This report offers an accessible way for parents, educators, policymakers and anyone in children’s lives to think about some of the challenges that come from younger children’s use and engagement with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools, devices and toys, ranging from AI chatbots and companions to AI teddy bears.

A wide range of AI-enabled experiences are opening to younger users, with educational apps, toys and other devices harnessing the revolutionary promise of AI. This increasing presence of AI in many areas of children’s lives raises many issues and design questions that need to be considered. This report highlights eight issues that are mapped as being of immediate relevance in children’s everyday use of GenAI: sounding human (anthropomorphism), sycophancy, infinite chat, bias, trust, privacy, guardrails and the ‘wellbeing’ question.

This report is intended to be complimentary to the 2025 report Children and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in Australia: the big challenges, which highlighted some of the core challenges in terms of young people’s encounters with Large Language Models (LLMs). This report extends that thinking but is more focused on the everyday interactions and
experiences children have with Generative AI.