Comment by Mitchell J. Prinstein

More and more teens are interacting with chatbots, depriving them of opportunities to learn critical interpersonal skills. Science shows that failure to develop these skills leads to lifetime problems with mental health, chronic medical issues and even early mortality. [...] AI chatbots are designed to agree with users about almost everything, but real human relationships are not frictionless. We need practice with minor conflicts and misunderstandings to learn empathy, compromise and resilience. This has created a crisis in childhood. Unverified source (2026)