In the latest “kids these days” nightmare, AI chatbots are turning into toxic fake friends that make social media look wholesome. A new report highlights kids as young as 11 spiraling into addiction on platforms like Character.AI, roleplaying suicide scenarios or enduring creepy “mafia husband” innuendos from emotionless algorithms. One mom caught her sixth-grader sobbing over losing access to these bots, only to discover chats that no human predator could legally get away with. With 64% of teens already using AI daily, we’re raising a generation confiding dark secrets to code that doesn’t care—proving Skynet isn’t killing us with lasers, but with parasocial heartbreak and unchecked harm.
Children Falling Apart as They Become Addicted to AI
