Children and young people encounter AI in many places today: Chatbots answer questions for homework, voice assistants help in everyday life, creative apps generate images, music or short stories. This can be exciting, inspiring and confusing at the same time. Many parents therefore ask themselves: How do I guide my child so that they use AI curiously, safely and critically without being overwhelmed? Don’t worry: you don’t have to be an AI expert to accompany your child safely.
Learning to understand AI
Artificial intelligence is often surprisingly clever. It responds quickly, friendly and sometimes more convincingly than adults. However, children should understand: AI does not “know” anything. It merely calculates which answers are likely to seem correct. And that is precisely why it can make mistakes, adopt prejudices or invent content.
Many AI applications also save the data entered. Depending on the tool, more or less information can be collected. Children should therefore learn early on to handle personal information with care. It should also be clear that AI is no substitute for personal advice, teachers or parents.
What parents should know
- AI does not replace knowledge: Answers are statistical predictions, not verified facts. If children simply copy answers from chatbots, they don’t have the chance to really understand a topic.
- AI can be confusing: Younger children in particular find it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is “invented” by AI. And it’s not always easy to tell whether an answer is coming from an AI or a human.
- Hardly Protection of minorsMany tools are not specially developed for children. Age filters, moderation for sensitive topics and clear data protection notices are often missing.
- Pressure to compare: Children often want perfect results and compare themselves with AI outputs, which can create pressure.
How parents can accompany
The younger children are, the more guidance they need when dealing with AI. For primary school children in particular, it is important to try things out together, ask questions and scrutinize results.
- Try it out together: Try out AI applications together, for example for stories, images or small research projects. Let your child tell you: What surprises, irritates or is fun? Explain that AI works differently in games, apps and chatbots. In games, it controls characters or opponents, in chatbots it answers questions. In this way, children learn not to rely solely on a result. Small experiments, such as comparing AI results with your own research, also promote media skills, critical thinking and curiosity.
- Practice critical questioning: Ask, “Can this be true?”, “How could you check if the answer is correct?” or “Is there another source that says something similar or different?” This teaches your child not to accept AI results without checking them.
- rules define rules: Define together how AI is used, for example, only together, only for certain tasks or for creative projects.
- Explain data protection clearly: Make it clear: “What you enter will be saved. That’s why we don’t share personal information such as names, photos or school routes.”
- AI as a tool, not a solution: Encourage your child to develop their own ideas. AI can inspire, but does not replace your own thinking and creative work.
- Take feelings seriously: Discuss frustration or comparisons with AI results. AI is not “smarter” or “better” than your child. It provides suggestions, not perfect solutions.
Can’t find an answer to your question? Ask your personal questions about your child’s media use directly and conveniently using the messenger service via WhatsApp or Threema. You can find more information here.
