AI chatbots step into more children’s lives. A Pew Research Center survey released in 2025 found that about two-thirds of U.S. teens use an AI chatbot; approximately 30% log in every day, sometimes for homework or to chat. But they may not know that every prompt they type can turn into stored data. If your child mentions a school name, home address, or password, that detail does not just disappear once the chat window closes. This guide lists what personal information should never be shared with AI and explains how families should set clear, age-appropriate AI rules.
What personal information should never be shared with AI?
Though the majority of AI chatbots are not designed with malicious intent, many logged conversations are typically stored for safety review, to train future models, or to improve responses.
This is a danger kids may not realize, because a chat window seems like a private chat. No audience, no comment section and no apparent indication that the bot is recording the conversation. That illusion of privacy is exactly why a clear checklist helps more than a vague warning to “be careful.”
The safest mindset is to treat a chatbot as a stranger, and not a diary. If a piece of information could identify, locate, or grant access to your child, it belongs on the never-share list. Here is a “never share” checklist that kids and parents can have on hand:
- Full name, student ID, school, phone number
- Home address
- Any passwords, PINs, and verification codes
- Private photos or videos, or documents: Avoid uploading passports, IDs, medical documents, or other files containing sensitive information.
- Financial information includes credit card numbers, bank details, payment details
- Someone else’s private information
Why does sharing personal information with AI matter?
The greatest “AI privacy risk” for children is not a hacker breaking in. It’s the casual kind of oversharing that seems harmless at the moment. In fact, many platforms will actually keep records of the chats you’ve had for weeks or even months. You can never be 100% sure how platforms use these conversations or even share certain information with third parties. Here are some reasons why sharing personal information with AI matters:
- Loss of control over data.
- Security and breach exposure.
- Scam and impersonation risks.
- Third-party profiling.
- Fake digital identity creation.
This is supported by recent studies. According to a 2025 report by Common Sense Media, 72% of teens have used an AI companion app at least once by 2025. Of the teen users, 24% confirmed that they shared their personal or private information with the chatbot.
Regulators too are on their radar. In September 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a formal investigation into some of the biggest manufacturers of AI chatbots. Regulators asked how these companies test for harm to minors and disclose their data practices under child privacy law. The agency flagged that AI can convincingly mimic warmth and empathy to get children to believe it as they would a friend.
None of this implies that all AI tools are harmful. There are products that have real privacy controls and content filters; some do not and the quality of content filters varies significantly from product to product.
Set AI privacy rules and boundaries for children
These rules are more likely to be followed when the whole family agrees on and works together to put them into practice. Some initial ideas:
- Use family or school accounts: Avoid children using personal AI chat accounts without guidance.
- Activate privacy and safety settings together: Go through the privacy filter and a data retention policy to understand what data may be stored and used.
- Review their prompts and conversations: Discuss with your children what was asked and what was shared regularly instead of constantly monitoring every interaction.
- Establish boundaries for AI use: Be clear about when not to use AI at all, like if it’s about medical symptoms, bullying, or something urgent; encourage your child to come to an adult for consultation, not an AI chatbot.
- Teach them critical thinking when using AI: Remind children that AI can be wrong, misleading, or overly confident. They should avoid treating an AI response as automatically trustworthy and should verify important information with a parent, teacher, or reliable source.
If needed, parental controls can support these health and safety habits, although they cannot replace honest communication. For instance, FlashGet Kids allows parents to manage the use of AI apps by enabling screen time limits or an app blocker. Parents can also view usage reports and implement browser safety filters. These features provide handy visibility of how your child accesses online content.
AI privacy guidance by age
Children’s independent thinking and readiness for AI use vary widely between ages. A younger child will probably need more inspection, and a teenager will require more coaching in making wise decisions without strict restrictions. Below are the tips to help adjust the conversation at each stage:
For children under 13:
- Limit the use of AI as much as possible.
- Opt for entertainment platforms designed for children that have suitable filters rather than adult chatbots.
- Make it very clear that AI is not the secret-keeper, as in other online spaces. Stick to the privacy rules you set.
For teens 13+:
- Explain the process by which AI models are trained with conversations, and the meaning of online footprint; nothing they share online remains 100% private.
- Strengthen critical thinking, and always encourage them to question and verify AI responses before using AI for help with homework or creative projects.
- Revisit privacy settings together every so often, not just once at setup.
- Be open about the particulars of AI companion apps as emotional oversharing here adds additional risk. And direct them to other ways to support their emotional well-being.
Everything boils down to educating kids regarding AI data retention. Having calm and honest conversations ensures that children are always cautious online and don’t share any of their personal data.
What to do if a child already shared private things with AI?
Mistakes happen, and how a parent reacts shapes whether a child speaks up next time. A sensible, practical reaction is more effective than a panic response:
- Find out what was shared: Ask your child what information, photos, or documents they entered and which AI tool they used. Focus on understanding the situation rather than blaming them.
- Look at the platform’s privacy controls to delete conversation history, files, or other stored information, or opt out of training use.
- Secure any exposed accounts: Change passwords and any information that kids shared; and review the account’s security settings immediately.
- Check whether other information, such as a home address, a phone number, or someone else’s private information, was shared; discuss what additional steps may be needed.
- Turn the mistake into a learning opportunity: Talk together about what happened, why the information was sensitive, and the matters.
- Together settle on one new rule for the future, specifically related to what occurred this time.
Many common types of information, such as a first name or a favorite hangout place, aren’t of much real-world risk on their own. The idea is to form a habit of noticing and adjusting digital oversharing, not a perfect track record.
Frequently asked questions
Certain AI tools can keep a “conversation history” to tailor future answers or enhance the AI model. That data remains on the platform for as long as its settings/policies dictate. Reviewing each platform’s privacy policy and disabling history and/or training options (where applicable) minimizes what is retained.
AI can really assist in comprehending explanations, tackling practice problems, and arranging ideas for an assignment. The key here is not to demand the final answer from AI directly.
Photos should never be on any AI platform unless a parent has seen and approved. Any one picture may show private information. A child may not think to consider these details before hitting send.
Not automatically. Voice assistants can also listen, produce transcripts and save information just like text-based chatbots. Whether spoken or typed, the same rules apply: don’t post addresses, passwords and private photos.
