64% of Teenagers Say They Use AI Chatbots as Psychological Well being Considerations Mount

Roughly two-thirds of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 say they use AI chatbots, in keeping with a brand new research by Pew Analysis Middle, with three-in-ten saying that they use them each day.

Going even past each day use, 16% of teenagers reported that they use AI chatbots “a number of occasions a day” or “virtually continually.”

ChatGPT was by far probably the most broadly used chatbot, according to the report, with 59% saying they use it. The following mostly used ones have been Google’s Gemini at 23% and Meta AI at 20%. Anthropic’s Claude was the least well-liked chatbot amongst teenagers, with solely 3% of respondents saying that they use it.

The research’s demographic findings have been additionally fascinating. Extra Black and Hispanic teenagers reported utilizing AI chatbots than White teenagers, and ChatGPT use was extra frequent amongst teenagers in higher-income households, whereas lower- and middle-income teenagers have been extra possible to make use of Character.AI.

The findings come as using synthetic intelligence amongst minors has develop into one of the vital controversial subjects plaguing the {industry} this 12 months.

OpenAI has been pushed to implement security guardrails like parental controls and computerized “age-appropriate” settings for minors, following a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this 12 months. Within the lawsuit, a California couple accused ChatGPT of helping the suicide of their 16-year-old son, Adam Raine.

Following Raine’s dying on April 11, 2025, his dad and mom uncovered conversations with ChatGPT going again months, wherein the chatbot suggested him on suicide strategies, helped him write a suicide letter, and even discouraged Raine from letting his dad and mom know of his suicidal ideation.

The Raine household’s tragedy got here months after an identical incident, wherein a Florida mother sued Character.AI after one of many firm’s chatbots informed her 14-year-old son to “come dwelling to me as quickly as potential,” shortly earlier than he killed himself.

The American Psychological Association warned the FTC in regards to the difficulty in a gathering in February, urging the company to deal with using AI chatbots as unlicensed therapists, saying that it significantly endangered weak teams like youngsters and teenagers “who lack the expertise to precisely assess dangers.”

AI chatbots have additionally been underneath intense scrutiny over inappropriate conversations with minors. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri opened a probe into Meta in August over a Reuters report that discovered the tech large had allowed its chatbots to have interaction in “sensual” chats with youngsters.

Sen. Hawley has since launched the GUARD Act in Congress, a bipartisan invoice that might pressure AI corporations to institute age verification to dam minors. The invoice simply secured extra cosponsors on Tuesday, displaying that the difficulty is gaining momentum in D.C., even because the Trump administration has made its intentions clear on the subject of permitting AI corporations to get pleasure from a a lot lighter and extra industry-friendly regulatory atmosphere.

The Pew research additionally seemed into teenagers’ use of social media, with an amazing majority saying that they use social media at the very least a number of occasions a day. In line with the report, about one-in-five teenagers mentioned that they use TikTok and YouTube—the 2 hottest social media apps amongst teenagers—”virtually continually.”

The unfavourable psychological and bodily well being results of spending probably the most adolescence of your life glued to a display have been effectively documented. Particularly concerning social media, quite a few studies have linked elevated utilization to despair, nervousness, consideration deficit, and extra.

Regulators around the globe are more and more taking note of this. As of Wednesday, Australia started enacting a first-of-its-kind social media ban for teenagers underneath the age of 16. Different governments, specifically Denmark, Malaysia, Norway, and the European Parliament, have shared plans to observe go well with.