Children have endless questions for which they want answers immediately. In the past, those questions used to go to parents or may be their teacher. They have also gone to Google, but now they have a new friend to solve all their queries – AI tools like ChatGPT.

But a recent study has raised a red flag for all parents. Researchers looked into what teens are asking ChatGPT and some of the questions are deeply worrying. Children are not just asking about schoolwork anymore. Children have started asking about self-harm and even illegal activities at times. Yes, ChatGPT does not entertain irrelevant stuff, but it is not perfect. Sometimes, it might respond to queries that are too mature for young children.

How Safe Is ChatGPT for Your Child?

AI is not morally trained. It does not know your child. It can’t sense if your teen is in trouble. It also does not understand your child’s intentions. All it knows is to respond to their queries.

This is why unsupervised access to ChatGPT or any AI tool can be risky. It’s not that these platforms are bad. In fact, they can be an amazing tool for learning and boosting a child’s creativity. But they are not built to be your child’s moral guide, so guidance is mandatory.

For children, ChatGPT is like a friend making them trust it more than they should. For example, if a child asks, “What’s the easiest way to skip school without getting caught?” The AI will respond with an answer without any judgment. Like a parent, AI won’t say this is not good. All this is creating an illusion of ChatGPT being a safe friend for children.

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What Can Parents Do?

Parents can’t watch over every single thing children do online.. And you can’t even wait for things to get worse and then regret.

You can’t apply total parenting control, but here are a few things that can help to guide them with the usage of AI tools.

1.Explain to your children what AI is and how it works. Let them know its limitations

2.If your child uses ChatGPT or other AI tools, set clear rules about when and for what purposes they can be used.

3.Instead of just blocking access, ask them, “What made you want to know that?” You might discover they are dealing with peer pressure and they didn’t know how to voice.

4.Show them how to cross-check AI answers. They should know that AI is not the final verdict. They should check other sources for confirmation.

5.Try to answer all their questions Yes, some might be silly and irrelevant to their age but if you solve their queries, they might not go to AI. And no AI can respond it the way a parent will do.

Our children will grow up in an artificially intelligent world. We can’t stop their interaction with AI, all we do is ensure they use it safely.