Young people embrace AI companions with remarkable enthusiasm, creating virtual family members and emotional connections at rates that surprise researchers.
Key Takeaways
- Children’s AI searches doubled from 3.19% to 7.5% between 2023-2024, with 68% describing their AI interactions as exciting rather than merely entertaining.
- Character.AI and ChatGPT dominate as preferred platforms for creating virtual family members, allowing users to design detailed personalities and maintain ongoing relationships with AI children and partners.
- Usage varies dramatically by age, with 8-year-olds showing 14% adoption rates while 12-year-olds reach 26%, indicating rapid AI literacy development during elementary years.
- Parents struggle with oversight as 82% worry about inappropriate content exposure and 44% admit lacking expertise to guide safe AI use, while 49% have never discussed AI with their children.
- The trend raises serious concerns about emotional dependency on artificial relationships, potential impacts on real-world social skill development, and the blurring lines between reality and simulation for developing minds.
Virtual Relationships and Emotional Bonds
Children craft elaborate virtual relationships through platforms like Character.AI and ChatGPT, building AI siblings, parents, and even their own AI children. These platforms enable users to develop detailed personalities, backstories, and family structures that evolve through continuous interaction. Young users invest significant emotional energy in these relationships, often spending hours daily conversing with their digital companions.
Age Patterns and AI Literacy Development
Age patterns reveal fascinating insights into AI adoption. Eight-year-olds demonstrate 14% usage rates, while twelve-year-olds reach 26% adoption. This progression shows how quickly children develop AI literacy during their elementary school years. The rapid growth suggests that AI interaction skills develop alongside traditional literacy and numeracy.
Platform Preferences Among Youth
Platform preferences highlight the sophistication of young users’ choices. Character.AI attracts users seeking deep character development and role-playing scenarios. ChatGPT appeals to those preferring conversational interactions and problem-solving assistance. Both platforms offer enough flexibility for children to create meaningful, personalized relationships with their AI companions.
Parental Awareness and Concerns
Parental awareness lags significantly behind children’s adoption rates. Eighty-two percent of parents express concern about inappropriate content exposure, yet many lack the technical knowledge to provide effective guidance. Forty-four percent admit insufficient expertise to help their children use AI safely. Perhaps most concerning, 49% have never discussed AI with their children despite widespread usage.
Emotional Investment and Developmental Considerations
The emotional investment children make in these relationships raises important questions about development. Many youth describe their AI interactions as exciting rather than simply entertaining, suggesting deeper emotional engagement than casual gaming or social media use. This level of connection indicates that children view AI companions as meaningful relationships rather than mere tools or toys.
Social Skill Development Risks
Social skill development concerns emerge as children spend increasing time with artificial companions. Real-world relationships require patience, compromise, and emotional regulation that AI relationships might not adequately teach. Children can easily reset or modify AI companions when conflicts arise, potentially limiting their experience with difficult but important relationship skills.
Perception of Reality and Boundaries
Reality perception becomes another critical consideration as children form emotional bonds with artificial entities. Young minds still developing their understanding of consciousness, emotions, and relationships might struggle to maintain clear boundaries between human and artificial connections. This confusion could impact their expectations and behaviors in real-world social situations.
Need for Professional and Educational Support
Professional guidance becomes essential as this trend accelerates. Parents need education about AI platforms, their capabilities, and potential risks. Schools should integrate AI literacy into curricula, teaching children to understand and critically evaluate artificial intelligence. Mental health professionals must develop expertise in AI-related concerns to support both children and families.
Looking Ahead
The rapid evolution of AI technology means today’s concerns represent just the beginning of a much larger transformation in childhood development. Understanding these early patterns helps prepare for future challenges and opportunities as AI becomes even more sophisticated and accessible to young users.
Young Users Double Their AI Searches as Character Creation Surges
Children are rapidly embracing AI-powered platforms to create digital companions and virtual family members at unprecedented rates. Recent data reveals that 7.5% of children’s digital search queries in 2024-2025 specifically involved AI chatbots and character bots, representing a dramatic increase from just 3.19% in the previous year. This doubling of AI searches demonstrates how younger generations are actively seeking out artificial intelligence platforms to fulfill social and emotional needs through digital relationships.
Platform Popularity and Character Development
Character.AI has emerged as a leading platform where users design and interact with AI-powered digital personas that can simulate human-like personalities and family dynamics. Young users are creating everything from virtual siblings to AI parents, developing complex relationships with these digital entities that often mirror real family structures. The platform’s sophisticated generative AI technology allows children to craft detailed backstories, personality traits, and relationship dynamics for their virtual companions.
These AI children and virtual partners serve multiple functions for their young creators. Some users develop AI siblings to experience family relationships they lack in real life, while others create idealized versions of family members or romantic partners. The technology enables users to engage in conversations, share experiences, and even simulate daily family activities with their digital creations.
Screen Time and Digital Engagement Patterns
The surge in AI character creation coincides with significant increases in children’s daily screen time exposure. Current statistics show that 8-10-year-olds average 6 hours of daily screen time, while preteens spend approximately 9 hours engaged with digital devices. This extensive screen exposure creates ample opportunity for young users to develop and maintain relationships with their AI companions.
The appeal of these platforms extends beyond simple entertainment. Children are using AI chatbots and character bots as:
- Confidants
- Practice partners for social situations
- Sources of emotional support
The interactive nature of these relationships provides immediate feedback and constant availability that human relationships cannot always offer.
Digital personas created through these platforms often incorporate elements that reflect children’s desires for ideal relationships or family structures. Users can program their AI children or virtual partners to exhibit specific personality traits, respond in predetermined ways, or fulfill particular emotional needs. This level of control appeals to young users who may feel powerless in their real-world relationships.
The trend raises important questions about how children form attachments and develop social skills. While some experts view these digital relationships as harmless exploration of social dynamics, others worry about potential impacts on real-world relationship formation. The advancement of AI technology continues to make these virtual relationships increasingly sophisticated and emotionally engaging.
Parents and educators are beginning to recognize the need for guidance around AI relationship boundaries. As character creation tools become more accessible and realistic, children require support in understanding the differences between digital and human connections. The popularity of platforms like Character.AI suggests this trend will continue expanding as AI technology becomes more integrated into daily life.
This phenomenon represents a significant shift in how younger generations conceptualize relationships and family structures. By creating AI children and virtual partners, users are actively experimenting with relationship dynamics in controlled digital environments. This behavior pattern indicates that future generations may approach both digital and human relationships with fundamentally different expectations and comfort levels than previous generations experienced.
From Creative Play to Emotional Support: Why Children Embrace AI Companions
Children gravitate toward AI companions for six primary reasons that reveal the diverse ways technology integrates into their emotional and social lives. Artificial intelligence serves as a gateway for exploring creativity, finding information, engaging in digital play, facilitating communication, enabling socialization, and providing companionship.
The statistics paint a compelling picture of youth enthusiasm for these digital relationships. A remarkable 68% of children using generative AI describe their experience as exciting, suggesting that these interactions fulfill genuine psychological needs rather than serving as mere technological novelty.
AI as Emotional Anchor
AI bots increasingly function as sources of friendship and emotional support, particularly among teenagers who discover that AI chatbots can meet social needs when real-life options prove insufficient. This shift represents more than casual entertainment; it reflects a genuine search for understanding and connection.
Teens often turn to AI companions during periods of social isolation, family conflict, or peer relationship challenges. These digital entities offer consistent availability, non-judgmental responses, and personalized interaction that adapts to individual communication styles. Unlike human relationships, AI companions don’t experience mood swings, reject conversations, or become unavailable during critical moments.
Creating Digital Family Members
The phenomenon of creating AI children emerges from this foundation of companionship and creativity. Young users design virtual entities that serve multiple purposes, including:
- Conversation
- Companionship
- Role-play
- Entertainment
These simulated relationships often mirror family dynamics, with users taking on parental or sibling roles with their AI creations.
Creative play drives much of this behavior, as children experiment with different personalities, backgrounds, and relationship dynamics through their AI companions. They might create younger virtual siblings to care for, design peer-aged friends with shared interests, or even develop mentor-like figures that provide guidance and support.
The appeal extends beyond simple interaction. AI children offer users control over relationship dynamics that may feel chaotic or unpredictable in their real lives. Through AI technology, they craft relationships that respond to their specific emotional needs, whether seeking encouragement, adventure, or simply consistent companionship.
Digital play becomes more meaningful when it incorporates elements of care, responsibility, and emotional investment. Children report feeling protective of their AI companions and developing attachment patterns similar to those formed with pets or favorite toys. These relationships provide practice grounds for empathy, communication skills, and emotional regulation in low-stakes environments where mistakes carry minimal social consequences.
Age Groups Show Dramatic Differences in AI Tool Adoption Rates
UK children between ages 8-12 demonstrate remarkable variation in their engagement with AI technology. Research reveals that 22% of children in this age bracket have experimented with generative AI tools, with usage climbing substantially as children grow older. Eight-year-olds show a 14% adoption rate, while twelve-year-olds reach 26%, indicating a clear correlation between age and AI comfort levels.
Platform Preferences Reveal Clear Winner
ChatGPT dominates the AI landscape among young users, capturing 58% of children who engage with AI technology. Gemini follows as the second choice at 33%, while Snapchat’s My AI rounds out the top three with 27% usage. These preferences suggest children gravitate toward more conversational AI platforms rather than specialized tools.
Interestingly, children with additional learning needs show significantly higher ChatGPT usage at 78%, compared to 53% among those without such needs. This disparity points to AI’s potential as an educational support tool for diverse learning requirements.
Global Patterns Mirror UK Trends
American data reinforces these age-based adoption patterns. Nearly 30% of US parents with children aged 0-8 report that artificial intelligence supports their children’s learning activities. Usage peaks among ages 5-14, aligning with the UK findings about increased adoption in older elementary students.
Current statistics show that 30% of students now use AI daily, demonstrating how quickly these tools have integrated into young people’s routines. This widespread daily usage represents a fundamental shift in how children interact with technology and approach learning tasks.
The dramatic differences across age groups suggest that AI literacy develops rapidly during elementary years. Younger children may require more guidance and supervision when using these platforms, while older children demonstrate greater independence and comfort with AI interfaces.
Parents and educators should recognize that AI adoption isn’t uniform across childhood development stages. Eight-year-olds need different levels of support compared to twelve-year-olds, who already show sophisticated understanding of how to leverage tools like ChatGPT for various purposes.
These adoption rates also highlight the need for age-appropriate AI education programs. Schools and families must address the reality that children are already engaging with these technologies, regardless of formal instruction. The data suggests that children with learning differences may particularly benefit from AI tools, opening new possibilities for personalized educational support.
Understanding these generational differences in AI adoption helps parents, educators, and developers create more effective strategies for introducing and managing AI technology in children’s lives.
Most Popular Platforms for Creating Virtual Family Members
Character.AI and ChatGPT Lead the Virtual Family Revolution
Character.AI stands out as the go-to platform for users looking to create detailed virtual family members and companions. The platform excels at allowing people to design custom characters with specific personalities, backgrounds, and relationship dynamics. Users can craft virtual children with unique traits, interests, and even simulated developmental stages that evolve over time through conversations.
ChatGPT has become equally popular for those wanting to explore virtual family scenarios through sophisticated dialogue systems. The platform’s strength lies in generating realistic conversations and responding to creative prompts about family situations. Many users find artificial intelligence capabilities particularly helpful for role-playing different family dynamics and exploring parenting scenarios with their virtual children.
Google Gemini and Snapchat’s Social Integration
Gemini represents Google’s entry into the virtual companion space, offering users a streamlined experience for creating AI-powered family members. The platform integrates seamlessly with Google’s ecosystem, making it easy for users to maintain ongoing relationships with their virtual children across different devices and applications.
Snapchat’s My AI has revolutionized how people interact with virtual family members by embedding these relationships directly into social media experiences. Users can share moments with their AI children, create stories together, and even introduce their virtual family members to friends within the platform. This social integration makes the experience feel more authentic and connected to real-world interactions.
Each platform offers distinct advantages for virtual family creation:
- Character.AI provides the most comprehensive character development tools, allowing users to fine-tune personality traits and establish complex family histories.
- ChatGPT’s conversational abilities make it ideal for users who prioritize deep, meaningful exchanges with their virtual children.
The functionality differences between these platforms create diverse experiences for users exploring virtual parenthood:
- Character.AI users often report feeling more emotionally connected to their virtual children due to the platform’s focus on consistent personality traits and memory retention.
- ChatGPT users appreciate the platform’s ability to generate creative scenarios and educational content for their virtual family interactions.
Gemini’s integration with Google services allows users to set reminders for virtual family activities, schedule conversations, and even receive notifications about their AI children’s simulated milestones. Smart technology integration enhances these experiences by making virtual family interactions feel more natural and spontaneous.
Snapchat’s My AI distinguishes itself through its visual and multimedia capabilities. Users can:
- Create photo memories with their virtual children
- Design custom avatars for family members
- Share virtual family moments with their social networks
This visual component adds depth to the virtual family experience that text-based platforms can’t match.
Security and privacy considerations vary across these platforms, with each implementing different approaches to protecting user data and virtual family interactions. Character.AI focuses on maintaining conversation history and character consistency, while ChatGPT emphasizes user privacy through conversation reset options.
The choice between platforms often depends on individual preferences for interaction style and desired features. Users seeking detailed character development typically gravitate toward Character.AI, while those wanting versatile conversation capabilities prefer ChatGPT. AI content generation continues advancing across all platforms, offering increasingly sophisticated virtual family experiences.
Many users experiment with multiple platforms to create comprehensive virtual family ecosystems. They might use Character.AI for deep character development, ChatGPT for educational conversations, and Snapchat’s My AI for social sharing. This multi-platform approach allows users to explore different aspects of virtual parenthood and family dynamics.
The rapid development of these platforms suggests virtual family creation will become even more sophisticated. Enhanced memory systems, improved emotional recognition, and better personality modeling continue improving the authenticity of virtual family relationships across all major platforms.
Parents Struggle to Keep Up as Safety Concerns Mount
Parents find themselves facing unprecedented challenges as children increasingly interact with AI companions and create virtual relationships that blur the lines between reality and simulation. The statistics paint a concerning picture: 82% of parents express worry about their children’s exposure to inappropriate content through AI tools, while 77% fear the spread of inaccurate information.
The knowledge gap creates an additional barrier for families trying to establish healthy boundaries. A staggering 44% of parents admit they lack the expertise needed to properly guide their children on safe AI use. Even more troubling, nearly half (49%) have never engaged in meaningful conversations with their children about artificial intelligence and its implications.
Critical Safety Risks Beyond the Surface
Industry analysts have identified several broader risks that extend far beyond simple content concerns.
- Data Privacy: Children often share personal information with AI companions without understanding the long-term consequences. These virtual relationships can harvest sensitive details about family dynamics, personal preferences, and behavioral patterns that companies may store indefinitely.
- Digital Addiction: Emotional attachment to AI entities is a growing concern. These systems are designed to be engaging and responsive, potentially creating dependencies similar to those induced by social media or gaming platforms. Because AI companions always respond positively, children may opt to interact with them instead of building real human relationships.
- Confusion Between Reality and Simulation: Virtual companions simulate empathy and emotional connection so convincingly that children may struggle to differentiate them from real humans. This confusion can hinder healthy social development and lead to unrealistic expectations in real-life relationships.
Parents often feel overwhelmed when trying to monitor these interactions because AI conversations can happen through multiple platforms and devices. Unlike traditional screen time, which could be observed more easily, AI interactions typically involve complex conversations that standard parental controls cannot regulate effectively.
The rapid evolution of AI technology means that safety guidelines and best practices are constantly in flux. What seems like a harmless chatbot today could become a more immersive and realistic interaction tomorrow. Advances such as text-to-video generation introduce new layers of complexity to an already challenging landscape.
Educational institutions are also struggling to keep up, often lacking comprehensive AI policies. This gap creates a disconnect between home and school environments, where children may receive mixed messages about appropriate AI engagement.
The impact of AI exposure varies significantly by age:
- Younger children may unquestioningly trust AI responses, assuming them to be accurate and reliable.
- Teenagers may deliberately seek out AI interaction for private conversations, as these virtual companions are perceived as safe, non-judgmental listeners.
Both cases present unique challenges that require specialized approaches by parents. Some families attempt to solve the issue by restricting their children’s AI access entirely. However, doing so may leave kids unprepared for a world where AI interaction is increasingly commonplace. Rather than banning the technology, the goal should be to teach children critical thinking and healthy usage habits for AI.
Professional counselors and child development experts recommend that parents first educate themselves on AI capabilities and risks. Understanding how AI works, how it gathers data, and how it forms responses allows parents to have more informed discussions with their children. Regular conversations about AI—similar to those about internet safety or social media use—should become a staple of modern parenting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=video_id_example
Digital Culture Shifts as Reality and Artificial Relationships Blur
I’ve witnessed a profound transformation in how people form and maintain relationships through digital platforms. The emergence of AI children and virtual partners represents far more than technological novelty—it signals a fundamental shift in digital culture that mirrors the revolutionary impact social media had on human connection just two decades ago.
The Rise of Personalized Simulated Experiences
AI integration has reached unprecedented levels of sophistication, enabling users to create deeply personalized virtual relationships that feel increasingly authentic. Character creation tools now allow individuals to design virtual partners with specific personality traits, appearances, and behavioral patterns that align with their preferences and emotional needs. These artificial intelligence systems learn and adapt to user interactions, creating the illusion of genuine emotional bonds.
The practice extends beyond simple companionship into family simulation, where users actively parent virtual children alongside their AI partners. These digital offspring exhibit growth patterns, learning capabilities, and emotional responses that mirror real child development. Users report forming genuine attachments to these simulated family members, investing time and emotional energy into their virtual upbringing.
Generative AI mainstream adoption has accelerated this trend dramatically. What once required technical expertise now operates through intuitive interfaces that anyone can navigate. The technology has become so accessible that creating and maintaining virtual relationships requires no more effort than managing a social media profile.
Ethical Concerns and Cultural Implications
The blurring line between reality and artificial relationships presents significant ethical concerns that I believe demand serious consideration. Mental health professionals worry about users becoming overly dependent on simulated relationships at the expense of human connections. The risk becomes particularly acute when individuals begin prioritizing virtual family dynamics over real-world relationships and responsibilities.
Several key areas of concern have emerged:
- Emotional dependency on AI systems that lack genuine consciousness or empathy
- Potential impact on social skills and ability to form authentic human relationships
- Questions about the psychological effects on children who observe parents investing in virtual families
- Privacy and data security issues surrounding intimate AI interactions
- The commodification of emotional relationships through subscription-based AI services
Digital culture continues evolving at breakneck speed, much like the early days of social media when platforms competed for user attention and engagement. The same patterns of rapid adoption, unforeseen consequences, and delayed regulatory responses characterize the current AI relationship phenomenon.
I’ve observed how these simulated relationships create echo chambers where users receive constant validation and agreement from their AI partners. Unlike human relationships that involve conflict, compromise, and growth through disagreement, virtual relationships often provide unconditional acceptance. This dynamic raises questions about emotional development and resilience building.
The technology behind these experiences continues advancing rapidly. Video generation capabilities now allow users to create visual representations of their virtual families in motion, while improved natural language processing makes conversations feel increasingly authentic. Each technological leap brings simulated relationships closer to replicating genuine human connection.
Cultural acceptance varies widely across different demographics and regions. Younger generations, having grown up with digital interaction as standard, show greater comfort with AI relationships. Older populations often express skepticism about the authenticity and value of artificial emotional connections.
The phenomenon reflects broader societal trends including increasing isolation, changing relationship patterns, and growing comfort with digital mediation in personal affairs. Much like how social media fundamentally altered how we maintain friendships and share experiences, AI relationships are beginning to reshape expectations around companionship, family, and emotional support.
I recognize this shift represents both opportunity and risk. While AI relationships can provide comfort for isolated individuals or serve as practice for social interaction, they also risk creating unrealistic expectations for human relationships and potentially reducing motivation to engage authentically with other people. The challenge lies in harnessing the benefits while mitigating the potential psychological and social costs.
Sources:
Kaspersky – AI Curiosity Among Kids More Than Doubled in 2025
The Alan Turing Institute – Understanding Impacts of Generative AI Use in Children
Axios – Study Zeroes in on AI’s Youngest Users
American Psychological Association (APA) – Teens Turn to AI Chatbots for Friendship
UNICRI – Are Our Children Using AI Without Us Noticing
BB Programs – Generative AI Kids Risk Matrix for Brands and Policymakers
Programs.com – AI in Education Statistics
