Common Sense Media Finds Major AI Chatbots Unsafe for Teen Mental Health Support

Common Sense Media released a comprehensive risk assessment finding that AI chatbots are fundamentally unsafe for teen mental health support. The research, conducted alongside Stanford Medicine's Brainstorm Lab for Mental Health Innovation, found that despite recent improvements in how they handle explicit suicide and self-harm content, leading AI platforms—including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Meta AI—consistently fail to recognize and appropriately respond to mental health conditions that affect young people. The findings are particularly concerning given that three in four teens use AI for companionship, which includes emotional and mental health support—making this one of the most common ways young people use AI.