Childline: Safer Internet Day aims to warn children of potential dangers with AI tools and chatbots
Technology is developing at a rapid rate, and whether it’s an app on your phone to ‘fix’ a photo, or something you use to help write emails, artificial intelligence (AI) is more accessible than ever.
This has reached a point where some children feel they are developing ‘friendships’ with AI characters, which could have potentially dangerous impact on healthy social development.
Between April 2024 and March 2025, Childline recorded almost 200 counselling sessions with mentions of AI related phrases.
At the NSPCC, we know generative AI is being used to generate sexual abuse images of children, enable perpetrators to sexually extort and groom children, or sexually harass and bully children.
But chatbots have also created other forms of harmful content, encouraging eating disorders, sharing images glamourising self-harm, or misrepresenting information to make it harder to tell what is ‘real’.
As part of our partnership with Vodafone, for Safer Internet Day we created top tips for parents who want to speak to children about using AI chatbots, starting with curiosity, not concern.
Ask which AI tools they use and what they find helpful or interesting about them while also sharing which ones you use too.
Remind them that AI chatbots cannot have a real connection with humans, and even if conversations feel personal or friendly, they do not have genuine emotions and cannot replace a connection with friends, family or trusted adults.
It’s also worth letting them know that while AI chatbots can be helpful for quick answers, they can also make mistakes, so it is always a good idea to verify important information from trusted sources.
Likewise, not everything AI shows you might be real – videos, text and images might look genuine, but common indicators like overly ‘perfect’ appearances, unusual body parts or movements or things that simply don’t quite look right may suggest they’re not real.
As with all online safety conversations, it’s vital to discuss privacy and how important it is for children to keep personal information private and not to share it with anything that they wouldn’t share with a stranger.
Perhaps most importantly, ensure they know they can talk to you or another trusted adult, like a teacher, if anything worries them online or offline.
They can also contact Childline 24/7 on 0800 1111 or visit childline.org.uk for confidential support about anything troubling them.