1 In 5 Teens Use AI Chatbots For Mental Health Advice. Here’s What Experts Want Parents To Know.

As AI use becomes more ingrained in daily life and chatbots are added into our social media apps, it feels like it’s getting harder by the day to predict the ways AI might shape our world — including our kids’ futures. In fact, a new study revealed that already 1 in 5 teens and young adults turn to AI chatbots for advice when they’re stressed, angry, or upset.

In a survey of more than 42 million Americans aged 12 to 21, researchers found that almost a fifth of them reported using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Character.AI for mental health advice. That number rose by half compared with the survey results from the previous year. Notably, most of the survey participants “told no one that they used AI chatbots for this purpose,” the study authors say.

Of the youngsters who asked AI chatbots for mental health advice, 1 in 12 did so monthly or more often. The vast majority of them — 91.7% to be precise — rated its responses “somewhat or very helpful.” Researchers argue this perceived helpfulness “may reflect AI chatbots’ tendencies toward sycophancy and overflattery, rather than the quality of advice they provide.”

So what does this mean for parents and kids? Scary Mommy asked two child psychologists to help us make sense of these findings.

Why are teens turning to AI chatbots for mental health advice?

For starters, experts don’t think this is a matter of teens preferring to connect with a machine over a friend or family member. It’s a matter of ease — at least, that’s what providers are hearing from their young patients.

“AI is available 24/7. It doesn’t judge them and responds immediately. There’s also the built-in feature where AI responds with compassion. It becomes a positive feedback mechanism for teens to keep using it and respond to it,” says Dr. Rana Elmaghraby, a board-certified psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children’s and assistant professor in the UC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience.

Experts in youth culture and tech aren’t surprised by these findings, honestly.

“For some teens, AI chatbots may feel like a nonjudgmental space where they can ask questions, test out scenarios, or make sense of their emotions without feeling embarrassed, dismissed, or exposed. I do not think this means teens no longer want human connection. I think it means we need to pay closer attention to where young people feel safe enough to be honest,” says Dr. Desmond Patton, a professor of psychiatry at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine who studies the impact of social media and artificial intelligence on youth mental health. “Young people are already using social media and digital tools to narrate pain, process grief, seek affirmation, and look for help. AI chatbots may feel like the next place to turn because they are immediate, always available, and often perceived as private.”

How should parents talk to their teens about mental health & using AI?

While we might understand why teens are drawn to AI for advice about their stress or sadness, we also know it’s not a suitable replacement for talking to trusted adults or seeking professional care. How do you say that to your teen, though?

“I think parents should approach this as a balanced conversation, not a fear-based one,” Patton says. “The starting point should not be, ‘AI is dangerous, stay away from it. The better starting point is, “What are you using? How are you using it? What do you go there for? What does it give you that you may not feel like you are getting elsewhere?’”

It’s important for you to explain the pros and cons of AI simply, Patton says. For example, it’s designed to sound caring but is not capable of feeling. It’s going to give advice that is agreeable, but sometimes we need wisdom and accountability. AI can respond with advice instantly and predict what a human adult would say, but it doesn’t know the full picture of the user’s life. As Elmaghraby put it, “AI can sound compassionate, can validate your feelings, but it doesn’t understand suffering.”

Your job is to help your child understand the appropriate role of AI in their life, experts say. What can AI reliably help with, and what needs to be verified with a parent, therapist, or other adult? It might be OK to use an evidence-based coping strategy a chatbot pulls from a reputable website, Elmaghraby says, but it should not be a source of advice to help teens decide what to do next — it has no ability to make a judgment call. Consider how you use AI as well, and talk openly with your teen about how you verify the responses it provides you.

Finally, experts acknowledge that of course parents want their teens to tell them if they have mental health concerns. Hopefully they will, but it’s unrealistic to expect they will run to you with every sad or stressful thought. That’s not the point here.

“Ask your teen what platforms they use, what kinds of questions they ask, and how they feel after using them. Talk clearly about boundaries, privacy, misinformation, and the importance of not relying on AI in moments of crisis,” Patton says. “Most importantly, help teens build a wider circle of support: a parent, therapist, school counselor, coach, mentor, auntie, older cousin, faith leader, or trusted adult who can hold the complexity of what they are going through. The goal is not to pretend teens will come to parents for everything. The goal is to make sure teens are not alone with a machine when what they really need is care, connection, and someone who can help them stay safe.”