Here's a fun game for tonight. Guess how often your child uses AI. Now ask them. Chances are, your guess was low.
That's what a new YouGov survey found in France, done for the Berlin group Interface. They asked 970 kids aged 11 to 17, and 1,138 parents. Among 11- and 12-year-olds, 40% use AI chatbots every week. Only 26% of their parents know.
It grows with age
By 16 or 17, 70% of teens use AI regularly. Their parents guess 61%. So the gap gets smaller, but the use keeps climbing. And it's not just ChatGPT. Little ones meet AI in voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, inside Snapchat, and in “AI friend” apps.
Here's the juicy bit: 92% of kids who use AI said they spend more time with it than they'd like. The worst for that were AI companions and the AI built into social media.
It's not just France
An earlier French survey by Kantar found about half of 11- to 15-year-olds already used AI, and about half of parents were open to letting a child under 11 try ChatGPT. UNICEF says that in the countries it studied, children are picking up AI more than three times faster than adults. Kids, as always, got there first. Like with the TV remote.
Parents feel alone
42% of French parents said they get no help at all with this. Half think schools should take the lead. Jessica Galissaire from Interface says a chatbot “is also like having a friend that is available 24/7,” and that “regulation in itself will never be enough.”
Try this
Don't start with rules. Start with a question: “Show me what you asked the AI today.” Be curious, not cross. Ask which app they like and why. Then agree together on one or two limits. The goal isn't to win. It's to stay the person they tell.