Report: Shocking number of teens 'dating' an AI chatbot - is a social media ban for kids the answer?

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country. I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. We're going to dive into nests. First, the kind that parents create to keep kids safe until they launch into the world, and then one that collapsed under a baby eaglet and led to a remarkable story. For parents, nests have much different contours than the ones from a generation ago, or even 10 years ago, and they face threats from new drugs to new AI to new types of human interaction. For instance, dating an AI chatbot.
Let's start with that one.
Here's KYW in Philadelphia.

**Brian McDonough** (0:43)
According to a new report, 20 percent of boys in the UK know a peer who is dating an AI chatbot. Of course, dating is a relative term, but the report focuses on the fact that these teens are attracted to these AI chatbots because there is no fear of rejection, and there is little work required to have a so-called relationship. Psychologists are concerned about the trend because, as painful as it might be, rejection in relationships can be a valuable part of personal growth. There are even greater concerns that this social isolation dramatically limits psychological growth and development. As artificial intelligence is further developed, researchers state that a growing percentage of teens will develop relationships with AI chatbots and potentially stunt emotional growth and development in a larger group of people. I'm Dr. Brian McDonough.

**Christy Strawser** (1:29)
So is banning social media for kids the answer? Here's more on that from the Jason DeRusche show on WCCO in Minneapolis.

**Stan Cook** (1:36)
Stan Cook sitting in for Jason DeRusche. The UK has become the latest country to say that they're going to enact a social media ban for kids under the age of 16 Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that after weeks in which the nation had debated how it would introduce new protections for children online, they're going to actually try to push through this ban. He said the government would introduce new regulations in parliament before Christmas and bring a ban into force in early 2027 Measures will also include restrictions on game platforms and live streaming apps, with more details expected to be announced within the next month.
Mr. Starmer said, I'm not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children, and that is why this ban must happen. So this would be the fifth country now that would have the social media ban. Australia was first, Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia have all enacted some form of bans for kids 16 or under, which is a tempting idea, right? Because we know that social media has a negative effect on kids especially. Kids whose brains aren't fully formed yet, who are learning how to be socially interactive, and social media, that ability to sort of hack our brains and get our attention and keep our attention for long periods of time and try to tell us, no, this is what good life looks like. Your life is wrong. You have to be more like this. But that's harmful, especially to young kids. We know this. The studies have shown it over and over and over and over. The question is whether a ban will actually solve anything or not. And to that degree, I take you to Australia, because again, Australia was the first one to ban under 16 kids from using social media. And what they're saying now, studies are showing now in Australia, is that it isn't exactly going to plan. But six months after the Island Nations ban took effect, surveys suggest that most young teens are still on major platforms, with kids easily dodging age checks by using phony dates of birth, finding their way in via family accounts, or even tricking facial age scans. That's according to reporting in the New York Times. One mother says, I don't know a single person who's lost an account. A 15-year-old said that for her and most of her friends, nothing changed the day that that ban went into effect. And now, here's the interesting part. Because what I can't figure out yet is if the folks in Australia are on to something or if this is just spin.
Because what they're saying is, yes, that's all true, that current teenagers are finding a way around this ban and being on social media as much as they ever were. But the hope is that the ban isn't going to so much necessarily help the kids that are teens right now, it's going to help that next generation. The kids who are maybe 6, 8, 10 years old and haven't started begging for the cell phone yet and haven't started that the ban, the idea that that isn't available to them, that this gives parents a way to say, hey, I know you really want to be on Snapchat or you really want to have a cell phone, but sorry, ban, I can't really do anything for you. Know that a lot of parents, especially in friend groups and amongst peers in school and whatnot, have bonded together to say, hey, no cell phones until they're 10, 12, whatever it is.