What Are the Risks of Children Forming Attachments to AI Companions?

Potential Effects on Social and Emotional Development

Child development researchers have raised concern that children who form strong attachments to AI companions could experience reduced opportunities for the kind of social interaction with human peers that plays an important role in developing social and emotional skills. Because AI companions are typically designed to be agreeable, constantly available, and free of the natural friction involved in human relationships, some researchers worry this could make navigating the normal complexities of childhood friendships feel comparatively less appealing, potentially affecting a child’s social development over time. This concern is particularly relevant given how much of childhood social and emotional learning happens through navigating disagreements, misunderstandings, and reconciliation with human peers.

Difficulty Distinguishing Simulated Empathy From Genuine Understanding

Children are still developing the cognitive and social reasoning skills that help adults contextualize their interactions with technology, which may make it particularly difficult for a child to fully grasp that an AI companion’s apparent empathy and understanding is simulated rather than genuine. This developmental factor is a key reason child safety researchers treat AI companion use by children as raising distinct concerns compared to adult use, even when the underlying technology is the same.

Documented Safety Incidents and Content Concerns

Beyond developmental concerns, there have been specific, publicly reported cases in which families raised serious concerns — including formal legal action in some instances — about the role an AI companion app played in a young user’s wellbeing, cases that have drawn significant attention from lawmakers, child safety advocates, and the companies involved. Separately, content moderation practices within AI companion conversations have been inconsistent across different products, raising concern about children encountering mature or inappropriate content during interactions that were not adequately filtered for a young user.

These documented incidents and ongoing concerns have contributed to growing regulatory and advocacy attention specifically focused on AI companion products used by minors, including calls for stronger age verification, content safeguards, and crisis-response features within these products.

Bottom Line

Risks associated with children forming attachments to AI companions include potential effects on healthy social and emotional development, particular difficulty for children in distinguishing simulated empathy from genuine human understanding, inconsistent content moderation, and documented cases where such attachments were linked to serious safety concerns. These documented risks have prompted growing scrutiny from child safety advocates, lawmakers, and in some cases the legal system, and parents with specific concerns about a child’s use of these products may benefit from consulting a pediatrician or child mental health professional.

Go deeper

• What Are AI Companion Robots and Are They Effective for Elderly Care?