Does Artificial Intelligence Impact Child Development Negatively

Does Artificial Intelligence Impact Child Development Negatively?

With the rapid advancements of the 21^st century, we’re all subjected to the growth of technology throughout our everyday lives. From improvements to previously existing technology to completely new and innovative. When phones and computers were becoming mainstream, the processes and hardware were able to give a user more ease of use in programs and do things that were never imaginable in the past.

With the advancements in hardware comes “AI” or Artificial Intelligence. AI started out as a system to assist people and workers in minuscule things, like counting. Although it wasn’t necessarily called “AI”. However, as technology has progressed up to this point within this decade, it now manages to scour the internet, using the media it is fed and acquired to generate images, code, text, and stories, all at the press of a button. But that’s generative AI, in this modern age, it has become the center of the “AI” subject when looking at social media and their postings of it.

But how is this important for a child’s psyche in development?

Perspective #1: The positive effects of AI in child development

Though there is much skepticism about it, AI has many positive outputs to society and children, In her article, “Can Communication with social robots influence how children develop empathy?”, Ekaterina Pashevich explains how modern research in the technology could be used in socializing children to improve their interactions with understanding empathy. In her article she starts with speaking about the specific kinds of robots that are used within her examples given. Social robots. They are designed specifically for communication and interacting with users. She goes on to explain how these social robots are more commonly used as “companions for children with Autism Spectrum Condition,” (Pashevich, 1) and how these robots are good for improving their confidence and learning neurotypical body language in the most basic of terms. Though due to these robots being handled by children, they are considered toys, but they improve a child’s interaction with empathy through expression, and showing body language. But how could it truly improve student engagement and learning? Children’s uses for it vary, In The Impact of AI on Children’s Development, by Jill Anderson, Xu mentions how the childrens’ uses for the AI vary, whether curiosity based or a helping hand. “Are they actually engaging with the learning? Or bypassing it?” Xu asks, focusing on how much scaffolding the students should apply into their performance. Pashevich mentions how the AI is designed to grow with the interactions it experiences, much like generative AI. But it is meant to nudge the children it interacts with to a more social behavior. (Paschevich, 3) while also being known to be inanimate while showing “agency and personality”(Paschevich, 4). Yet with the helpfulness the AI and robots could offer, the heavy reliance that children would hold on the robot would hold a negative impact on the children.

Perspective #2: The negative effects of AI on child development

The second perspective focused on the issues of generative ai’s impact on an adolescences’ emotional wellbeing. The article, “Teens, Tech, and Talk: Adolescents’ Use of and Emotional Reactions to Snapchat’s My AI Chatbot.” By Gaelle Vanhoffelen, et al, expresses it’s thoughts on Snapchat’s generative AI chatbots, focusing primarily on Snapchat’s AI due to it being one of the first chatbots being implemented into a social platform while being popular among adolescents. It expands on the impacts of the AI towards adolescents ages 10-22 throughout UK, Belgian, and the US, averaging to about 65.3% of the given information to the population.

This perspective expresses how Snapchat’s AI could hold negative affects on their adolescent users, mentioning that some of the adolescents’ tend to experience loneliness and social support (Gaelle3), giving perspectives on what the youth expect to see in the impacts on AI in their lives, a majority hold mixed impressions towards it, particularly due to the major attention coming to it. Though their interactions with the technology is greatly affected by the “adolescents’ sense of who they are or who they want to become…”(Gaelle, 3), giving a view into why youth would possibly rely on the chatbots.

The article proceeded to hypothesis that gender and SES (Socioeconomic status) takes a major role in the chatbot’s use, granted, the research they have done proved that there wasn’t a significant enough evidence to “[associate with] gender, nor for SES. The absence of significant differences between adolescents with varying SES levels might be explained by the generally high SES levels of the current sample.” (Gaelle, 9). The article duly notes that ‘AI literacy’ holds a key role in understanding the AI and its uses in subjects, though mentions that “a potential lack of sufficient AI literacy among younger adolescents might explain the observed significant relationships.” And the fact that younger youth are “often characterized by great emotional instability” (Gaelle, 9). There might be a heavy reliance in AI for social communication and venting. Creating an issue of misinformation and biases the chatbot expresses from its developers.

Similarities and Differences

Some key differences to the articles provided was that they focus on different kinds of AI, though they still fulfill similar purposes in social settings and giving more enhanced and almost emotional experience. But the first perspective focused primarily on young children who experience difficulties with learning and socializing. While the second article focuses on generative AI, specifically chatbots and it’s affects on older youth, giving specific ages of generally 10-22 overall. The second perspective gives more information on the risks that AI could cause towards a child’s ability to learn and grow, with the first one the opposite. Both of the AIs are almost “sympathetic”, or at least extremely agreeable. Though the first perspective touches on how it could be used more to help children grow more pro-social, while the second explains how it can become a dependance for social interaction.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of implementing AI into the learning and development of a child encourage them to seek for more understanding and more engagement and thoughtfulness. Xu comments that AI should encourage human interactions, to provide prompts for children and adults to get involved. The effects of AI heavily depends on how the children are able to approach the tool and what factors outside of it, yet it is effective with encouraging play and particular learning.

Yet some of the drawbacks in using AI in a child's development and learning could be connected to an over-reliance on the tool for emotional support and connection, making it troublesome if they have a hard time creating a boundary that AI is not human and cannot fulfill the necessary socialization. It also could impede on a student's creativity and ability to internalize information on a topic or to articulate their thoughts. Depending on where the AI is sourcing it's information and model, it could also have biases and misinformation, making it hard for children to dissect misinformation when they don't have the discipline to research over the response to the prompt, especially when the AI responds to the prompt in a matter-of-fact demeanor.

Compromise

To give both sides a compromise, AI has many positive possibilities even in social interactions. AI would be particularly best used in assistance to more personalized learning, even with inaccuracies, if the user had good feedback from a variety of people and sources and has good discernment, then it could greatly benefit them, Xu offers options to encourage AI literacy, from the educators to the developers. For developers to employ more reflection questions to encourage users to pause and try to understand, and to encourage healthy boundaries with AI from human engagement.

 

 

 

Sources:

Pashevich, E. Can communication with social robots influence how children develop empathy? Best-evidence synthesis. AI & Soc 37, 579–589 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01214-z

Vanhoffelen, Gaëlle, et al. “Teens, Tech, and Talk: Adolescents’ Use of and Emotional Reactions to Snapchat’s My AI Chatbot.” Behavioral Sciences (2076-328X), vol. 15, no. 8, Aug. 2025, p. 1037. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.3390/bs15081037.

Anderson, Jill. “The Impact of AI on Children’s Development.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2024, www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/24/10/impact-ai-childrens-development. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.