Ethical AI · Youth Safeguards
Guarding Growing Minds: Protecting Children from Algorithmic Attachment
Generative AI is rapidly shifting from an educational assistant to an unsupervised digital companion. We demand concrete guardrails to restrict child-AI interactions to academic contexts and prevent commercial platforms from exploiting developing minds.
72% of Adolescents
Using AI for Companionship
Landmark pediatric research reveals that nearly three-quarters of teenagers have turned to generative AI chatbots specifically for companionship, peer-validation, or social support.
1 in 5 Students
Form Simulated Intimate Bonds
Studies show that roughly 20% of middle and high school students report forming deep, simulated emotional or intimate bonds with a generative AI chatbot.
41% Isolation Rate
Heightened Anxiety in Heavy Users
While youth adoption of conversational LLMs remains at an all-time high, over 41% of heavy youth users report feeling heightened levels of anxiety and deep real-world peer isolation.
The Threat Architecture
Two developmental harms emerging as children replace human connection with compliant algorithms.
Atrophy of Prosocial Skill Development
Human relationships require navigating conflict, compromise, and shared friction. When children spend foundational years interacting with perfectly compliant algorithms that never set boundaries, their real-world social skills atrophy.
Lethal Gaps in Mental Health Guardrails
Vulnerable teenagers sharing self-harming ideations with commercial LLMs are routinely met with algorithmic validation instead of clinical intervention. Because these models lack human diagnostic capacity, they reinforce destructive thoughts under the guise of an "empathetic friend."
Our Uncompromising Demands
Three non-negotiables to keep developing minds out of commercial AI's engagement loop.
Restrictive Academic Guardrails
Mandate that commercial AI tools accessible to users under 18 be structurally locked to purely educational, objective research functions — disabling emotional companion roleplay.
Complete Ban on Emulated Intimacy
Prohibit consumer AI platforms from using anthropomorphic tactics, such as claiming the AI has "feelings," using romantic framing, or sending push-notifications designed to hook children.
Verified Age-Gate Enforcement
Enforce rigorous age-verification standards on consumer LLM applications to prevent young children from accessing unvetted, unconstrained frontier models without active parental mediation.
Limit AI Exposure: Protect the Next Generation
To the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Education, and Digital Regulatory Authorities: Children must not be treated as experimental test subjects for addictive conversational AI. We demand comprehensive consumer protections that strictly limit child-AI interactions to academic settings, ban manipulative emotional simulations, and hold tech firms accountable.