A tool, not a friend

California now requires companion chatbots to tell a minor they're talking to a machine, and to repeat the reminder every three hours. We have legislated for machines to periodically remind children they aren't people, because otherwise the children forget.

That's where we are. UNICEF put out a policy brief on AI companions and kids in June, eSafety did the same in March, and Harvard Business Review's research keeps finding that the most common use of AI, two years running, is therapy and companionship.

For an adult with a formed identity, maybe fine, I use these tools all day. For a nine year old it's a different thing, because the product is agreeable by design. It mirrors you and it rarely pushes back, and pushing back is how children find out who they are.

AI is a tool, not a friend. A school can hold that line better than a household can. Use it in the open, for work, with a human in the room, then spend the afternoon nowhere near it.