{"id":569623,"date":"2026-08-15T07:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/569623\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T07:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:38:12","slug":"young-kiwis-talk-about-how-they-use-ai-research-advice-entertainment-harassment-and-blackmail-and-the-support-they-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/569623\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Kiwis talk about how they use AI \u2013 research, advice, entertainment, harassment and blackmail \u2013 and the support they want"},"content":{"rendered":"

One youngster, with the brutal honesty of youth, cautioned: \u201cIf your child is only talking to AI chatbots, they probably don\u2019t have many friends at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

These statements on AI use among young Kiwis emerged as part of the first study looking at Generative AI and young people in New Zealand. <\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the study was a survey of 13 to 24-year-olds living in New Zealand \u2013 although more than 90% of those surveyed were younger than 18.<\/p>\n

\"ArtificialArtificial Intelligence Safety Forum founder Shannon Novak is a co-author of the study, Generative AI and Young People in Aotearoa New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Shannon Novak, director of Artificial Intelligence Safety Forum (AISF) and co-author of the study, was surprised by the level of engagement with the survey \u2013 receiving 1202 responses, after having expected about 400.<\/p>\n

Netsafe CEO Brent Carey said the research shows AI is already embedded in how young people learn, create, solve problems and increasingly seek support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation has moved well beyond whether young people should be using AI. They already are. The challenge now is making sure the adults around them understand the technology well enough to help them use it safely, critically and confidently.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people aren\u2019t asking adults to have all the answers. They\u2019re asking us to be informed enough to have meaningful conversations without fear, judgment or panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study found that many young people wouldn\u2019t turn to adults for help. Barriers included fear of getting in trouble, embarrassment and the belief that adults wouldn\u2019t understand the technology. <\/p>\n

It concluded: \u201cThis combination of unclear rules, unmet needs and fear of judgment may collectively contribute to the overall low confidence in seeking adult support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak told the Herald that AI could be \u201clife-saving\u201d for young people. It was always available and could provide ungated access to critical information in areas such as sexual health, drug interactions and mental health.<\/p>\n

Mental health professionals, overseas and in New Zealand, report an increasing number of their adolescent clients seek mental health support from AI.<\/p>\n

But Novak said it\u2019s a double-edged sword: \u201cWhat is the quality of the information that\u2019s given? The biggest thing is just no accountability for anyone anywhere. A lot of these things are published overseas so they\u2019ve got developers overseas who can just wash their hands of whatever happens on the app.\u201d<\/p>\n

This risk is compounded when young people aren\u2019t comfortable reaching out to adults. However, some of the young people surveyed appear to understand the risks, with one saying: \u201cThe attachment you develop to an LLM [large language module] as it agrees with everything you say to keep you attached. I think this is very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak said another area of concern was the increasing use of AI by students to harass and defame teachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Novak told the Herald this includes fabricated slander videos that mock teachers or falsely accuse them of being a predator and sexually explicit deepfakes, with the latter overlapping with the problem of deepfake nudes at school in general.<\/p>\n

Novak said the \u201ccontent is convincing enough that staff have mentioned students being fooled by deepfakes\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cSchools in New Zealand are struggling because, from what I can gather, most teachers have had no AI training.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s confusion about how the tech works, and how seriously to treat it. And the law isn\u2019t clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak said New Zealand\u2019s response was lagging behind other countries. \u201cIt\u2019s not proactive, it\u2019s reactionary. <\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has a reasonably good model to look at with the eSafety Commission, which would be great if we had an equivalent here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or in the words of another young Kiwi: \u201cYouth using AI is inevitable and should not be stopped. What should be done is guide them down the uncertain path, not to coddle but to prepare them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Knox<\/a> is a scientist turned data-journalist who investigates the stories behind the numbers, and creates interactives for Herald readers to explore them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One youngster, with the brutal honesty of youth, cautioned: \u201cIf your child is only talking to AI chatbots,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1443,1665,365,15408,95,363,364,200334,307,156,280661,1874,228,75013,221,807,6036,111,139,69,9061,1518,19098,34381,383,1886,11227,145,223,2846,8229,6306,3382,4524,14605,4741,108049],"class_list":["post-569623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-about","tag-advice","tag-ai","tag-almost","tag-and","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-blackmail","tag-dont","tag-entertainment","tag-equipped","tag-found","tag-guide","tag-harassment","tag-how","tag-kiwis","tag-know","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-often","tag-research","tag-safe","tag-seems","tag-study","tag-support","tag-talk","tag-technology","tag-the","tag-them","tag-they","tag-use","tag-using","tag-want","tag-whats","tag-young","tag-zealandfirst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}