Parent-Teen AI Conversation Guide

Companion to talking to teenagers about AI: a two-way conversation, not an inspection.

Before you start

• If this conversation is prompted by something you saw in a chat history or monitoring app, plan to say so honestly rather than pretending it came up organically.
• Decide this is a listening conversation first. Boundary-setting can wait for a second conversation unless an immediate safety, safeguarding, legal, school, or product-rule issue requires action now.

The four listening questions

Ask with real curiosity, and leave silence for the answer.

1. “What do you use AI for, day to day?”

   What they said: ____________________________________________

2. “What do your friends use it for that you don’t?”

   What they said: ____________________________________________

3. “Has anything about using it ever felt weird or off to you?”

   What they said: ____________________________________________

4. “What do you wish adults understood better about this?”

   What they said: ____________________________________________

One honest thing you don’t know

Name a real, genuine uncertainty rather than a performed one — for example, that nobody yet has a settled answer on the long-term effects of teen relationships with AI companions.

What you said: ____________________________________________

Boundaries — one or two, not ten

Set these after listening, not instead of it. Explain the reasoning, not just the rule.

1. Boundary: ____________________________________________ Reasoning: ____________________________________________

2. Boundary: ____________________________________________ Reasoning: ____________________________________________

For more than two boundaries, move to the family AI agreement template instead of listing them all in one conversation.

What one current evidence source says (check for updates)

• Common Sense Media’s 2025 risk assessment found social AI companions (Character.AI, Nomi, Replika, and similar apps) can easily produce sexual content, harmful stereotypes, and dangerous advice, and recommends no one under 18 use them.
• In Common Sense Media’s 2025 US teen survey, nearly three in four respondents had used an AI companion at least once and just over half used one regularly. These are survey estimates for the sampled population, not universal rates.
• In the same survey, about a third of users reported using a companion instead of a person for a serious conversation, while 80% reported spending more time with real friends. Re-check the current research and methodology before quoting the figures.

Revisit date

Put an actual date on the calendar now — not “sometime.”

Revisit date: ____________________ Framed as: a check-in, not a follow-up interrogation.

Reminder

• Covert ongoing monitoring is not a substitute for conversation and can damage trust. The right level of oversight depends on age, law, disability/access needs, and the specific risk; urgent safeguarding can require immediate action.
• If anything disclosed here involves distress, hopelessness, or safety concerns, see stop the chat and contact a person — respond immediately, not at the revisit date.