How old do you have to be to start using? Artificial intelligence chatbot? In some families, kindergarten-age children are already interacting with their peers ChatGPT and twin.
That’s according to A A new poll from the Pew Research Centerwhich indicates that 3% of parents who responded said that their children aged 5 to 7 years used a chatbot. That jumps to 7% for parents with children aged 8 to 10, and to 15% for those aged 11 to 12.
About 40% of parents said their children aged 12 or younger use voice assistants like Alexa and Siri.
These findings came from a survey of more than 3,000 American parents that looked broadly at how they manage their children’s screen time. While average AI chatbot use was about 8%, or roughly 1 in 10 kids, there were much higher numbers for screen use in that age group, including 90% for TV, 68% for tablets, and 61% for smartphones.
Many parents are finding it difficult to keep up, with 42% saying they could manage their children’s screen time better, and 58% saying they are doing their best.
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The use of artificial intelligence by children and teenagers has caused concern for many people. In August, OpenAI Added parental controls to ChatGPT after a family filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that the chatbot was a factor in their 16-year-old son’s suicide. Some countries have it too Issue warnings to AI companies About technology that may be harmful to children.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Tips for parents about chatbots
Parents appear to be navigating uncharted waters with chatbots in the same way that previous generations of parents dealt with the advent of the web, the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, child-oriented online gaming and social media.
One of the experts – Titania Jordan, Chief Parent Officer at Barking techniqueswhich makes software to help parents monitor app usage –Books on the topic of parenting and chatbots. Jordan believes that parents need to get educated before they can guide their children through chatbots.
“Parents should learn everything they can about artificial intelligence, chatbots, and companions so they can talk to their children about the potential risks they pose,” Jordan says. “Otherwise, kids will learn about it from friends and peers.”
While chatbots may be useful for helping with schoolwork or creating and designing projects, Jordan warns that “kids are forming relationships with AI-created characters, which is concerning.”
She advises parents to ensure that children who have access to chatbots understand that they are not a substitute for human interaction and that not everything chatbots say should be believed.
“Show them cases where other children have been harmed or misled by AI so they know what the real risks are out there,” Jordan suggests.
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