Two US youth surveys: 12% of students use AI as a friend, 36% of 9-year-olds use chatbots

Two US reports published on October 27 describe how young people use AI. The JED Foundation surveyed more than 5,500 middle and high school students at 21 schools in its programs between October 2025 and April 2026. About 58% use AI for schoolwork and 57% when they feel sad, stressed, lonely or overwhelmed; 12% use it for friendship or companionship. That group reports more anxiety and depression symptoms, more loneliness and more past suicidal thoughts and attempts. JED stresses these are correlations; they do not show that AI use causes the problems. The sample is not representative, and homework use was also linked to higher loneliness, so the links may partly reflect which students are already struggling.

The Common Sense Media census, a nationally representative survey of 1,211 people aged 9 to 17, asks about AI chatbots and companions in general. It finds that 36% of 9-year-olds use them, as do 55% of 11-year-olds and 73% of 13-year-olds, although the most popular chatbots officially require users to be 13. The organization says age gating “doesn’t appear to be working.”

We read the JED press release and the Common Sense summary, not the full reports, and neither mentions romance or sexual content, so they say nothing direct about erotic AI. They matter for AIrotic because every companion product’s age assurance starts from the facts they describe: young children already use chatbots, and some of the loneliest teenagers use them as friends. Earlier studies on loneliness point the same cautious way.