Name: More young people are using AI chatbots. Is it safe? | Terms of Service
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T17:10:36.000Z
Duration: 24 min 25 s
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A recent Pew Research center survey found that around a third of US teens are using AI chatbots every day.

And among those, 16% say they use them several times a day to almost constantly.

Lots of young people are using programs like ChatGPT for everyday purposes like homework.

And we're all hearing a lot about the need for us to learn how to use AI chatbots to help our career prospects.

However, over the past year, we've also from a number of families against major AI companies claiming that their chatbots contributed to their teens self harm or suicide.

So I wanted to understand in this moment how parents should be thinking about their kids engaging with AI chatbots and what parents can do right now to keep their kids safe.

To help me answer this question, I have Julie Scelfo here with me today.

the founder of the nonprofit Mothers Against Media Addiction, or MAMA for short.

So you were a journalist prior to founding this organization and you actually covered some of the mental health impacts of tech and social media.

How did you go from being a reporter on this very important issue to deciding to create this organization?

So I reported on youth mental health and sort of developed a specialty in reporting on suicide, which was very sad.

And we began to see suicide rates increase in adolescence.

And the New York Times sent me to cover a cluster of suicides at the University of Pennsylvania back in 20.

And at that time it was abundantly obvious that social media was playing a huge role in making children depressed and anxious.

And we didn't have any data from the social media companies at that time.

But soon after that, we began to see suicide rates increase, not just in teens, but

in tweens, which are children as young as 9 and 10.

So right now in the United States, suicide is the number two cause of death for 10 year olds.

And reporting that story, I mean, it really just changed something in me as a mom to see that so many of our children were suffering.

I was mad that Congress wasn't acting to ensure these products had basic safeguards, just like we have basic safeguards in all of our other products.

I have three sons and they're 15, 17 and 20.

But when my oldest was born, there were no iPhones.

And Mark Zuckerberg worked at a small company called the Facebook.

And by the time My middle son was ready for pre K and I took him to school.

Every single parent in the community had a smartphone and they were photographing their kids constantly.

And by doing that, we were all sort of teaching our kids that it was normal to post everything online, right?

And then my third son has grown up in the world of TikTok and even though I don't allow him to have TikTok because I think it's not good for attention spans, I can't prevent him from seeing TikToks because his friends send it to him.

Snap, YouTube, all these other platforms have gone to shorter and shorter reels.

I went through all of the problems with my own children and in their communities and saw a lot of their friends suffering.

And that was another thing that led me to start Mama.

We've talked on this show before about why it's important to help kids establish a healthy relationship with their devices with social media.

Today we want to focus on kids interactions with chatbots.

Specifically, where are you seeing kids encountering chatbots most often?

Like how are they first getting introduced to this technology?

So many of the social media companies introduce chatbots right through their platform.

So parents didn't even realize that their kids were getting at access to chatbots.

And we're getting pushed chatbots by the apps that we're encouraging them to try it.

Kids are also being issued laptops at schools.

And even though schools often say this laptop is safe, they are not foolproof.

And often schools and the tech support that they have there is not able to keep up with all of the new innovations.

So we often hear reports from parents where kids are accessing content that maybe is not appropriate, but

I think also kids often access chatbots just, just like other things on the Internet from friends devices.

So parents don't realize how accessible this stuff is.

But anytime your child has access to the Internet, they can get access to a chatbot.

And obviously sometimes chatbots are being introduced as homework helpers, these more benign, if not helpful applications.

But where are you starting to see these interactions, especially when we talk about kids, take a problematic turn?

So, you know, we encourage parents to think differently about tech.

I think that often the marketing forces in this country and the business forces are hyping up all this new technology and always telling us how great things are.

But everything gives you something and takes something away.

So even though a product, even like a homework helper might introduce something that sounds really great, you have to think about what else it could introduce that maybe was unintended kids are often getting these things because adults encourage them to try it.

And so I think that's something we want parents to think about too.

You know, modeling behavior for kids that we want them to emulate.

As AI chatbots have gotten more advanced, it really can feel more like you're talking to another person on the other side of the screen.

And I can imagine for kids, that can be a hard sort of thing to keep in mind as you're building a relationship with this bot.

Like, what is going on under the hood that makes these things so engaging?

So chatbots are often talking in a very human way.

They're referring to themselves like a person.

They're saying things like I love you or you're so beautiful.

Sometimes you hear critics call these God words.

You know, that is what a mother says to a child, really anyone says to someone they love.

And I think that makes it really hard to remember that this is just a machine.

And you know, computer programs, zeros and ones.

It also runs the risk of when young people are using it, of getting them used to what's not real relationship.

So these things are always telling you how brilliant you are.

They're always telling you that you're always right and everybody else is wrong.

Real human relationships aren't like that.

No matter who your friend is or who your loved one is, you're going to have frustrations, you're going to have to overcome disagreements.

And that's an important part of learning how to have human relationships.

So that's another drawback of these human to machine experiences.

I'm curious specifically with your research on teens, like, what makes teens more susceptible to being pulled into these deeper, potentially problematic relationships with chatbots.

So teens are in a stage of their development where they're looking for validation.

They're naturally looking to see of how they're feeling things, experiencing things, measures up with people around them.

folks like Gene Twenge, who's done all this incredible research, have already documented how kids who spend so much time online, she called them the Igen like I generation, are less prone to put themselves out there and make human contact.

Boys are not asking girls out on dates anymore.

Friends are not meeting up because it's just easier to just stay home and not put yourself out that way.

So collectively we have this social problem where we have so many People feeling lonely because no amount of time with a machine is ever going to make up for those real human experiences.

But I add to what you asked, I think we can also look at the fact that initially using these products seems really fun.

And so it's not just teens who are interested in them.

I had a parent tell me that her fifth grade daughter called her one day from school and said, I can't decide what to have for lunch.

And her mom was like, okay, what are your choices?

You know, and it was like a grilled cheese or soup.

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More young people are using AI chatbots. Is it safe? | Terms of Service

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