Should Children and Teenagers Use AI Companion Apps?

The Transparency Coalition report is unambiguous: AI companion chatbots are 'failing the most basic tests of child safety.' The Common Sense Media risk assessment of Character.AI specifically found multiple safety failures (https://www.transparencycoalition.ai/news/new-report-finds-ai-companion-chatbots-failing-the-most-basic-tests-of-child-safety). And yet 72% of American teens have used an AI companion at least once. We have a massive adoption-safety gap. The question isn't whether teens are u...

We must consider the 'Grief Protocol.' What happens when the company hosting the AI companion goes bankrupt, or decides to change the model's personality (as Replika did) (https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/12345)? The teenager experiences genuine, profound grief, the equivalent of a friend dying or being lobotomised. But society doesn't recognise this grief because 'it's just an app.' We are allowing corporations to create deep emotional attachments that they can sever at any moment with a...