Parents Curb Children's Social Media and AI Use as Safety Fears Spread to Under-16s
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 12
Parents Curb Children's Social Media and AI Use as Safety Fears Spread to Under-16s
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 12
Summary
Parents responding to a Guardian call said they are increasingly blocking children from social media and, in many cases, steering them away from AI chatbots as well.
Meta and OpenAI face pressure from lawsuits, addiction claims and warnings from AI workers that companies are racing to compete before making products safe enough for young users.
Several parents said schools are introducing devices and AI tools with little parental choice, leaving families to police screen time, verify AI outputs and manage children’s workarounds at home.
The backlash is widening beyond individual households, with some parents citing under-16 social media limits abroad and joining collective efforts such as Smartphone Free Childhood to delay phones and platforms.
If tech giants are paying billions for harming kids, what hidden dangers lurk in the new AI tools suddenly pushed into our schools?
While parents fight to ban smartphones, are their own digital sharing habits secretly exposing their children to the exact same online predators?
Could laws designed to protect children from addictive algorithms secretly build massive surveillance databases tracking their every private conversation?