01
TEEN USE IS ALREADY MAINSTREAM
Common Sense Media's 2025 nationally representative survey of 1,060 U.S. teens found 72% had used AI companions at least once and 52% used them regularly. Not a distant hypothetical about future kids. This is now.
FIELD GUIDE · KIDS, FRIENDSHIP & MACHINES
SHOULD CHILDREN HAVE AI FRIENDS?
The friend never sleeps, never judges, never gets bored — and it's a product. New enough that nobody gets to pretend they know the ending.
UPDATED 2026-10-12
TL;DR
THE STORY SO FAR
02
THE FTC IS ASKING COMPANION MAKERS ABOUT CHILD SAFETY
In September 2025 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened an inquiry into seven companies providing consumer AI chatbots, asking how they test and mitigate possible harms to children and teens. Regulators are treating the relationship layer as its own consumer-safety problem.
03
PSYCHOLOGISTS WANT GUARDRAILS, NOT JUST A BAN
The American Psychological Association's 2025 advisory described both opportunities and risks, while emphasizing adolescent vulnerability to manipulation, over-trust, privacy loss, and erosion of real-world relationships. The serious position is messier than 'AI good' or 'AI bad.'
04
REAL HUMAN CONNECTION REMAINS THE BASELINE
APA guidance in 2026 emphasized that teens may turn to chatbots because they feel private and nonjudgmental, while warning that chatbots are not substitutes for parents, peers, or professional crisis support. The comparison isn't chatbot versus nothing.
MOST TEENS ARE ALREADY IN
THE 72%. THE 52%.
KEEP READING
NEXT FIELD GUIDE →CAN A MACHINE FEEL?Chatbots talk like they're alive. Nobody's got a consciousness meter. The fight is over code, biology, and whether experience can run on silicon.MORE QUESTIONS
- WHY DOES PETER THIEL FEAR THE ANTICHRIST?
A billionaire who builds surveillance software fears a world government promising protection. Douthat pressed him in 2025. Then came the secret lectures, the pope, the AI safetyists — and an Iran-war break with Trump.
- DID THE FUTURE STOP IN 1970?
Peter Thiel made his fortune on the internet and keeps insisting the internet was not enough. Flying cars, Mars, AI, longevity and the meaning of progress — the other half of his worldview.
- IS THE U.S.-CHINA AI RACE MAKING ANYONE SAFER?
Washington is trying to choke off China's AI — chip bans, blacklists, and now Taiwan making smuggling a crime. Beijing just returned the favor, locking down its own AI exports. Meanwhile the models keep getting cheaper, better, and closer together. A field guide to the argument over whether the race protects anyone, or just speeds everything up.
SHOW YOUR WORK
SOURCES
The panic is easy. The evidence is newer, messier, and more useful.
- TEEN USE IS ALREADY MAINSTREAMTalk, Trust, and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI CompanionsCommon Sense Media
- THE FTC IS ASKING COMPANION MAKERS ABOUT CHILD SAFETYFTC Launches Inquiry into AI Chatbots Acting as CompanionsFederal Trade Commission
- PSYCHOLOGISTS WANT GUARDRAILS, NOT JUST A BANAPA calls for guardrails, education, to protect adolescent AI usersAmerican Psychological Association
- REAL HUMAN CONNECTION REMAINS THE BASELINEYour teen turned to AI instead of you. What experts say parents can doAmerican Psychological Association