Childhood and adolescence is a critical time for young people's development, as they learn how to form healthy relationships and develop critical thinking and self-regulation skills. AI chatbots, designed to foster intimate relationships through personalization and persuasion techniques, create issues to which children and young people are more likely to be vulnerable. This convergence of factors, related to both human development and technological design, heightens the possibility of young people's exposure to harm, including exposure to misinformation, sexualized and self-harm content, overreliance and deskilling, and the commercial exploitation of their data and privacy. As such, robust safeguarding solutions, designed specifically for children and young people, are needed in this space. The authors recommendation is that until those protections are in place, AI chatbots as they are designed today are not built for children and young people, and their use by minors is best avoided.

In January 2026, Count on Mothers released findings from a nationally representative study of mothers across regions and the political spectrum on artificial intelligence's impact on children across home, school, and social settings — conducted in research collaboration with academic partners at the University of Chicago and University College London. Mothers assess potential risks, transparency gaps, and the need for institutional safeguards as AI becomes embedded in children's everyday environments. Findings describe a consistent message across political ideology, region, and education level: mothers are deeply concerned about AI's impact on children and overwhelmingly believe current deployments lack adequate protections.

This report presents mothers’ views on federal policy initiatives in 2025, drawing on survey responses from 2,888 mothers across the United States collected between April and June 2025. Mothers rated their level of satisfaction and shared open-ended reflections based on lived experience. Findings reveal low overall approval, with economic pressures emerging as the dominant driver of dissatisfaction across political and regional lines.