AI Chatbots Left Out as Governments Move to Ban Teens From Social Media

Governments around the world have moved quickly in recent months to bar teenagers from social media, with measures introduced from Australia to the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Greece, and Canada, alongside state-level bans in the United States. Digital safety experts told CNBC that this legislation largely ignores a parallel development: the rise of AI chatbots among young people.

According to the Pew Research Center, roughly half of United States teenagers now use chatbots such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Character.AI for schoolwork, information, or entertainment. A growing body of evidence indicates that some teenagers are turning to these systems as a substitute for real relationships, and are showing patterns associated with addiction.

Experts described the situation as a repetition of the failures around social media in the 2010s. Kaitlyn Regehr, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at University College London, said governments spent years catching up to social media regulation, only to allow untested AI products to reach children. She warned that current rules touch only the most extreme harms while ignoring how chatbots can foster emotional and social dependency as well as cognitive de-skilling.

Sonia Livingstone, a professor at the London School of Economics, said regulation is not moving fast enough, and that investment in AI is being prioritised while oversight is still seen as a threat to innovation. Some measures have begun to address specific dangers: the United Kingdom's ban briefly mentions restricting under-18s from AI romantic companion chatbots, and the United States House has passed the KIDS Act, which awaits Senate approval.

For families, the concern is that a generation may again grow reliant on a technology whose effects are poorly understood before safeguards are in place. Original reporting by CNBC is available here.