AI Is Not Social Media. New Child Safety Laws Should Reflect That.

“Who is talking to your child?” For thirty years, that question has driven online child safety. The answer could be predatory adults, peers from school or the community intent on harassment or exclusion, or others whose character and intent were never vetted on any level. This concern has shaped state laws, school policies, the rules […]

From Social to Parasocial Media: Rethinking Youth Online Safety

Think about the last time you were online. Did you use the platform to be social, or just to consume videos from people you have never met? In a recent essay in Social Media + Society, danah boyd discusses this trend, and asserts that twenty years in, the platforms we still call social media have […]

Conversational AI Chatbots and US Teens: Nearly Half Who Use Them Report Harm

Over the past two years, the public has learned the names of teens like 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who developed a romantic attachment to a Character.AI chatbot, and 16-year-old Adam Raine, whose extended conversations with ChatGPT culminated in the bot providing specific suicide guidance. These tragedies surfaced a question many of us in the youth […]

Sextortion and Teen Suicide

Seventeen-year-old Jordan DeMay met a pretty girl on Instagram who convinced him to share an explicit photo. After he did, “she” demanded $1,000. Fifteen-year-old Bradyn Bohn connected with someone on Facebook who made him laugh. He too was persuaded to share a private image. The new friend demanded money, or the images would be shared […]

Preventing Cyberbullying Through Vicarious Supervision: Results from New Research

I’ve long been interested in the role of parents in preventing children from participating in problematic behaviors online. Parents should talk with their children about the responsible use of technology and allow access to apps and games at developmentally appropriate ages and in proper amounts. They should also utilize appropriate tools to restrict incidental access […]

Can a School Suspend a Student for Writing an Email that was Never Sent?

On the morning of October 9, 2024, “N.M.,” a sophomore at Marana High School in Marana, Arizona, was sitting next to his mother, Karalee Merrill, complaining about a poor grade he had received on an English assignment. His mom suggested he email the teacher to inquire about how to improve his grade. N.M. opened his […]

An AI Bot Chose Violence

Something happened recently in the field of AI that everyone should know about. An AI bot, with no human giving it a direct order in the moment, chose to retaliate against a real person. It researched him, dug up personal details about his life, and published a hit piece designed to damage his reputation. I […]

New Research Shows Teen Sexting and Risk of Sextortion is Increasing

Sameer and I first collected data on teen sexting nearly a decade ago and found that 7-11% of 12-17-year-olds in the US had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves to someone else. About 15% had received such an image from someone else. Last year, we replicated this research and found that 24% of 13-17-year-olds […]

Bradyn’s Law: Wisconsin’s Effort to Combat a Rise in Youth Sextortion

Bradyn Bohn was a 15-year-old freshman in the DC Everest School District in central Wisconsin. He loved sports, music, and making people laugh. Like most teens, he spent a lot of time online. One night in early March of this year, he met someone on Facebook who was fun and cute. While the details are […]

OpenAI’s Teen Safety Blueprint, and What AI Platforms Should Do Next

OpenAI, which has at least 800 million weekly users, recently released its Teen Safety Blueprint. It is intended to serve as a framework designed to protect young users from the potential harms of AI chatbots. In the months leading up to the announcement, the company has faced wrongful death lawsuits, investigations by state attorneys general, […]

2nd International Conference on Children’s Rights in Stellenbosch, South Africa

I am just back from a thought-provoking conference experience centered on AI and youth in South Africa. It was hosted at Stellenbosch University, in the Western Cape province about 30 miles east of Cape Town. The specific theme was “Artificial Intelligence, Online Safety and Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment” – areas I am very […]

Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) to Support Youth Online

In April 2025, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, spotlighted the issue of youth online safety by unveiling the Lost Screen Memorial in New York City. This temporary installation, organized by their Archewell Foundation, featured 50 illuminated lightboxes shaped like smartphones. Each displayed the lock screen photo of a child whose […]

Cultivating Hope in Youth: Our New Research Findings

Discusses new research showing the importance of building hope in youth to prevent online risks and harms.

Cyberbullying Rates Continue to Climb – Especially Among Boys

We recently collected another round of data from middle and high school students in across the United States. This sample includes about 3,500 English or Spanish speaking 13- to 17-year-olds. We used age, race, gender, and region quotas to match U.S. Census demographics as closely as possible. This is the fifth national survey we’ve conducted […]