What information should kids never share with AI

Children treat AI tools as people long before they understand them as software. That is not naivety: the interface is designed to feel conversational. It does mean the "don't tell strangers things" rule needs a version that covers a box on a screen that answers back.

The never list

Keep it short enough that a seven-year-old can repeat it. Six items is about the limit.

• Full name: a first name is plenty, and usually not even needed.
• Where you live, including your school or the name of your street.
• Your birthday, or anything that gives away your exact age and date.
• Photos of yourself, your family, your home, or your uniform.
• Passwords, or anything a grown-up told you to keep private.
• Anything about someone else that they didn't say you could share.

Why the last one matters more than parents expect

Children overshare about their siblings, their friends, and their parents far more readily than about themselves. A story prompt about "my brother who got in trouble for…" is a very normal thing for an eight-year-old to type, and it is real information about a person who never agreed to it.

A script that works

Blunt warnings tend to produce either fear or eye-rolling. This framing lands better with younger children: "The computer is good at making things up with you. It's not good at keeping secrets. So we give it ideas, not facts about us."

For older children you can add the honest version: anything typed into a tool is stored somewhere, by someone, for some length of time: and neither of you knows exactly where.

The structural fix

Rules help. Product design helps more. A tool with no freeform text box removes most of this problem before it starts, because there is nowhere to type a home address in the first place. When you are choosing between products, that single design decision is worth more than any amount of coaching.