{"id":266503,"date":"2026-06-07T06:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/07\/ai-social-media-give-children-a-dangerous-digital-mirror\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T08:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:05:14","slug":"ai-social-media-give-children-a-dangerous-digital-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/07\/ai-social-media-give-children-a-dangerous-digital-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, social media give children a dangerous digital mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI, social media give children a dangerous digital mirror<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/voices\/2026\/06\/07\/ai-social-media-how-to-help-children\/90355161007\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-07 06:03:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.usatoday.com<\/a><\/p>\n

June 7, 2026, 6:03 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

We used to worry about what children were seeing online. Now we have to worry about what answers they get back, sometimes in ways that can distort a child\u2019s sense of self.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Children everywhere are asking questions and seeking advice. It’s dangerous.<\/p>\n

A 10-year-old girl could beg\u00a0for K-beauty products to achieve “glass skin.” A boy barely into puberty might follow “looksmaxxing” influencers. The college student who scrolls through internships, travel photos and smiling group shots and asks ChatGPT, \u201cIs\u00a0there something wrong with me?\u201d The answer comes back: \u201cYou\u2019re not crazy to think so,\u201d reflecting a broader design problem in AI systems that\u00a0too often err on the side of affirmation.<\/p>\n

This is the fun-house mirror of social comparison in the age of AI.<\/p>\n

People are increasingly asking AI as a digital mirror<\/h2>\n

Comparison is inevitable, even useful, as children learn about the world and themselves. But social media and now AI have turned comparison from a tool of self-understanding into the engine of an identity-distorting feedback loop.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this firsthand over decades of work bringing RULER \u2012 our systemic approach to teaching emotional intelligence \u2012 to more than 5,000 schools around the world, reaching millions of children, youth, educators and families. We\u2019ve seen it beyond schools as well, including in our work with social media companies such as Meta, where we have helped design systems aimed at reducing conflict, cruelty and bullying online.<\/p>\n

Social media has spent years learning where your child\u2019s attention catches: a \u201cglow up\u201d video, a flawless complexion, a party she isn\u2019t at. These images invite the old questions \u2012 Why am I not prettier? What\u2019s wrong with me? Why wasn\u2019t I invited? AI might then meet the child in the next vulnerable moment, ready to confirm what she already fears.<\/p>\n

Opinion: They didn’t want data centers. It…
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI, social media give children a dangerous digital mirror https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/voices\/2026\/06\/07\/ai-social-media-how-to-help-children\/90355161007\/ Publish Date: 2026-06-07 06:03:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/05\/08\/USAT\/89995990007-getty-images-2169995660.jpg?crop=7679,4319,x0,y0&width=3200&height=1800&format=pjpg&auto=webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266503"}],"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=266503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266506,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266503\/revisions\/266506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}