• Overwhelming majority of U.S. mothers support strong guardrails or limits for children: Only 6% believe AI is a net positive force and that children should simply “learn to use it.”

• Mothers’ concerns are concentrated and consistent: more than half report concern about child exposure to unsafe or inappropriate content, confusion between human- and AI-generated interactions, and behavioral or social–emotional impacts.

• A substantial transparency gap exists: 80% of U.S. mothers do not feel confident they understand how their child’s data are collected or used by AI systems, and 11% did not know data were being collected at all.

• AI exposure is already institutionalized: children are encountering AI across home, school, and social environments—including widespread use on school-issued devices—often through platforms parents did not actively choose or can easily opt out of.

• 25% of mothers of children ages 8–12 report that their child uses AI to accomplish tasks such as thinking, organization, and planning – functions that are central to the development of executive skills during this critical period of brain maturation.

• Across political ideology, education level, and region, mothers overwhelmingly call for enforceable safeguards, including clear disclosure when children interact with AI, age-appropriate design, limits on data collection and use, and institutional accountability that does not rely on parental vigilance alone.

AI & Child Safety: Mothers’ Views on a Rising Influence in Kids’ Lives presents findings from a nationally representative survey of 2,290 U.S. mothers examining how artificial intelligence is already shaping children’s daily experiences at home, in school, and across digital platforms. The study finds that very few mothers view AI as a net positive for children without safeguards, while a strong majority express concern about unsafe content, confusion between human and AI-generated interactions, behavioral and social-emotional impacts, and opaque data practices.

Despite limited parental visibility and confidence—80% of mothers do not feel confident they understand how their child’s data are collected or used—AI is already embedded in schools and widely accessible to children of all ages. Across political ideology, education level, region, and background, mothers consistently call for clear disclosure, age-appropriate design, limits on data collection and manipulative features, and institutional accountability to protect children as AI adoption accelerates.

This report centers mothers’ firsthand observations at a critical moment, offering timely evidence to inform policymakers, educators, industry leaders, and journalists as decisions about AI governance and child safety are being made.

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