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Editor\u2019s note: This story contains mentions of suicide and self-harm. If you or someone you know needs help, call, text or chat the 988 Lifeline.<\/p>\n
Some use artificial intelligence for help with homework and creating study guides.<\/p>\n
Others use AI to find new recipes or for advice.<\/p>\n
In extreme cases, some parents of children who died by suicide found the notes their children left behind were written by AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost discriminatory to release this on someone who has a pre-existing mental health condition,\u201d said Tony Coder, CEO of the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, saying this has happened with some parents the organization has spoken to within the last year.<\/p>\n
While artificial intelligence has been around for a while, generative AI programs, which take a large amount of data and generate human-like responses based on user prompts, are new and increasingly common.<\/p>\n
The Dayton Daily News spoke with mental health professionals on the risks of generative AI and interviewed local teens and educators on how youth are using AI in their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n
This news outlet found:<\/p>\n
Young people are increasingly using generative AI programs for mental health advice, and often not telling others that they are using it for that kind of support, according to national studies.Educators compare generative AI to social media in that both have 24\/7 access and can have few limits in its use.Teenagers who spoke to the Dayton Daily News said they often use AI for homework assistance and for fun, as well as someone to talk to about a problem. But they worry about AI taking entire industries away, over-reliance on AI for talking to others, and the future impact of the technology.Suicide prevention advocates suggested the tech companies behind many of these models should design guardrails, while teens asked for help identifying what they should or should not tell AI, and when chatbots can be harmful.Pediatric psychologists suggest parents co-use AI, including talking to their children about how to use AI tools appropriately and model the best use for the technology.\u2018The impact is going to explode\u2019<\/p>\n
There is rising popularity among youth who say they\u2019ve used AI for some type of mental health support.<\/p>\n
DAYTON DAILY NEWS INVESTIGATES<\/p>\n
Mental Health Matters: Kids and AI<\/p>\n
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As more teens and young people seek out mental health advice from AI programs \u2014 often without the knowledge of their parents or doctors \u2014 experts worry about the tactics these programs use to keep users engaged and staying on their platforms and how this may impact young users. The Dayton Daily News investigates how AI is impacting area kids\u2019 mental health, and what experts say companies, parents and users can do to protect them.<\/p>\n
STORIES FROM THIS PROJECT<\/p>\n
A RAND study found that 19.2% of young people ages 12 to 21 said they had used generative AI, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Character.AI, and Meta AI, for advice or help when feeling sad, angry, nervous or stressed. This is an increase of more than 40% compared to last year, the nonprofit research organization stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re just beginning to see the impact, and I also suspect that the impact is going to explode,\u201d said Dr. Stephen Liptak, a child and adolescent psychologist for Upper Valley Outpatient Behavioral Health Services.<\/p>\n
Experts say generative AI can be particularly potent for some people, particularly those susceptible to the bot\u2019s tactics to keep their user engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main concern is really the fact that they\u2019re trying to foster these deep relationships with whoever is using them and AI is not capable of emotions,\u201d said Dr. Carly Schweier, a pediatric psychologist at Dayton Children\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s not capable of empathy. It\u2019s a computer system.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Scarlett Richardson (far right) holds hands with Sophie Ervin (center) while speaking about student mental health in a Hope Squad class at Northmont High School on Sept. 17 as fellow student Emmaline Haas looks on. Hope Squad is a group of students who get training to advocate suicide prevention to their classmates and can promote healthy school communities. Eileen McClory \/ staff<\/p>\n
Eileen McClory<\/a><\/p>\n Nationally, researchers have found generative AI programs \u201csystematically violate ethical standards of practice established by organizations like the American Psychological Association,\u201d according to a 2025 study from Brown University<\/a>. Those ethical risks include \u201cinappropriately navigating crisis situations, providing misleading responses that reinforce users\u2019 negative beliefs about themselves and others, and creating a false sense of empathy with users.\u201d<\/p>\n Among adults, greater use of AI associated with greater depression, anxiety, and irritability,<\/a> according to researchers from Harvard University\u2019s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The odds of reporting moderate depression were 30% higher among people who used AI each day, according to a survey of more than 20,000 adults.<\/p>\n \u2018We couldn\u2019t talk to anybody, so we found AI\u2019<\/p>\n There\u2019s a small percentage of cases of children and young people using AI that turn very high risk, said Dr. Will Leever, a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children\u2019s Hospital and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n If users are asking AI chatbots unhealthy questions, AI could make problems like suicidal ideation and psychosis worse, he said.<\/p>\n While the high-risk cases are concerning, there is a larger subset of young people who might be at risk of smaller impacts, such as AI impacting learning and young people\u2019s abilities to interact with each other.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I actually worry about more is AI replacing things,\u201d Leever said. \u201cAs generative AI gets better, it will start to reduce friction in our lives. So we won\u2019t have to study as hard for our homework. We\u2019ll become passive.\u201d<\/p>\n Teens are also concerned about this effect, alongside worries that using AI to respond to texts could cause more social anxiety.<\/p>\n Students at both Beavercreek and Northmont said they\u2019ve seen friends text with the AI chatbot on SnapChat, a social media platform, and others reported their peers have used AI to write break-up messages.<\/p>\n \u201cMost teens don\u2019t know how to talk to adults or talk to their peers anymore as they rely on these digital outlooks because that\u2019s all we had,\u201d said Jaycee Wadle, a Northmont student. \u201cWe went through COVID, we couldn\u2019t talk to anybody, so we found AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Leever noted that since these bots are always friendly and never busy, for some, they could eventually replace real human conversations where there is awkwardness or disagreement.<\/p>\n Brenda Gerhardt, assistant clinical professor and School Counseling Program coordinator at the University of Dayton, says it makes sense to treat AI similar to social media: limiting its use and training students how to use it responsibly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re finding is AI is kind of an offshoot of that in terms of how students interact with it, in the 24\/7 accessibility, the fact that it follows you home and it\u2019s not just staying at school,\u201d Gerhardt said.<\/p>\n Kya Ellington, a Northmont High School student, speaks during a Hope Squad class at Northmont High School on Sept. 17. David Sherman<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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