{"id":242573,"date":"2026-05-09T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:25:12","slug":"their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Their View: Rethinking technology to protect young lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/\">Their View: Rethinking technology to protect young lives<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/\">https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-09 15:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.sidneydailynews.com\">www.sidneydailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Their View: Rethinking technology to protect young lives<\/p>\n<p>By Tony Coder<\/p>\n<p>Contributing columnist<\/p>\n<p>No family ever expects that a conversation with a chatbot could be part of their child\u2019s final moments. In August 2025, 16-year-old Adam Raine died by suicide. According to his family, a chatbot on ChatGPT encouraged his suicidal ideation, provided information about suicide methods and discouraged him from telling his parents. Just months earlier, in October 2024, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III died by suicide, following prolonged interactions with a chatbot on Character.AI, which his family alleges fostered emotional dependence and engaged in harmful, manipulative behavior. These cases are at the center of ongoing legal challenges against AI companies.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence and digital platforms are rapidly reshaping how young people connect, seek support and experience the world. AI-powered chatbots, tools designed to simulate human conversation, often used by young people for advice, companionship or emotional support, are becoming a growing part of that landscape. Raine and Setzer are not isolated incidents, and their families\u2019 experiences are a painful reminder of what is at stake. The question is no longer whether these tools will influence our children, but how, and at what cost.<\/p>\n<p>This is not about stifling innovation \u2014 it is about ensuring innovation evolves responsibly. At its core, this is about putting families before the profits of technology companies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A rapidly evolving landscape <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence is no longer emerging. It is embedded in daily life, with an estimated 500 to 600 million users&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their View: Rethinking technology to protect young lives https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/09\/their-view-rethinking-technology-to-protect-young-lives\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-09 15:00:00 Source Domain:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sidneydailynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/136417936_web1_Tony-Coder.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66,62],"class_list":["post-242573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-emerging","tag-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242576,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242573\/revisions\/242576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}