What Parents Need to Know About AI Risks for Kids

Spark + Stone

3 days ago

9 min read

A data-informed guide for awareness and family discussion

At Spark + Stone, we are neither for nor against AI. It is already part of the world our children are growing up in, and our job is to help kids build the judgment to use it thoughtfully—including knowing where it can go wrong.

But parents don't need to become AI experts. They simply need a clear picture of the risks, a few practical guardrails, and ongoing visibility into the role AI is playing in their child’s life. Across current guidance and research from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Common Sense Media, UNICEF, and the American Psychological Association, the through-line is similar: how a child uses AI—and what it begins replacing—matters more than access alone.

One practical safeguard stands out across all risks: use the right account. Age limits and youth protections only work when the service knows it is dealing with a minor, so avoid letting a child use an adult login. Use teen or supervised accounts where available, check the provider's current age rules, and revisit family settings periodically because they change.

Now here are six risks worth being aware of—and practical ways to reduce them.

1. When AI replaces thinking instead of supporting it

AI can explain a difficult idea, create practice questions, give feedback, or help a child get unstuck. But it can also take over the important reasoning, writing, problem-solving, creating, and decision-making kids need to practice themselves.

The distinction is already visible in how teens use AI for school. A Common Sense Media survey released in August 2026 found that 70% of U.S. teens use AI for schoolwork. Among those users, 63% said they had used AI to get an answer, while 77% had also used it for school help without getting the answer directly—for example checking work or getting unstuck. The same child may use AI in both ways.

A useful check is: What skill would my child be practicing if AI weren't doing this?

If AI helps a child practice, understand or improve work they've already attempted, it may be supporting development. If it routinely does the thinking, creating, deciding, or problem-solving for them—or they can't explain how they got the result—it may be replacing practice they still need.

What to talk to your kids about: Use AI to support your thinking and understanding, not avoid it. The goal isn't just to finish faster; it's to become more capable.

What parents can do: If AI is involved in your child’s learning, use the Explain It Back test: ask your child to explain their reasoning in their own words. If AI has already become your child’s homework default mode, push for them to start owning the first step - the rough draft or attempted math problem. For teens using ChatGPT, Study Mode or Study Hours can make eligible new chats start in a more guided, step-by-step learning flow.

School rules deserve their own check. Common Sense Media found that 44% of teen AI schoolwork users had encountered an AI block on a school network or device, and 59% of those switched to a personal device. Ask your child directly: What are your specific teachers' rules about AI? Don't assume a school-wide policy tells you what every classroom allows.

2. When confident sounding answers get too much trust

AI can sound remarkably certain even when it's flat-out wrong. It can explain something fluently and answer follow-up questions all with an authoritative tone. But none of that makes the answer correct.

The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that AI chatbots can unduly gain children's trust. Children are still developing the judgment to evaluate sources, recognize uncertainty, question authority, and notice when something doesn't make sense. Younger children may also attribute more intelligence or human-like understanding to conversational technology than it actually has.

What to talk to your kids about: Confident language is not proof and your job is to ask questions. Ask: Does that make sense? Where did this come from? How could I check it? When an answer matters, verify it with another reliable source.

What parents can do: Make a Two-Source rule for important claims, especially schoolwork: AI is never the only source. Cross-check against a textbook, teacher-provided material, reputable news or reference source, or educational database. When possible, choose tools that show sources or citations, then teach your child to click through to the underlying source.

3. When AI exposes kids to harmful content—or helps create it

Generative AI can produce false, biased, discriminatory, sexual, violent, dangerous, or age-inappropriate material. Because the output can look polished and convincing, kids may not immediately recognize it for what it is.

AI also changes what people can create. Common Sense Media's 2026 nationally representative survey of U.S. teens found that 44% had seen fake nudes or other sexualized AI imagery, and nearly one in five had made it or knew someone who had. Among that group, nearly two-thirds said the images involved people they knew personally.

The content may be synthetic. The impact on a real person is not.

What to talk to your kids about: If AI shows you something disturbing or suspicious, don't assume it's true or handle it alone—bring it to a trusted adult. When creating with AI, a simple guide is: don't upload another person's image for face-swapping, image generation, or synthetic editing without their permission, and never create or share sexualized, threatening, humiliating, or deceptive content about them. This is not only harmful and wrong, certain instances can be illegal.

What parents can do: Build a simple photo-safety habit. Before any image upload, check for faces and identifying details such as school logos, names, house numbers, or street signs. For younger teens, turn off image generation or editing features where parental controls allow it; ChatGPT parental controls can remove image generation, and Microsoft family controls can limit selected Copilot features. If the service's own controls are not enough, device-level tools such as Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link, or Microsoft Family Safety can block or limit an app or website.

Most importantly, create an open-door reporting rule: “If AI generates something graphic or disturbing, or someone uses AI to make a fake image of you or someone you know, bring it to me. You will not be in trouble for telling me.” Make the promise concrete: coming to you will not, by itself, trigger punishment. You may still need to take steps to keep your child safe, but disclosure itself should never feel like the offense.

4. When AI starts feeling like a relationship

Some AI systems are intentionally conversational, personalized, responsive, and always available. They may remember details, respond sympathetically, and agree readily. That can make a simulated relationship feel real—and sometimes less complicated than a real one.

The American Academy of Pediatrics cautions that children and teens can become attached to AI personalities and emphasizes that AI cannot substitute for the safe, stable, nurturing relationships children need.

Kids need a clear boundary around the role AI should play. AI should not become a child's friend, therapist, primary confidant, or substitute for trusted human support. Serious emotional distress, relationships, mental health, safety, and important personal decisions belong with people.

What to talk to your kids about: AI can simulate empathy; it does not experience empathy. It is just technology. Make the check-in concrete: “If something felt really hard, private, or upsetting, who are the people you'd feel okay going to?” If the answer is “no one,” that is the problem to solve together or with professional help.

What parents can do: Create a Human-First rule for emotional distress, friendship problems, health questions, safety concerns, and important personal decisions. Keep devices out of bedrooms overnight or use platform quiet hours where available. If an interaction starts to feel companion-like, reduce features that intensify the sense of relationship—such as voice, persistent memory or personalization, or AI companion features. ChatGPT's linked parental controls can manage quiet hours, voice, and memory; Microsoft Family Safety and related controls can limit access and selected Copilot features.

Raising kids through new technology is hard, and no family needs to manage every concern alone. If your child is withdrawing from real relationships, relying heavily on AI for emotional support, or you are worried about their mental health or safety, reach out to a pediatrician, counselor, school mental-health professional, or another qualified professional for help.

5. Private-feeling chats aren't actually private

Chatting with AI can feel private: a child types something into a box, and the system responds directly to them. That can make it easy to share more than they realize.

Depending on the service and its policies, information entered into AI systems may be stored or processed in ways a child doesn't understand. UNICEF's child-centered AI guidance identifies protection of children's data and privacy as a core requirement.

What to talk to your kids about: When it comes to private information, use the Billboard Test: if you (or the person the information is about) wouldn't want this information on a public billboard, don't type it into a prompt. And if you’re not sure, ask a trusted adult or just assume it’s not ok.

What parents can do: Review AI tool's privacy settings and put a reminder on your calendar to recheck at least once a year. Look separately at conversation history, memory or personalization, model-training or 'improve the model' choices, connected apps, and deletion or auto-delete controls—they are not always the same setting. On ChatGPT, linked parents can disable memory and opt a teen out of model improvement; Microsoft says signed-in users under 18 do not have Copilot chats used for model training. Gemini activity controls differ by account type, so check the supervised-account settings directly.

6. When convenience replaces real-world experience

Kids develop through repetitions: struggling through a hard problem, fixing an imperfect creation, resolving an argument, asking another person for help, making a decision, or sitting with an uncomfortable emotion.

AI can make many of those moments easier or remove them. Sometimes easier is useful. But if AI routinely removes the struggle, uncertainty, conversation, creativity, or responsibility, kids get fewer chances to build the capabilities those experiences develop.

This sits at the heart of Spark + Stone's approach: critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience, creativity and curiosity, life skills and independence, and healthy technology judgment all require practice.

What to talk to your kids about: Before reaching for AI, sometimes ask: Would doing this ourselves be more valuable than having AI make it easier?

What parents can do: Protect a few Friction Moments on purpose—activities that stay AI-free because the struggle is part of the value. Examples might include writing a birthday card, brainstorming a game or making a weekend plan. When a child is stuck, try a 10- to 15-minute productive-struggle window before AI or another hint comes in. Model the same restraint yourself. Let kids see you sometimes think, draft, troubleshoot, or make a small decision before asking AI. You can say, “I could ask AI, but I want to think this through first.”

What should families do with these risks?

The goal here isn't to teach kids a list of dangers. It's to help them build the judgment to use powerful tools well. That means knowing what AI is good for, recognizing where it can go wrong, protecting personal information, checking important claims, noticing when AI is doing too much of the work, and knowing when to put the technology down and turn to a person.

Judgment grows over time. Younger children need significant adult involvement. As kids show they can question AI's answers, protect their privacy, use it without outsourcing their thinking, respect other people, and recognize when a situation belongs with a trusted adult, they can gradually take more responsibility.

Parents will need to keep learning too. The tools will change. New risks will emerge. Some current risks may become better understood or better controlled.

The goal isn't to memorize today's list. It's to stay involved enough to keep asking: What is my child using? What role is AI playing? What are they learning from it—and what might it be replacing?

That kind of awareness helps families adapt as both their children and the technology change.

Spark + Stone: Raising future-ready kids

Spark + Stone helps families raise confident, curious, screen-smart kids with the human skills to thrive in an AI-shaped world. Through hands-on books, games, activities, and practical resources, we help kids strengthen critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, independence, and healthy technology habits — in ways that feel useful, joyful, and doable in real life.

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