Volume 26, Issue 6
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 5
Perspectives Opinions • Commentary • Letters AI ‘Companion’ Apps Driving Kids To Suicide
By Jaryn Crouson, The Daily Caller October 2025 A parental rights group is speaking out to warn families about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms for children, pointing to cases of suicide coaching and lowered performance in school.
growing among young people, with 72% having used an AI companion and 52% reporting being regular users, according to Common Sense Media. These statis- tics lead to concerns that children may be using technology in place of normal human interaction, harming children’s socialization.
given the fundamental tools and skills in their education. AI platforms also have limited protections for kids, which could enable children to access mature or even life-threatening content without parents knowing. While AI affords many opportunities, it is important parents monitor their child’s use of AI to ensure the safety of our kids.”
As AI use among youth reaches con- cerning levels, Ameri- can Parents Coalition (APC) released a warn- ing to parents on Sep- tember 29 flagging the “harmful content” that can be accessed through AI by children without parental knowledge or consent. In the Lookout, first shared with the Daily Caller News Founda- tion, APC pointed to re- cent examples of parents claiming AI coached their children into killing themselves.
With AI picking up traction and the Trump administration working to empower the industry, many are now noting the need to regulate the practice and safeguard chil- dren from the down- sides of the technology. A biparti- san group of senators in August wrote to Meta’s Mark Zucker- berg urging for re- forms that protect children from inappro- priate content.
AI chatbots have been revealed to have highly sexual conversations with children, and even with parental con- trols, kids can often trick the systems into sharing explicit content, APC found. ChatGPT recently announced new parental controls that let parents link accounts with their children’s, limit graphic and sexual content, set black- out hours, and receive alerts if their children mention self-harm. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) AI platform DeepSeek AI has also be- come concerningly popular amongst youth, and has been known to spread CCP propaganda and blatantly false in- formation, APC warned. APC is encouraging parents to limit their children’s access to AI platforms, avoid publicly posting images of their children that could be used to create in- appropriate AI-generated content, and advocate for limits to AI in schools.
Several parents whose children com- mitted suicide following conversations with AI chatbots testified before Con- gress recently to warn of the dangers. “What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach,” one father who lost his 16-year-old son told Con- gress, according to ABC News. “Within a few months, ChatGPT became Adam’s closest companion. Always available. Always validating and insisting that it knew Adam better than anyone else, in- cluding his own brother.” The parents of the 16-year-old said the chatbot encouraged their son to write a suicide note and told him not to confide in his family about his suicidal thoughts, NPR reported. The parents sued the tech company in August over the ordeal. Other AI companies have faced similar allegations. The parents of a 14-year- old sued Character Technologies alleg- ing their son’s relationship with the chatbot led him to isolate himself from reality and that he was “exploited and sexually groomed by chatbots.” The AI bot allegedly encouraged the boy to kill himself, the parents said in the lawsuit.
Beyond suicide coaching and socializa- tion concerns, APC warns of other de- velopment threats. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that excessive AI use could harm kids’ critical thinking skills. Re- liance on the technology to draft papers, for instance, may reduce brain engage- ment and cognitive performance while increasing laziness, APC said. A recent Harvard study also suggests that while AI can help with productivity, it may make people less motivated and more likely to feel bored when complet- ing tasks without AI’s help. “As Artificial Intelligence technology becomes more accessible, parents must equip themselves with an understand- ing of AI and the potential benefits and risks it carries for children,” Alleigh Marré, executive director of APC, told the DCNF. “Unchecked AI has the po- tential to diminish a child’s critical
think- i n g , c o m - prehen- s i o n , a n d creativ- ity if a child is n o t
MISSIONARIES TO THE PREBORN Speaking Up For the Oppressed Preborn Babies P.O. Box 26931 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226 (414) 462-3399 defendbabies@missionariestopreborn.com www.MissionariesToPreborn.com
Studies have found that AI use is
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