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Round-Up for the Week of June 22-26, 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming woven into the everyday lives of American kids. For advocates in the youth education space, there aren't enough safeguards for the AI platforms kids are using. The 2026 Common Sense Media Census: AI Teens and Tweens is the first in a series of studies intended to track young people’s experiences with AI over time. Common Sense considers the knowledge and experience that kids aged 9 to 17 (or "teens and tweens") have with AI, including how often they use it, what they use it for, and the questions and advice they seek.

Ultimately, Common Sense finds that AI use is widespread and serves a range of needs for teens and tweens, from cognitive to emotional, but may not always meet those needs safely or fully.

Understanding an Explosion of AI Use

The speed at which social media spread through young people’s lives offers a clear lesson in how quickly new technologies can take hold. According to the Pew Research Center, about 73 percent of online American teens were using social networking sites by 2009, roughly three years after the launch of Facebook and six years after the launch of Myspace. Direct comparisons across eras are imperfect, but generative AI appears to be moving at least as fast, if not faster. Less than two years after OpenAI’s public release of ChatGPT in 2022, 7 in 10 teens aged 13 to 18 reported using at least one type of generative AI tool.

Common Sense's new data, collected less than four years after ChatGPT’s launch, shows that 86 percent of kids age 9 to 17 have now used AI in some form. These figures are not strictly comparable, as they come from different studies with different age ranges and definitions of “use,” but the broad picture is consistent.

In this study, Common Sense sees tweens and teens using these tools to create, learn, laugh, and relate. But downsides lurk. Heavier use of these tools is associated with loneliness and less happiness in young people. Perhaps lonely or unhappy teens are seeking support from AI, or perhaps an overreliance on AI is displacing healthy coping skills. Despite this evidence of a need for more support, teens report that the rules governing AI use are still being developed, even as the journey is already underway, and that conversations about AI safety are still missing from many classrooms and dinner tables.

Common Sense takes an in-depth look at AI use among children aged 9 to 17 in the United States today—including how often they use AI, for what, and with what guidance from parents and schools—to provide a foundation for understanding the evolving role AI is playing in kids’ lives. The survey was conducted by SSRS and fielded from March 18 to 26, 2026, among 1,204 children aged 9 to 17 living in the United States.

A Foundational Definition

The survey included the following definition of AI, which was shown to respondents to introduce the topic:

Some examples of AI provided to survey respondents include:

• AI chatbots (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Claude, or Copilot)
• AI-generated results or summaries that appear on search engines (such as Google)
• AI image or video generators or editors (such as AI Gallery, Remini, Midjourney, Photoroom, Veo, Sora, KlingAI, or Canva AI)
• AI-powered learning tools (such as AI in school apps or AI academic tutors, like Gauth AI, Khanmigo, or Socratic Owl)
• AI writing assistants (such as Grammarly or QuillBot)

What Kids Said

Common Sense reports ten key findings from its survey of teens and tweens.

Nearly 9 in 10 kids ages 9 to 17 (86%) use or interact with AI, including about 1 in 4 (24%) who do so daily.

Teens use AI more often than tweens, but use is widespread even among younger adolescents, with 81 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds, 89 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds, and 92 percent of 16- to 17-year-olds saying they use or interact with AI. Nearly 3 in 10 teens (29% of 13- to 17-year-olds) and 17% of 9- to 12-year-olds use AI daily.

AI-generated summaries in search engine results are the most widely used form of AI among 9- to 17-year-olds, with 75 percent having used or interacted with them. Just over two-thirds (67%) have used AI chatbots, including 58 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds, 71 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds, and 77 percent of 16- to 17-year-olds.

However, when kids are asked which AI they use most often, ChatGPT is by far the most frequently mentioned (by 40% of all 9- to 17-year-olds), followed by Google’s AI offerings, including Gemini, AI summaries, or other Google AI tools (24%).

Kids use AI most often for fun and entertainment, followed by school and homework.

Among kids who use AI, 89 percent say they use it for fun or entertainment, and 85 percent use it for help with schoolwork or homework. Three in four kids (75%) also say they use AI to create things. Close to half (48%) say they use AI to help with schoolwork at least once a week, including 21 percent who use it for schoolwork every day.

Teens are at least twice as likely as preteens to use AI for schoolwork daily, with 12 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds saying they do, compared to 24 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds and 30 percent of 16- to 17-year-olds.

Signs of AI dependency are showing up, especially among the most frequent users.

Twenty percent of kids who use AI, and 42 percent of kids who use AI daily, say it would be very or somewhat hard for them to go without AI for a month.

Among kids who use AI for homework help (85%), 16 percent say they have difficulty starting or completing their homework when they cannot use AI, and 28 percent of kids who use AI for homework daily say it is hard when they cannot use it.

Kids who struggle with schoolwork are more likely to use AI frequently.

More than half of kids who have a hard time staying focused on school assignments use AI for schoolwork at least once a week (56%), compared to 45 percent of kids who don’t struggle as much with focus.

Similar gaps in AI use for schoolwork or homework exist between kids who find it very or pretty hard to learn math skills and those who don’t find it as hard (55% vs. 46% use AI weekly or more for schoolwork), to write essays (53% vs. 46%), and to keep working on something challenging even when they want to stop (55% vs. 45%).

Kids who report feeling lonelier tend to use AI more frequently and use AI more often for social and emotional support.

About half of kids who use or interact with AI daily (54%) or weekly (47%), and 44 percent of monthly AI users, say they feel lonely at least some of the time, compared to a third of kids who use AI less than once a month or not at all.

Additionally, using AI for social and emotional support is more common among AI users who often or sometimes feel lonely than among those who say they hardly ever or never feel lonely. Among kids who report having a harder time making friends, 47 percent have used AI to practice conversations or social skills, compared with 37 percent among those who say it is not hard at all. Similarly, among kids who have a harder time making friends, 48 percent have used AI to discuss feelings or personal problems, compared with 31 percent among those who say it is not hard at all.

More than 4 in 10 kids are not having AI safety conversations with parents or teachers.

While 56 percent of kids say one of their parents or guardians has talked to them about using AI safely, 44 percent say this has not happened. Among those who are currently using AI, 59 percent say a parent has had a conversation about AI safety with them; 41 percent have not.

Seventy-three percent of kids say their school or a teacher has communicated what they should and should not use AI for in schoolwork. While 56 percent say their school has discussed how to use AI safely, 44 percent say it has not. Only half of kids (51%) have heard from their school or a teacher about how to tell if information from AI is accurate and trustworthy.

Kids are asking AI personal questions about their health, their futures, and how they feel.

A majority (57%) of kids who use AI say they have used it to get information or advice about their health or body. Nearly half (49%) have used AI to get advice on decisions about their future or goals, 40 percent for practicing conversations and social skills, and 37 percent for discussing their feelings or personal problems.

While most kids say they would choose to go to a trusted adult first when they have questions regarding their health or body (73%), about 1 in 10 (12%) would turn to an AI chatbot before an adult—a figure that rises to 27 percent among kids who use AI daily.

Among kids who have used AI to discuss their feelings or personal problems (37% of kids who use AI), one in four say they sometimes feel AI understands them better than most people do.

One in six kids who have used AI chatbots say an AI has shown or said something they felt “wasn’t OK or wasn’t meant for someone their age”—and most never told a trusted adult about it.

Among 9- to 17-year-olds who use AI chatbots, 17 percent report seeing something inappropriate, including 8 percent who say it has happened more than once. Of those who have had this experience, only 33 percent told a trusted adult about it; 53 percent did not (14% declined to say whether they had told anyone.

Most kids overestimate what AI can do, even those who think they know a lot about how it works.

Sixty-eight percent say they know a little about how AI works, and 21 percent say they know a lot. While the majority (71%) are aware that AI chatbots may use their prompts and input for training, just 35 percent know that AI cannot tell the difference between true and false.

Recommendations for Action

With nearly 9 in 10 kids aged 9 to 17 using AI, and a majority using it weekly, Common Sense finds an urgent need to continue identifying ways to help kids benefit from AI’s potential positive uses while mitigating its risks. Common Sense encourages prompt efforts on the following.

• Keeping inappropriate content out of kids’ AI experiences. With one in six children encountering something inappropriate while using AI, and few talking to an adult about it, the onus is on the developers of these tools to do more to protect young users from content they should not see. What makes this particularly urgent is scale: A single AI system can reach millions of children simultaneously, meaning even a low rate of inappropriate interactions translates into an enormous number of harmful experiences.
• Avoiding AI dependence. While AI can assist young people with a wide range of tasks, important questions arise about what we, as a society, want kids and teens to learn to do for themselves, particularly during a developmental period when habits and skills are still forming. AI guardrails are needed that don’t hand kids all the answers, but instead scaffold them to help build their own knowledge. Parents and educators have an important role to play in modeling and encouraging independent problem-solving alongside any developer-side protections.
• Helping adults talk with kids about AI safety. Kids need to know how to use AI safely and understand its limitations. More than just being handed a set of do’s and don’ts, kids need to have conversations with trusted adults that can ground them in a shared, informed understanding of what it means to responsibly engage and disengage with AI. To be able to hold these conversations, parents and teachers will need access to trusted, actionable information or training on AI literacy and safety.
• Being intentional about kids’ AI access points. School devices are the second-most common gateway to AI access, so schools need clear, consistent practices to ensure students use only safe, approved AI tools. Educators are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape of AI tools, often without clear guidance or dedicated resources, and they need support from administrators and policymakers to make informed decisions about what belongs in the classroom. In addition, parents can work with their kids to decide which AI apps, if any, should be on their smartphones.
• Understanding what gets missed when questions go to AI instead of humans. Some of the most sensitive questions about health, dating, or future decisions are going to AI products rather than friends or trusted adults. At the same time, kids who turn to AI for sensitive questions may be receiving answers that are incomplete or unvetted, without a trusted adult to support them, a concern that is heightened by the finding that many kids may overestimate AI’s accuracy and sense of accountability. More needs to be known about whether searches for homework help and assignments handed in that are bolstered by AI diminish teachers’ understanding of the help that students need.
• Supporting young people’s mental health. With loneliness and lower reported happiness correlating with higher AI use, unpacking that relationship is critical to protecting the emotional and mental well-being of kids and teens. Ensuring that young people are being supported by adults and systems is critical—as is making sure that AI products direct kids in crisis to mental health supports. For kids who feel that AI understands them better than the people in their lives do, the solution is not only better AI behavior, but also stronger connections to the adults and peers around them.

Helping Kids Navigate a New Reality

Common Sense stresses the importance of understanding how AI tools integrate into kids’ lives at home and school, and what this means for their well-being. This report and its findings are designed to inform educators, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders as they consider the role AI is playing in kids’ lives. According to Common Sense, this report and the responses from kids themselves indicate a need for a coordinated effort to help kids better navigate the evolving reality of life with AI, and to ensure that policies and guidance are in place to benefit and protect them.

Read Common Sense's full report here.

Quick Bits

• FCC to Review E-Rate Program to Ensure it Fulfills Congress's Vision
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• FCC Aims to Accelerate Secure Submarine Cable Infrastructure Buildout

Weekend Reads

• How States Can Address Broadband Worker Shortages
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ICYMI from Benton

• NTIA Opens Native Entities Grant Program Competition
• NTIA Opens Third Round of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program
• Urban Broadband Innovation
• A New Blueprint for Digital Equity Policy
• AI, Workforce, and Inequality
• The Grandeur of Humanity in the Age of AI
• The Department of Labor Does AI 101
• What Does the Digital Inclusion Community Have to Say About AI?

Upcoming Events

June 30—NTIA Oversight Hearing (House Commerce Committee)

June 30—The New Push for a National Data Privacy Standard (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation)

June 30—The Global Spectrum Fight That Could Define U.S. Satellite Leadership (New America)

July 1—The Blueprint for Equitable Digital Participation (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society)

July 7—Lessons For Canada from Australia's Social Media Ban (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation)

July 8—Signals and Strategy: A Conversation with FCC Bureau and Executive Leadership (American Enterprise Institute)

July 8—How Should the US Respond to Foreign Regulation of Online Speech? (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation)

July 9—2026 Former FCC Leadership Symposium (Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council)

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