
Parents should explore AI alongside younger children
Rather than allowing younger children to use AI independently, parents can explore the technology alongside them.
They can also explain plainly what the technology is: a computer system that generates responses, not a person, and one that can sometimes provide incorrect information.
Its role can remain narrow. For example, parents and children might use it together to investigate a factual question rather than turning to it automatically whenever the child encounters something difficult.
Teach older children to question AI
As children grow older, parental guidance can shift towards critical thinking and digital literacy.
Children should understand that:
- AI can sound extremely confident and still be wrong.
- Important claims should be checked against other reliable sources.
- Personal and sensitive information should not automatically be shared with AI systems.
- A familiar or empathetic conversational style does not mean the system understands or cares in the way a person does.
Parents can also watch for a more subtle change: whether their child is merely asking AI questions or increasingly talking to AI as though it were a companion.
When AI starts replacing relationships
For teenagers, one of the most important questions is whether AI is supplementing their social and emotional lives or gradually replacing parts of them.
A chatbot should not become a substitute for texting a friend, speaking to a parent or seeking professional help when needed.
Parents should also help teenagers understand that some AI products are designed to encourage continued engagement. An endlessly available chatbot therefore operates very differently from a friend or family member who has a genuine emotional relationship with them.
The limitations of AI companionship have become a wider concern as technology companies increasingly discuss chatbots as potential friends. Experts have questioned whether AI can genuinely meet the human needs associated with loneliness and connection.
What parents can do
The solution is not necessarily to keep children completely away from AI.
Instead, parents can focus on developing the human skills children will need to use the technology safely and intelligently.
For younger children, that means preserving opportunities to think, struggle and discover answers themselves. For older children, it means teaching scepticism, fact-checking, privacy awareness and an understanding of AI’s limitations.
Most importantly, children should know which experiences belong primarily in human relationships.
AI may be able to explain a school problem, generate an answer or hold a convincing conversation. It cannot replace the care, judgement and emotional connection provided by parents, friends, teachers and other trusted people.
The ultimate goal is therefore not simply to place restrictions around artificial intelligence, but to raise children who understand when it is useful, when it may be wrong and when they should turn to another person instead.
Source: CNN
