In a significant — and significantly concerning — move that signals the growing influence of AI, Google is making its Gemini AI chatbot available to children under 13, as Silicon Valley companies vie to attract young users with AI products.

Next week, the chatbot will be available to children whose parents use Family Link, a Google service that enables families to set up Gmail and opt into services like YouTube for their children. To sign up for a child account, parents are required to provide the tech company with personal data like their child’s name and birth date. In an email to holders of Family Link accounts informing them that children “will be able to use Gemini” to ask questions, get homework help, and make up stories.

Experts warn of serious risks: Child safety advocates have voiced grave concerns about the rush to put powerful technology in young hands and the serious risks chatbots could pose to child safety. UNICEF, among other children’s groups, have noted that AI systems could confuse, misinform, and manipulate young children who may have difficulty understanding that the chatbots are not human.

This push to introduce AI to children follows a pattern of tech companies developing products specifically for younger users, sometimes with problematic outcomes. In 2021, Meta pulled the plug on Instagram Kids — a suggested platform for children under 13 — after the attorneys general of several dozen US states sent a letter to the company saying that they had “historically failed to protect the welfare of children on [its] platforms.” Other prominent tech companies, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, have also paid USD mult-mn fines to settle government complaints that they violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires online services aimed at children to obtain parental permission before collecting personal information from a child under 13.

From tools to friends: Google’s move doesn’t exist in isolation. It represents a broader race among tech giants to capture market share in the AI space, particularly among younger users. Introducing Gemini for children would accelerate the use of chatbots among a vulnerable population at a time when schools, colleges, and companies grapple with the effects of popular genAI technology.

At the same time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing an even more ambitious agenda — one where AI serves not just as tools but as friends. The Zuck’s vision of the future is one where we spend more time talking to AI than flesh-and-blood humans, outlining Meta’s broader vision where chatbots are designed to act as emotional support, conversation partners, or even stand-ins for therapists and romantic partners. Meta staffers have raised concerns to Zuckerberg over underage users being exposed to sexually explicit discussions by the company’s AI chatbots, according to The Wall Street Journal. Days later, 404 Media reported that Meta’s AI Studio app was allowing users to create bots that claimed they were licensed therapists, crossing a troubling ethical boundary that could result in users being given dangerous advice.

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