AI Risks for Children
Understanding the risks that AI chatbots, image generators, and AI-powered features pose to children, and how to guide safe use.
What is this?
AI tools — including chatbots, image generators, and AI-powered features in apps — are becoming widely accessible to children. While they offer creative and educational benefits, they also present risks such as exposure to inaccurate information, manipulation, deepfake imagery, and inappropriate content generated on demand.
How it works
AI chatbots can produce convincing but false information, and children may accept it as fact. Image generators can create realistic fake images, including of real people. Some AI tools have been used to generate non-consensual intimate imagery. Children may also develop unhealthy emotional attachments to AI companions or share sensitive personal information with chatbots, not realising the data may be stored and used.
Warning signs
In your child's behaviour
- • Treating an AI chatbot as a confidant or emotional support in place of real relationships
- • Citing information confidently that turns out to be fabricated or inaccurate
- • Using AI image generators to create images of real people without their consent
On their device
- • AI chatbot apps or browser bookmarks for AI tools not discussed with a parent
- • Generated images saved on the device that involve real people or inappropriate content
- • Extended conversation histories with AI chatbots containing personal or sensitive information
Prevention steps
Discuss how AI works
Help your child understand that AI generates responses based on patterns, not understanding. It can sound confident while being completely wrong, and it does not have their best interests at heart.
Set boundaries around AI tool use
Agree which AI tools are acceptable and for what purposes. Explain that personal information should never be shared with AI chatbots, and that AI-generated images of real people are not acceptable.
Encourage critical thinking
Teach your child to fact-check AI outputs, question what they read, and understand that AI-generated content — text, images, and video — is not always truthful or ethical.
What to do if it happens
- 1If your child has shared personal information with an AI tool, review the platform's data deletion options and change any compromised passwords.
- 2If AI-generated imagery of a real person is involved, report it to the platform and, if it is sexual in nature, to the police and IWF.
- 3Use the situation to have a constructive conversation about responsible AI use and digital literacy.
Related topics
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.
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Last reviewed: 2025-06-15