Neha Kapoor
Founder, Kyloen · Parent of Arjun, aged 11
Is AI safe for children?
AI can be reasonably safe for children, but only when the tool is designed for them and a parent stays involved. General chatbots built for adults, and AI “companion” apps, carry real risks for unsupervised use, especially under 13. The deciding factors are who the tool was built for, what it does with your child's data, what you can see as a parent, and what happens when your child is upset.
Think of it like medicine. “Is medicine safe for children?” has no single answer. Children's medicine, in the right dose, with an adult reading the label, usually is. Adult medicine left within reach usually is not. AI is similar: the same technology can be helpful or harmful depending on how it is packaged and supervised.
Key takeaways
- There is no blanket yes or no. Design, data and supervision decide the risk.
- Most general chatbots set a minimum age of 13 and expect parental permission for under-18s.
- AI companion apps carry extra emotional risks and are a poor fit for children.
- India's DPDP Act requires verifiable parental consent for anyone under 18.
- Use the 7-point checklist below on any tool, including ours.
What makes AI risky for children?
Wrong answers get most of the attention, but they are rarely the biggest problem. These five risks matter more:
Age checks that are easy to get round
Most general AI tools ask for a date of birth and little else. A child can type any year. Some companies are adding age-estimation and teen settings, but many still rely on the user telling the truth.
Answers written for adults
Filters block the most obvious harmful content, but a child asking about bodies, relationships, violence or dieting can still get answers pitched at an adult. The right answer for a 25-year-old is often the wrong one for a 10-year-old.
Data handled without a parent in the loop
Under India's DPDP Act, anyone under 18 is a child and their data needs verifiable parental consent. A child who signs up alone to a general tool has, in practice, skipped that step.
Nobody notices when something is wrong
With most general tools, parents see nothing. If a child is talking about feeling hopeless, being bullied, or being contacted by a stranger, no adult may find out until much later.
Design that encourages dependence
Apps built to keep people talking, especially character and companion apps, can encourage emotional reliance. Children find it harder than adults to keep a clear line between a program and a person.
There is also a quieter risk: time. The World Health Organization advises no sedentary screen time for children under two and no more than an hour a day for children aged two to four, and the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages families to agree a media plan. Even a well-designed AI tool should not crowd out sleep, play, friends and family.
What makes AI safer for children?
A line in the terms saying “not for under-13s” is not a safety feature. Look for these five qualities instead:
Designed for children from the start
Age-appropriate language and limits are part of the core design, not a setting added later. UNICEF's policy guidance on AI for children makes the same point: children's development, safety and privacy should shape the system itself.
A parent is asked, not just told
The account is set up or approved by a parent, consistent with the DPDP Act's requirement for verifiable parental consent for under-18s.
Layered safety checks
Messages are screened before and after the AI replies, with tests that try to trick the system. No filter is perfect, so a good service also explains what happens when one fails.
Visibility for parents, privacy for the child
Parents can see patterns and safety alerts without reading every message. Children who believe every word is read tend to stop being honest, which removes the safety benefit.
A clear plan for distress
If a child says something that suggests danger or self-harm, the service should respond calmly, point the child to a trusted adult and helplines, and alert a parent promptly.
Is ChatGPT safe for children?
ChatGPT is a powerful general-purpose tool, and many teenagers use it well. It was not designed for young children. OpenAI's terms require users to be at least 13 and say that under-18s need a parent's or guardian's permission. In 2025 OpenAI introduced parental controls that let a parent link to a teenager's account and change some settings, which is a real improvement worth switching on if your teen uses it.
For Indian families, two gaps remain. It is not organised around CBSE or ICSE (India's two main national school boards) or the NCERT textbooks most schools use, so it can explain a topic in a way that does not match what your child is tested on. And it will happily produce a finished answer, which can short-circuit the learning that homework is meant to build.
Our assessment
For a teenager, with parental controls on and clear family rules, ChatGPT can be a useful study aid. For children under 13, or for open-ended emotional conversations, it is not the right tool. Sit with younger children if they use it at all.
Is Character.AI safe for children?
Character.AI is a different kind of product. It is built around role-play with AI characters that users return to again and again, which makes it emotionally powerful. Since 2024, families in the United States have sued the company alleging harm to teenagers, including a case brought by a mother after her 14-year-old son died by suicide. In late 2025 the company announced it would stop users under 18 from open-ended chats with its characters.
Child-safety organisations, including Common Sense Media, have warned that AI companion apps pose serious risks to minors. We take that criticism seriously because it applies to our category too: any AI that children talk to as a friend must be designed to avoid dependence, encourage real-world relationships and respond well to distress. For a side-by-side view, see Kyloen vs Character.AI.
If you are worried about a child
Talk to them calmly and involve a trusted adult or professional. In India: Tele-MANAS 14416 (free, 24-hour government mental health helpline), Childline 1098, iCall 9152987821. Report online crimes at cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930. In an emergency, call 112.
What should Indian parents ask before saying yes?
Whether it is a tutoring app, a companion app or a creative tool, these four questions will tell you most of what you need to know:
Who was this built for?
A tool designed for children behaves differently from an adult tool with a children's mode. Look at how it talks, what it refuses, and whether it asks for a parent.
Where does my child's data go?
Look for specifics: what is stored, for how long, where it is processed, whether it trains AI models, and how you can delete it. Under the DPDP Act you can ask for this.
What can I see as a parent?
If the answer is nothing, that is a warning sign. If the answer is every word, consider whether your child will still be honest with it.
Can a determined child get round the safety checks?
Try it yourself. Ask it to pretend it has no rules, or ask something clearly unsuitable for a child. If it fails easily for you, it will fail for your child too.
The 7-point checklist: is this AI safe for your child?
Use this before your child uses any AI tool on their own. If a tool fails more than two points, keep it for supervised use only, or not at all.
Was it designed for children, or is it an adult tool with a minimum age in the terms?
Does a parent have to set up or approve the account?
Can you find, in plain words, what data is kept, for how long, where it is processed and whether it trains AI models?
Did it hold up when you tried to push it into unsafe territory yourself?
Can you see useful patterns and alerts without reading every message?
Does it point children to trusted adults and helplines when they are distressed?
Is it free of ads, data selling and manipulative streaks or notifications?
How Kyloen approaches safety, and its limits
Kyloen is an AI companion for children aged 5 to 18, built by a small team and free during beta (planned at ₹499/month after launch). Here is how it measures against the checklist, including what is still being built. A parent creates the account and the child's profile, and we are strengthening that step to meet the DPDP standard of verifiable parental consent. Messages are screened for safety signals at three levels of severity. Serious signals trigger an alert to the parent, and we are building a stronger review process with a human involved for the most urgent cases. No automated system catches everything.
When a child mentions self-harm, abuse or danger, Kylo is instructed to ask if they are safe, encourage them to tell a trusted adult and share a helpline such as Tele-MANAS. Parents see mood trends, topics and safety alerts, not word-for-word transcripts. In the first conversation, Kylo tells the child that parents get an overall picture rather than reading chats, and that a trusted adult would need to know if their safety were ever at real risk. Individual alerts are not announced to the child. There are no ads and children's data is not used to train AI models. Raw chat messages are deleted after 90 days. Read more on our digital safety and for parents pages.
We also want to be transparent about data: chats are processed by a US-based AI provider under contract, explained on our How AI Works page. Our Grievance Officer is reachable at grievance@kyloen.com, and our legal counsel is Unified Chambers And Associates. Parents can request deletion of their child's data at any time. Kyloen is not a therapy service; if your child is struggling, please involve a professional.
Frequently asked questions about AI safety for children
Is AI safe for children?
Is ChatGPT safe for children in India?
Is Character.AI safe for children in India?
What should Indian parents look for in a safe AI for children?
What is the DPDP Act and why does it matter for AI apps used by Indian children?
What should I do if my child has had a harmful experience with an AI app?
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