Understanding the risks that AI chatbots, image generators, and AI-powered features pose to children, and how to guide safe use.
AI tools — including chatbots, image generators, and AI-powered features in apps — are becoming widely accessible to children. While they offer creative and educational benefits, they also present risks such as exposure to inaccurate information, manipulation, deepfake imagery, and inappropriate content generated on demand.
AI chatbots can produce convincing but false information, and children may accept it as fact. Image generators can create realistic fake images, including of real people. Some AI tools have been used to generate non-consensual intimate imagery. Children may also develop unhealthy emotional attachments to AI companions or share sensitive personal information with chatbots, not realising the data may be stored and used.
1. Discuss how AI works
Help your child understand that AI generates responses based on patterns, not understanding. It can sound confident while being completely wrong, and it does not have their best interests at heart.
2. Set boundaries around AI tool use
Agree which AI tools are acceptable and for what purposes. Explain that personal information should never be shared with AI chatbots, and that AI-generated images of real people are not acceptable.
3. Encourage critical thinking
Teach your child to fact-check AI outputs, question what they read, and understand that AI-generated content — text, images, and video — is not always truthful or ethical.
Last reviewed: 2026-04-19