AI chatbots have become a daily habit for almost three out of 10 US teenagers, and large majorities of users as young as 13 say they’ve used these conversational services at least once, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
Pew finds that 64% of teens have used AI chatbots and 28% do so every day. Its report follows months of headlines about AI chatbots leading underage users to varying level of mental self-harm and, in rare cases, death by suicide. So, it is unlikely to be comforting reading for parents of terminally online teens.
These usage figures were higher for teens aged 15 and up: 68% of them have used AI chatbots and 31% turn to them every day, with the comparable figures for 13- to 14-year-olds at 57% and 24%. Pew also found that Black and Hispanic teens are more likely to use AI chatbots daily (35% and 33%) than White teens (22%).
Online services have traditionally avoided 13-year-olds on account of a 1998 US law requiring much stronger privacy protections for people 13 or younger, even though the resulting fines are usually a microscopic fraction of their profits. But AI providers have struggled as much as any platform in spotting underaged users, even as they have increasingly applied AI to the problem.
In October, OpenAI added parental controls and usage limits for under-18 users, two months after the parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life sued that firm, alleging that ChatGPT offered detailed advice about suicide methods.
Pew found that ChatGPT in a large lead among US teens, with 59% saying they had used it at least once. Google Gemini came in second at 23%, followed by Meta AI at 20%, Microsoft’s Copilot at 14%, Character.ai at 9%, and Anthropic’s Claude at 3%.
Character.ai, which invites people to engage in extended conversations with simulated characters, imposed its own limits on under-18 users after another set of parents sued that firm in response to their 14-year-old son’s death by suicide following lengthy sessions on the service.
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The survey’s data suggest ChatGPT is more popular in upper-income homes, with 62% of teens in households earning $75,000 and up saying they have used it. Conversely, Character.ai drew more use in lower-income abodes, with about 14% of teens in under-$75,000-income households reporting any use of that chatbot.
Pew’s published data doesn’t address how teens used these chatbots, however.
Pew’s study also looked at broader trends in social-media usage. YouTube was far more popular than any other platform, with 92% of teens saying they’d ever used it and 76% calling it a daily destination; TikTok came in second, with 68% reporting any use of it and 61% citing daily use.
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Third place went to Instagram, which 63% of teens have used and 55% use every day. Meta’s Facebook was far less liked: Only 31% of teens reported any use of it, representing the sharpest difference between Pew’s teen usage numbers and the figures it reported for adult social-media practices in November.
The least surprising part of Pew’s report Tuesday—at least for parents reading it—is its breakdown of teen’s online time: 40% said they’re online “almost constantly,” a slight decline from the 46% it reported a year ago, and 55% said they’re online several times a day.
Pew’s data comes from a survey conducted online of 1,458 US teens from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9, whom it recruited via parents who were already part of the KnowledgePanel maintained by the research firm Ipsos.
If you feel yourself in crisis, please turn to a fellow human being instead of a machine’s imitation of one: Call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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