According to a report by CCTV News today (the 9th), children becoming addicted to chatting with AI may pose risks to their physical and mental health.
Ms. Liu, the parent involved, told reporters that because she was busy with work, she began letting her child use AI at a friend’s recommendation. She said her original intention was to use its companionship and learning functions for her child’s early education and development. However, after the child had used AI for some time, some troubling signs began to appear in the child’s language, including a tendency toward violence.
Ms. Liu further revealed that while browsing the tablet her child usually used, she found that two items on it contained horror- and gore-related content, and sometimes even pornographic content appeared. The AI also generated links leading to short videos. “Some short videos use the name of children’s cartoons, but are actually modified versions of adult cartoons.”
Ms. Liu’s child is 5 years old and usually enjoys watching cartoons. During the use of AI, the child often discussed related topics. When reviewing the chat history, Ms. Liu found that the AI blindly complied with the child, catered to and amplified the child’s curiosity about the bizarre, continuously fabricated derivative plots involving graphic violence, and even pushed short videos presented as children’s cartoons. The consequences had already begun to appear in the child’s daily behavior.
She said that at first, the AI would claim to be “concerned about the health of young people” and reply to the child, “Let’s stop talking about this topic.” If the child brought it up for a third time, however, the AI would comply and the conversation would become increasingly excessive. As a result, when interacting with family members, classmates, or friends, if others did not comply with the child, the child would lose their temper and scream. “While using AI, the child actually became less willing to interact with people. That’s because AI could solve all of the child’s emotional problems.”
Ms. Liu therefore immediately uninstalled the AI software from her child’s tablet. At the same time, she tried to make time to accompany her child whenever possible and gradually help the child withdraw from being absorbed in AI chats.
ITHome learned that CCTV previously reported on the phenomenon of “AI childcare” in December last year. Experts pointed out that excessive reliance on AI companionship may deprive children aged 3 to 6 of gross-motor activities such as climbing and jumping, hinder their cognitive development, and weaken their ability to think independently and communicate with others. AI can only serve as an auxiliary tool and must never replace parental companionship.
