Surveys find nearly two-thirds of tweens and teens use AI chatbots

Emotional-support chatbot use linked to worse mental health symptoms

Nearly two-thirds of American tweens and teens use AI chatbots, according to two new surveys, and most young users say they turn to the technology for schoolwork as well as for companionship and emotional support. The surveys, conducted by the online safety advocacy group Common Sense Media and the mental health advocacy group JED Foundation, also found that certain chatbot uses were linked with worse mental health symptoms.

Common Sense Media found that AI use begins years before the minimum age of 13 on most popular chatbots. Nearly half of 9-to-12-year-olds have used an AI chatbot or companion, and by the time children are 13, nearly three-quarters have used one.

The JED Foundation survey of 5,500 students ages 9 to 17 in schools across the country found that 90% have used an AI chatbot. Nearly two-thirds said they use the tools both for schoolwork and as companions, or when they are stressed, lonely, anxious or overwhelmed.

The findings are “remarkable” in showing how dramatically AI use by children and teens has changed in a short time, said Anne Maheux, a developmental psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the surveys. “It seems like just a few years ago, no one was using” the technology, she said. “And now it seems like roughly the same number of kids using it for homework are using it to get emotional support or help with coping.”

Teenagers described using the tools for both schoolwork and stress. Arjun Sharda, 15, of Round Rock, Texas, said he uses both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, although he prefers Gemini lately. “I use it to make myself practice sample questions – sample test questions that I will answer with my own work,” he said. “I use it to understand concepts outside of the classroom.”

McKenzie Craig, 17, of Raynham, Mass., said she has used chatbots since eighth grade. “I use it typically if I’m overwhelmed with a bunch of tasks I have,” she said. “I’ll have it help me prioritize the tasks.” She also uses the tools for assignments. “If I write an essay, I’ll run it through either Grammarly or ChatGPT and have it graded, so to speak,” she said. “It gives me feedback, and then I can edit accordingly.”

Sharda said he and his friends also turn to chatbots when they are stressed and anxious. “With tests, for example,” he said, “I was so scared of failing one of my first chemistry tests on conversions and moles that I kept asking ChatGPT ‘Will I be OK? Will my GPA still be fine?’”

The JED Foundation also surveyed students on symptoms of overall well-being and mental health. “We were able to look at how young people are using AI and then how that correlates separately with indicators of well-being, history of suicidal ideation and attempts, and poor mental health,” said Kayla Anderson, a psychologist and vice president of research and evaluation at the JED Foundation. When young people use AI while in emotional distress, they are more likely to report poor mental health and well-being outcomes, Anderson said, and they also report a greater history of suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Anderson cautioned that the data do not suggest a causal link. “It’s unclear, based on these data, whether AI use is contributing to poor mental health and well-being, or whether students who are already in distress in certain ways are more likely to turn to AI,” she said.

Maheux said preliminary data collected by other researchers suggests the link between chatbots and poorer mental health symptoms in young people may go both ways. “So kids who do have worse mental health are seeking out AI to help them,” she said. “But that AI use may be exacerbating those mental health challenges instead of helping.”

In a soon-to-be-published study of middle schoolers in one state, Maheux and her colleagues at UNC found that students who use chatbots for companionship grew lonelier over time. They found similar results in a separate study of young adults. “We see that people who are using AI more for companionship or feeling like they’re overreliant on AI to solve various emotional or cognitive problems, are developing worse mental health over time,” she said.

One potential explanation, Maheux said, is that AI eases people’s emotional distress — loneliness, anxiety, stress — in the immediate moment, but that reliance on the technology is preventing young people from developing the skills to tolerate and navigate normal daily stresses. That, she explained, “can lead to worse mental health.”