According to survey data from Common Sense Media, nearly half of children ages 9 to 12 have used a chatbot or AI companion, and by age 13, nearly three-quarters of children have used chatbots.
Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
AI chatbots are increasingly becoming a regular part of the lives of young Americans. Two new surveys show that nearly two-thirds of tweens and teens use AI chatbots. While most children use technology to help with schoolwork and for companionship and emotional support, certain uses were linked to worse mental health symptoms.
a surveyconducted by online safety advocacy group Common Sense Media, found that AI use starts early, years before children reach the minimum age of 13 in the most popular chatbots. Nearly half of 9- to 12-year-olds have used a chatbot or AI companion. By the time children are 13, almost three-quarters of them have used chatbots.
The other surveyconducted by mental health advocacy group JED Foundationfound that 90% of the 5,500 children ages 9 to 17 in schools across the country have used an AI chatbot. Nearly two-thirds use it both for schoolwork and as a companion, or when they are stressed, lonely, anxious or overwhelmed.
The findings are “remarkable” in showing how dramatically children and adolescents’ use of AI has changed in a short time, says the developmental psychologist. Anne Maheux from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who did not participate in the surveys.
“It seems like just a few years ago no one was using” this technology, he says. “And now it appears that about the same number of kids who use it to do homework are using it for emotional support or help coping.”
“I use it to practice sample questions: sample test questions that I will answer with my own work,” he says Arjun Sharda, 15 years old.in Round Rock, Texas. “I use it to understand concepts outside of the classroom.”
He uses both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, he says, although lately he prefers the latter.
In Raynham, Massachusetts, McKenzie Craig, 17, has been using chatbots since she was in eighth grade. “I usually use it if I’m overwhelmed with a bunch of tasks I have,” she says. “I’ll have him help me prioritize tasks.”
He also uses it to help with homework. “If I write an essay, I review it on Grammarly or ChatGPT and grade it, so to speak,” Craig says. “It gives me feedback and then I can edit accordingly.”
Sharda says he and his friends also turn to chatbots when they are stressed and anxious.
“With testing, for example,” he says, “I was so afraid of failing one of my first chemistry tests on conversions and moles that I kept asking ChatGPT ‘Will I be okay? Will my GPA still be okay?'”
Some chatbot uses are linked to worse mental health
JED Foundation researchers also surveyed students about symptoms of general well-being and mental health.
“We were able to look at how young people use AI and then how it separately correlates with indicators of well-being, history of suicidal ideation and attempts, and poor mental health,” he says. psychologist Kayla Andersonvice president of research and evaluation at the JED Foundation.
“When young people use AI, when they experience emotional distress,” he adds, “they are more likely to report poor mental health and well-being outcomes.” They also report a greater history of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
But the data do not suggest a causal link, Anderson cautions.
“It is not clear, based on this data, whether the use of AI is contributing to poor mental health and well-being, or whether students who are already struggling in certain ways are more likely to turn to AI,” he explains.
But preliminary data collected by other researchers suggests that the link between chatbots and worse mental health symptoms in young people could cut both ways, Maheux says.
“That’s why children who have worse mental health seek help from AI,” he says. “But the use of AI may be exacerbating those mental health problems rather than helping.”
In a soon-to-be-published study of high school students in one state, Maheux and his UNC colleagues found that students who use chatbots for company become lonelier over time.
They found similar results in another study of young adults. “We see that people who use AI more as a companion, or who feel that they rely too much on AI to solve various emotional or cognitive problems, are developing worse mental health over time.”
One possible explanation for this effect, he says, is that AI is alleviating people’s emotional distress (loneliness, anxiety, stress) in the immediate moment, but that dependence on technology prevents young people from developing the skills to tolerate and cope with normal daily stress.
That, he explains, “can lead to worse mental health.”
