Is AI safe for kids?

General-purpose AI tools (ChatGPT, image generators, chat companions) were built for adults and adapted afterwards. They can be safe for children only with active supervision, clear rules, and tools that were designed for a child from the first line of code. A purpose-built children's AI like Sketchlings is a different shape: every prompt, image, and output is filtered for an age 4–12 audience, and a grown-up sees everything.

Four show up again and again: exposure to age-inappropriate content, data collection on a small child, hallucinated facts presented as truth, and the social risks of open chat with a model that talks like a person. The right tool removes most of these at the design level — no open chat box, no public profiles, no training on the child's input.

Three things, at minimum. (1) Inputs are constrained — kids pick from guided choices instead of typing freeform prompts a model can be steered with. (2) Outputs are moderated by a layered system before a child sees them, not after. (3) A parent account owns the child account and can review, pause, or hide anything. If a product cannot describe all three, it is not child-safe — it is general-purpose AI with a friendly logo.

On a general AI tool, no. On a properly designed children's tool, yes — within the rails the grown-up has set. Sketchlings, for example, lets a parent choose what the child can do (upload art, save memories, share with family) before the child ever opens the app. The child gets independence; the grown-up keeps the steering wheel.

Some products do, some do not, and the privacy policy is the only place to find out. Look for: no public profile, no advertising, no training on child inputs, and a clear deletion path. Sketchlings is parent-owned end to end — there is no public child profile, no scoreboard, no DMs, and creations are private until a grown-up shares them.

Sketchlings was built from scratch for ages 4–12. There is no blank chat box — kids draw, the drawing becomes a character, and that character stars in age-appropriate illustrated stories. Every story is filtered before the child sees it, and the parent dashboard shows every creation. ChatGPT and Character AI are powerful general tools that simply were not designed for a 6-year-old.

It depends on the tool, not the child. A purpose-built children's product like Sketchlings is appropriate from around age 4 with a grown-up nearby and from age 7 or so for independent use. A general-purpose AI assistant is, in our view, a teenage tool at the earliest — and even then, with conversation.