The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Parents
A company called Wakefield Research surveyed 1,000 girls ages 5–13, and 1,000 parents of girls ages 5–13 (all based in the United States). As it turns out, young girls aren’t as skeptical of AI as their parents. In fact, the situation is quite the opposite: Of the girls who use voice-activated AI-powered devices (like Alexa or Siri), 65% of girls consider them friends.
Some girls are even coming to rely on AI tools to manage their emotions, a task usually reserved for supportive adults in their lives or real-life friends. In fact, 51% of girls 11-13 reported that they have asked an AI program for help “when they felt sad, anxious, or lonely.”
While 81% of parents reported that they think AI is “helpful,” 54% said that they are uncomfortable with it “providing mental health guidance to children.”
Regardless of how adults feel about it, however, these AI tools have earned a place in the everyday routine of some girls. Another 51% of respondents report that they use AI at least once a day. It might be that parents need to do a better job of checking in with their kids about their use of phones and other devices, because only 32% of them acknowledged that their daughter uses AI that often.
Kids clearly aren’t going to stop using AI, and parents don’t seem to want to ban it from their households either. So how can families strike a happy medium? Continue to communicate and check in with your kids about how often they use AI, what they use it for, and how they feel about its place in their lives. Make sure both you and your kids know how to spot misinformation and AI-generated content.
Source: Parents
https://www.parents.com/new-data-shows-some-girls-are-turning-to-ai-as-a-friend-11974723