Is ChatGPT Safe For Kids - By The Kids

Dad and son working on computer

AI is literally taking over the whole world by storm. It’s not anything really new actually. A quick google search shows the first AI bot, ELIZA, was created all the way back in 1966. My first encounter with a chat bot was somewhere in 2021 or 2022. I stumbled upon this website somehow, with a bot called Cleverbot. I didn’t know AI was anything besides a fantasy at that time but I was shocked. There was a bot that would talk back and forth with me, asking questions and remembering my answers. Now it was very low level. It would remember like 3 messages then forget everything, but still. It was so cool!

Now we’re in an age where bots have advanced to the point where they’re beginning to take jobs and remove the barriers for people to access information. People are even finding themselves in romantic relationships with these AI chatbots. Whatever your thoughts are so far, I don’t really care. I’m here right now to tell you that this is the world your kids are in. Right now. So, how do you protect them when they have full access to these chat bots?

What’s The Problem With AI

The problem with AI, is that no matter how good willed a company is or how robust their filters are, there’s always a way around chat bots. About a year ago, you wouldn’t be able to ask a chat bot how to make a bomb, but you could totally get it to tell you what steps to not follow, because if you did, you would make a bomb. Nowadays, its a bit harder. But still possible.

So, just one of the problems is that, letting your kids unsupervised with a chat bot is like letting your child run off by themselves with someone random on the street. It could be safe, but it could not be and we have no way of telling the difference unless we’re there. There are plenty of sad stories already involving kids and teenagers doing bad things, meaning you should take action now, before its too late.

What can you do about it?

As we can see with the chat bots, no filter will stop everything and there’s always a way around the walls put up. But there are good steps still to be taken and ways to strengthen the weakest links.

Have a Conversation

This is the most important tip in my opinion. Not have a conversation with the chat bot, but with your child. Fun fact: Most major scams and data leaks are not driven by the weakness of a company’s computer system, but instead, by social engineering. The best way to break into someone’s house isn’t to smash a window, it’s to find out they leave a key under the door mat and that they’re going on holidays for the next month.

So by having an open and ongoing conversation with your child, you’re able to reduce the impact significantly more than any filter will ever be able to. This will involve needing to research yourself and learn about the possible impacts, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. You being involved and in the know about the dangers is almost more important than your kids knowing.

Setup Filters and Parental Controls

Most of the AI apps don’t have parental controls available, so you will need to be careful. Generally, each website will allow you to sign up with your email, and some other details such as, your name and date of birth. Most companies will then take the date of birth and either reject, limit or allow the account. Here is generally how it works:

• 12 and under will be blocked

• 13-17 will be limited

• 18+ will just be allowed.

Te limited access will turn off a lot of the data storing, i.e. using the conversations for future training of the bot and storing “memories” (such as interests and other things you tell the bot) will be disabled.

Here are just some of the most popular chat bots and a basic overview of their parental controls

• ChatGPT have “families” that can be setup, which allow for parental controls over certain features. The child will be able to enable or disable certain features themselves. But, if you turn the setting off from your account, it will not even show as an option for the child account

• Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot allow for screen time restrictions and flat out blocking of the AI if you are logged in to a family together

It’s also important to note that there are still ways around this. Not every chat bot needs a login at all meaning you can still get unrestricted access to these chatbots always.

Monitor Screen Time

This one needs more effort and overall change from your family dynamics, but monitoring screen time will really let you know the whole story of what your kids are doing. Having kids out in open spaces, and checking their history and screen time regularly is invaluable. It is the best way to get the bigger picture and is much more passive for the day to day of keeping them safe.

Just remember, kids are savvy. If there’s any hope of finding a way around parental controls or screen time, its going to be kids who find it. By nature they are the most motivated people to break through these digital systems and will be the most likely to find the bugs and workarounds. So be ready for that, but also rely on other techniques as well.

So What

AI is a scary thing. CEO of Open AI (creators of ChatGPT), Sam Altman, publicly said that he was scared of what was coming in AI. This was in reference to the public release of the version of ChatGPT launched in August of ‘25. So, if you’ve read this article so far and were spooked about the future, sorry to tell you, but the future is yesterday.

This makes it even more important to both protect and educate your kids. AI is going to be around in their work, school and day to day life. So we need to educate them and help them whilst we still can.

DADDING IN ACTION

Have a conversation about AI with your kids. Understand their experience with it and how much they know about it.

Resources

• Aacap.org

• Esafety.gov.au

• Healthychildren.org