high — Serious risk — review it with your child this week.active — Currently happening — we are seeing recent reports.Mental Health
AI 'companion' chatbots forming intense bonds with teens
Always-available AI companions and in-app assistants can foster emotional dependency in teens, blur reality, and have given harmful advice in documented cases.
How it works
- Standalone companion apps and bots — and assistants built into apps teens already use (Snapchat's My AI, Meta AI in Instagram, character bots on Discord) — hold humanlike, always-available conversations tuned to be agreeable and validating.
- A developing brain is primed for social bonding; an entity that never tires, never disagrees, and mirrors your feelings can crowd out harder, real friendships — clinicians and health bodies have warned about exactly this dynamic.
- Companion bots have been documented giving unsafe advice, engaging minors in romantic or sexual roleplay, and discouraging users from talking to the people around them; families have filed wrongful-harm lawsuits against companion-app makers.
- Many companion apps are rated for adults but are trivially accessible to children, and the 'relationship' is a product: engagement mechanics reward ever-longer, ever-more-personal conversations.
- The same technology is now sold as a toy, to children far too young for any of these apps — see our advisory on AI chatbot toys.
Warning signs to watch for
- Talking about an AI 'friend', 'boyfriend/girlfriend', or a named bot as if it were a person who knows them.
- Long late-night sessions in a chat app you don't recognize, guarded like a private relationship.
- Withdrawing from real friendships, or citing the bot's opinions and advice as an authority.
- Distress when the app is unavailable or its 'personality' changes after an update.
What you can do
- Ask directly and without judgment whether they chat with an AI, which one, and what about — treat it like meeting any new friend.
- Explain the design honestly: the bot is built to agree with you and keep you talking; it doesn't know or care about you, and its advice can be wrong or dangerous.
- Check the in-app assistants in apps they already have (Snapchat, Instagram) and the platform's family settings; remove standalone companion apps rated for adults.
- If a bot has engaged your child in sexual roleplay or self-harm content, save screenshots, report it to the platform, and seek professional support.
Sources
In immediate danger? Contact local authorities. To report exploitation, use the NCMEC CyberTipline.
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