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My daughter asked to download an AI 'chat friend' she saw in a kids' game ad
She wasn't lonely, she was just curious. Here's what I said.
Last year, my kids had their own iPads with parental controls in place. One day, my daughter asked if she could download an AI 'chat friend' she saw in a kids' game ad.
She said it looked fun, like having another friend, and not because she was lonely or because anything was wrong. She was just curious.
What I realized
It made me realize something important: this isn't about parental controls or how locked down we think our homes are, it's about how fast the ground is moving under us.
AI chat companions are now appearing in ads inside kids' games, and they're designed to look fun and friendly. Children are curious, as they should be. The real question isn't whether we can lock everything down, it's whether we've given them the language to understand what these things actually are.