Supporting Educators and families navigate AI safety for children
Preparing Children for a Future Where AI is Everywhere
AI risks for young people include exposure to inappropriate AI-generated content, privacy concerns from data collection, addiction, and difficulty distinguishing between real and synthetic information, all while their critical thinking skills are still developing.
Table of Contents
Get AI Safety Training for your Community
Affordable, accessible, up to date training by education experts
Navigating uncertainty
Are we adequately aware of the risks of AI
While much of the education debates around AI center on plagiarism concerns and learning efficacy, schools and families also need to consider the impact of AI on neurodevelopmental impacts.
When young minds routinely rely on AI for immediate answers, they may develop fewer critical thinking skills and struggle with delayed gratification.
When discussing AI safety for children, we must consider how excessive AI assistance might reduce the cognitive benefits they gain from independent problem-solving and the social-emotional growth that comes from working through challenges.
Critical Thinking Atrophy
Research published by Microsoft shows AI tools reduce cognitive effort across multiple thinking dimensions. Children who routinely rely on AI for immediate answers may develop fewer skills in analyzing information independently, potentially affecting neural pathway development during crucial formative years.
The Risks of Over-Reliance
When children develop high trust in AI’s accuracy, they’re less likely to verify information. Studies show users with high confidence in AI engage in less critical thinking, which could particularly impact young developing minds who haven’t yet built strong information evaluation skills.
Confidence Undermining
Research indicates lower self-confidence correlates with greater AI dependence. For children still developing their abilities, this relationship could create harmful cycles where AI use further diminishes their belief in their own capabilities, affecting motivation and resilience.
Cognitive
Offloading
AI shifts thinking effort from creation to verification. While this may be manageable for adults, children need practice across all cognitive domains. The “ironies of generative AI” suggest routine offloading of thinking tasks could leave children unprepared for situations requiring robust critical thinking skills.
Usage & Adoption
Children’s Rapid AI Uptake
Children are early and frequent adopters of generative AI, with studies showing 58% of 12-18 year olds using these tools compared to just 30% of parents.
Many children hide their usage. Services like ChatGPT are being rapidly integrated into platforms already popular with children, such as Snapchat’s “AI friend” chatbot and various Meta products, potentially normalizing AI interaction from a young age.
Content & Safety
Synthetic Risks to Children
Generative AI creates unique safeguarding challenges through persuasive disinformation, synthetic content, and deepfakes that can be indistinguishable from human-created content.
These technologies are already being misused to create photo-realistic child sexual abuse material and for sextortion. The human-like nature of chatbots raises additional concerns about their influence on children’s perceptions of intelligence and social behavior.
