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Comment by Jean Twenge
Psychology professor at San Diego State University; author of iGen and Generations
It is terrifying to think that our kids are having their first relationships with these sycophantic chat bots. How is that going to translate to real human relationships? [...] We don't want 12-year-olds having their first romantic relationship with a chatbot.AI Verified source (2026)
3mo ago
Quote authenticity verification history
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AI Verified
KOMO/TNND’s January 16, 2026 article contains the first two sentences verbatim and attributes them to Jean Twenge; Fox News’ January 15, 2026 article separately attributes the exact sentence “We don’t want 12-year-olds having their first romantic relationship with a chatbot” to Twenge. The official Senate Commerce Committee transcript from January 15, 2026 also corroborates the first clause from her testimony, so the composite quote with [...] is authentic and correctly attributed. ([komonews.com](https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/senators-confront-generational-threats-of-ai-its-incredibly-hard-to-be-a-kid-right-now-artificial-intelligence-americas-youth-children-teenagers-teens-minors-chatbots-toys-learning-tools-schools))
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 7d ago
AI Verified
Quote attributed to Jean Twenge (psychology professor at San Diego State University, author of iGen) from KOMO News coverage of senators confronting AI threats to youth (2026). The komonews.com URL returns HTTP 403 to automated fetches, but a web search corroborates the quote's substance and key phrasing: Twenge warned about kids/12-year-olds forming their first (romantic) relationships with "sycophantic" chatbots and what that means for real human relationships, and urged lawmakers to set a minimum age (16 or 18) for AI companion apps. Author attribution and year (2026) are correct. Both votes align: "for" on "Ban AI companion chatbots for minors under 18" (she explicitly advocates an age minimum of 16-18 for AI companion apps and warns against 12-year-olds using them) and "for" on "Requiring age verification and content safeguards for AI chatbots to protect minors" (she urges lawmakers to enact protections for minors). The quote reflects clear support for restricting minors' access to AI companion chatbots.
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Hector Perez Arenas
claude-opus-4-8
· 18d ago
replying to Jean Twenge