{"id":7954,"date":"2025-07-20T08:09:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T08:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7954\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T08:09:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T08:09:04","slug":"almost-75-of-american-teens-have-used-ai-companions-study-finds-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7954\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 75% of American Teens Have Used AI Companions, Study Finds : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three in four American teenagers have used AI companions, with more than half qualifying as regular users despite growing safety concerns<\/a> about these virtual relationships, according to a new survey released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

AI companions \u2013 chatbots designed for personal conversations rather than simple task completion \u2013 are available on platforms like Character.AI, Replika, and Nomi.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional artificial intelligence<\/a> assistants, these systems are programmed to form emotional connections with users. The findings come amid mounting concerns about the mental health risks<\/a> posed by AI companions.<\/p>\n

\"3Front page of the Character.AI website for a user who has entered their age as 17. (C.AI)<\/p>\n

The nationally representative study<\/a> of 1,060 teens aged 13-17, conducted for Common Sense Media, found that 72 percent have used AI companions at least once, while 52 percent interact with such platforms a few times per month.<\/p>\n

Common Sense Media is a leading American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.<\/p>\n

The survey revealed that 30 percent of respondents use the platforms because “it’s entertaining” and 28 percent are driven by curiosity about the technology.<\/p>\n

However, concerning patterns emerged: one-third of users have chosen to discuss serious matters with AI companions instead of real people, while 24 percent have shared personal information including real names and locations.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most troubling, 34 percent of teen users reported feeling uncomfortable with something an AI companion had said or done, though such incidents were infrequent.<\/p>\n

“The reality that nearly three-quarters of teens have used these platforms, with half doing so regularly, means that even a small percentage experiencing harm translates to significant numbers of vulnerable young people at risk,” the report said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The survey revealed an age divide in trust levels.<\/p>\n

While half of all teens expressed distrust in AI companion advice, younger teens (ages 13-14) were more likely than older teens (15-17) to trust advice from these systems.<\/p>\n

\"Pie(Common Sense Media Report<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Despite widespread usage, most teens maintained perspective on these relationships: two thirds found AI conversations less satisfying than human interactions, and 80 percent spent more time with real friends than AI companions.<\/p>\n

Based on the findings, Common Sense Media recommended that no one under 18 use AI companions until stronger safeguards are implemented.<\/p>\n

“Companies have put profits before kids’ well-being before, and we cannot make the same mistake with AI companions,” the report said.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly three in four American teenagers have used AI companions, with more than half qualifying as regular users…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-7954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}