More than 9,000 children surveyed in new report about AI use
There has been a sharp rise in AI chatbot use among 8–15 year olds, new research revealed this week has shown.
More than a quarter (26%) of primary school children (aged 8–12) and over a third (36%) of secondary school children (aged 12–15) have engaged with AI chatbots, according to figures published on Tuesday in CyberSafeKids’ annual Trends & Usage Report A Life Behind The Screens.
This marks a rise from last year's finding up from just 5% for 8–12 year olds and 12% for 12–15 year olds. While the most popular use of chatbots was to look up information (19% of 8-12 year olds and 28% of 12-15 year olds), 9% of primary school children and 7% of secondary school children used chatbots to produce their school work with 8% of the younger age group and 10% of the older age group using them to chat and get advice.
A Life Behind The Screens, the report by Ireland's online safety charity which surveyed over 9,000 children in the academic year 2024-25 found that 8–12 year olds used Roblox more than any other online environment (63%), while WhatsApp was the most popular with 12–15 year olds (88%). It also showed that age verification, despite new regulation, is still highly ineffective with 71% of 8–12 year olds using 13+ social media and instant messaging apps, including YouTube (60%), WhatsApp (29%), Snapchat (25%), and TikTok (23%).
Smart device ownership for 8–12 year olds has remained unchanged for the last 4 years (93%). While smartphone ownership fell this year from 49% to 39%, reflecting the success of community campaigns to delay the age children are given a phone, ownership of tablets (62%) and games consoles (53%) rose over the 4 year period. Smartphones remain the most popular device in secondary school (96% ownership for 12–15 year olds). CyberSafeKids CEO, Alex Cooney, said: “We are still struggling to effectively regulate social media, and those same mistakes are being repeated with the unchecked rise of generative AI.
“With few safeguards in place, and chatbot technology increasingly embedded in the apps children use, we are exposing them to misinformation, privacy violations, and harmful advice.
“We need urgent action, not just in Ireland, but across Europe. This requires strong, coordinated regulation at EU level, including effective age verification, the removal of recommender systems, and oversight of AI chatbots, instant messaging, and social gaming platforms. These measures must be backed by robust parental engagement and comprehensive digital education."
Unsolicited contact
The report has told how 28% of 8–12 year olds and 26% of 12–15 year olds experienced content or unsolicited contact that ‘bothered’ them this year, including exposure to horror, violence, sexual material, and threats. There was a huge increase in problems being reported on both Roblox (59%) and YouTube (60%) by the younger age group. Examples cited involved sexualised behaviour and harassment by bad actors on Roblox, as well as disturbing content on YouTube Shorts.
The older age group also reported encountering problems on YouTube in far higher numbers (24%) than last year.
TikTok (51%) and Snapchat (40%) remained the most common apps in which 12–15 year olds encountered harm.
8–12 year olds who participated in group chats were more likely to have experienced cyberbullying (30%) than those who did not (11%). The most popular apps to use for group chats were WhatsApp (24%) and Snapchat (23%), platforms that, due to their design features, such as disappearing messages and locked chats, are difficult to monitor and could lead to increased disinhibition.
Despite evidence of increased awareness of online harms among parent groups and Ireland’s digital age of consent (16), 34% of 8–12 year olds and 48% of 12–15 year olds did not speak to their parents about online safety in the last year.
Supervision
The benefits of family supervision and setting rules at home are highlighted in the report, but over a quarter (28%) of 8–12 year olds and more than half (58%) of 12–15 year olds indicated ‘I can go online whenever I want’ with 63% of primary school aged kids and 79% of secondary school aged kids saying ‘my parents can’t see what I am doing online’.
Digital environments
The report highlights that popular digital environments were not designed with children in mind and they continue to fall short in protecting them. The fact that negative experiences are still commonplace amongst younger children despite a reduction in smartphone ownership and social media accounts, clearly demonstrates that the problems go beyond a singular focus on smartphones, and a societal solution that includes all smart devices and popular digital environments, including the often overlooked world of gaming and instant messaging apps, from a regulatory perspective, is needed.
Less than half of young people (41% of 8–12 year olds, 46% of 12–15 year olds) indicated that spending time online was a mostly positive experience this year.
GenAI
Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, London School of Economics and Political Science, added: “Big Tech continues to innovate rapidly, and huge interest centres on children’s use of GenAI. The surge in the number of children engaging with AI chatbots – way more than last year – is worrying given that the latest regulation only partially applies to such services.
This report shows the most popular use of generative AI is to look up information: so we need to keep an eye on the information they get this way, and children’s capacity to identify disinformation.”