The Pew Research Center released a Learn It’s Tuesday that shows how young people are using Social Media and Ai Chatbots.
Teen Internet Safety has become a global hot topic, with Australian plans in the works Strengthen a ban on social media For 16 years as of Wednesday. The influence of social media on the mental health of adolescents has been debated – some studies show how Online Community can increase Mental Healthwhile other research shows the bad effects of DOOOMScrolling or spending too much time online. US surgeon Malah called For social media platforms to put warning labels on products last year.
Pew found that 97% of teens use the internet every day, with about 40% of respondents saying they are “almost always online.” While this marks a decrease from last year’s survey (46%), it is higher than the results from a decade ago, when 24% of teenagers said they were online almost the same.
But as the prevalence of AI AI grows in the US, this technology has become another factor in the influence of the Internet on American youth.

About three of our teens use Ai chatbots every day, the Pew study reveals, with 4% saying they use them constantly. Fifty-nine percent of teenagers say they use chatgpt, which is more than twice as popular as the two most used chatbots, gemini google and meta ai (20%). Forty-six percent of US teens say they use AI Chatbots at least several times a week, while 36% report not using AI Chatbots at all.
The Pew study also details how race, age, and influence are influencing teen chatbots.
About 68% of black and Hispanic teens surveyed said they use Chatbots, compared to 58% of white respondents. Specifically, black teens are about twice as likely to use gemini and meta ai as white teens.
TechCrunch events
San Francisco
I’m fat
October 13-15, 2026
“The racial and ethnic disparity in teen chatbot use is striking (…) but it’s hard to make sense of the reasons,” Pew Research Associate Michelle Favero told TechCrunch. “This pattern is consistent with other racial and ethnic differences we’ve seen in teens’ technology use. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than white teens to be on social media sites — such as Tiktok, YouTube, and Instagram.”

Across all internet use, black (55%) and Hispanic teens (52%) are about twice as likely as white teens (27%) to talk online “almost constantly.”
Older teens (ages 15 to 17) tend to use social media and Chatbots Ai more often than younger teens (ages 13 to 14). When it comes to household income, 62% of teens living in households with more than $75,000 a year say they use Chatgpt, compared to 52% of teens below the threshold. But the use of character.ai is twice as popular (14%) in households with incomes below $75,000.
While teenagers may use the tool for basic questions or home help, their relationship with Chatbots AI can be addictive and potentially dangerousSee rank-.
The families of at least two teenagers, Adam Raine and Amurie Lacey, have used Chatgpt Maker Openai for children to commit suicide, which is to wear themselves, which is tragically effective.
(Open claims You cannot be arrested for the death of your face because you are under the age of sixteen by violating the safety features of Chatgpp Cathumentasi and thereby violating the terms of service of Chatbon; The company has yet to respond to the family’s complaint.)
Watak.ai, an AI role-playing platform, is also facing scrutiny for its impact on adolescent mental health; at least Two teenagers died by suicide After having a conversation with AI Chatbots. Beginning to finish making decisions for Stop offering chatbots to minorsand open a product called “Story“For older users it’s almost like a choose-your-own-adventure game.
The experience is reflected in the lawsuit against the company making a small percentage of all interactions that happen on Chatgpt or karakter.ai. In many cases, conversations with Chatbots can be sublime. According to Openai data, only 0.15% of ChatGPT’s active users Have conversations about suicide every week – but on a platform with 800 million active users every week, that small percentage represents more than one million people discussing suicide every week.
“Even if (the company’s AI’) tools are not designed for emotional support, people use the company, and that means that the company has a responsibility to solve the model that needs to be solved for mental user innovation, told TechCrunch.

