‘No companion chatbots. Hard stop’: Experts draw a clear line on AI and children
Jun 15, 2026, 5:00 AM
As AI becomes part of everyday life, experts are raising new questions about what it means for children growing up with technology that can talk, comfort, teach, and even act like a friend.
In a recent conversation on the Good Inside podcast, child psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy and former Wall Street Journal technology columnist Joanna Stern examine how AI is changing childhood itself.
Their concern isn’t just screen time — it’s what they call the loss of “friction” in children’s lives.
They said challenges, mistakes, and even frustration help children build resilience, patience, and independent thinking.
But AI is increasingly designed to remove those struggles.
“Toy makers have now decided, let’s put a chatbot that never kind of stops talking,” Sterns shared as an example. “Let’s put a voice with it, and let’s put that inside a toy, a stuffed animal, so kids can talk to it.”
Critics are worried that children may form emotional attachments to systems designed to be endlessly available, agreeable, and validating — something no human relationship can be.
The broader challenge for families may not be keeping AI away from children, as experts say that’s unrealistic. Becky said the debate is shifting from whether children will use it to how parents can ensure technology supports development without replacing the struggles that help kids grow.
“We tend to focus a lot on the outcome of ‘my kid is calmer, so my kid is better,’ but actually what gets imprinted in them and has an even bigger impact on how they view the world and themselves is actually the process of how they got there,” Becky said.
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Experts agree on no companion chatbots
Both Becky and Stern agree that the goal isn’t to reject technology altogether, but there is one thing they absolutely don’t want to introduce to kids.
“No companion chat bots. Hard stop, hard stop,” Stern said. “They should not be programmed to sound as human as they can, and to talk about these things in such a personal way. They just should not be able to do that, and honestly, maybe shouldn’t even be able to do that for adults, but whatever. Let’s protect kids first.”
It’s clear technology is reshaping parenting. With AI, parenting may be less about mastering technology and more about protecting the human skills children need most.
