AI sexting presents major risks for teenagers as it revolves around very delicate feelings and interactions which mandate maturity, strong boundaries. The brain develops a lot between the ages of 12 and even all the way through adolescence, these are still teenagers; very much in shape to acquire fundamental emotional and social skills that they will need for adult life — any job involving sex or ‘personal entertainment’ as with AI driven sexting could mess up this important distinction between playful digital navigation on one hand, interactivity which constitutes potential addiction on another. While you're unlikely to see a sex-crazed hologram the second AI and VR take off, let alone for as long as there are parents in the world hoping their teens develop real relationships, just 10 minutes of exposure based on current data is enough to make someone feel that they share an intimate connection with something. The over-sexualization warning may be extreme but then again this comes from years by childhood psychologists at organizations such as Amrican Academy Of Pediactrics (AAP).
Privacy is another serious issue because teenagers may not understand the ramifications of their data being stored and used. American regulations such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) place strict restrictions on collecting data of users under 13, but enforcement varies significantly depending on what entities parents are accessing. Like the California law, large fines are also part of privacy legislation in other countries, such as The European Union's GDPR which can impose non-compliance charges at levels up to 4% percent of a company’s annual revenue. While these are standards meant to protect its young users, enforcing age restrictions is difficult and even on platforms with effective systems in place for verifying a user's date of birth many minors have managed access adult content.
Teenagers may similarly have a different susceptibility to the relative comfort of very personable AI interactions. Research also suggest that younger users become emotionally attached to AI-driven chat relatively quickly, with one study finding 30% of interacting with it had the sense they were better understood by software than human relations. In turn, these unrealistic portrayals can lead to unhealthy expectations of relationships in real life as well codependent relationships with the company behind those friendly emails.
Teenagers sexting via ai tools is unlikely to be secure unless firm protections are put in place, such as age checks; robust information privacy standards and a platform-responsible server alliance of the proposed AI Ethics Council requirements Editorial output ( newly presented). These caveats aside, the emotional and privacy pitfalls very much outweigh any benefits at stake — which is why we strongly recommend extreme care on all these topics under parental guidance.
See ai sexting for more depth on this topic.