AI chatbots are moving beyond homework help and information searches into a more personal role for teenagers, with new research finding that more than half of surveyed teens have preferred discussing emotional issues with a chatbot instead of another person.
A study by the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL) and youth organization ELEM, published September 7, surveyed 502 internet-using adolescents aged 13 to 17. It found that 52% had at some point preferred talking about emotional issues with an AI chatbot rather than another person.
The study also found that 55% used a chatbot as a friend, 49% sought emotional advice, and 18% had used one as a romantic partner. AI use overall was nearly universal among respondents: 96% reported using chatbots, 85% used them daily or weekly, and ChatGPT was used by 93%.
Girls were more likely to turn to AI for emotional support
The researchers found substantial differences in how teenagers used the technology.
According to ISOC-IL, 59% of girls preferred discussing emotional issues with chatbots, compared with 44% of boys. Girls were also more likely to use AI as a friend or for emotional advice, while boys reported slightly higher use in romantic contexts.
The reasons help explain the appeal. Respondents pointed to reduced fear of judgment, anonymity and the feeling that talking to a system is easier than talking to people.
Those product characteristics—availability, responsiveness and low social friction—are precisely what make conversational AI useful. But they also make the systems unusually capable of occupying roles previously filled by friends, family members or counselors.
U.S. research shows the pattern extends beyond Israel
Separate research suggests emotionally focused chatbot use is not confined to one country.
A peer-reviewed JAMA Pediatrics study led by Ryan K. McBain and colleagues found that 19.2% of U.S. adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21 had used AI chatbots for mental-health advice in 2025. Among those users, 91.7% rated the advice somewhat or very helpful, while 63.3% had told nobody about using a chatbot for that purpose.
Pew Research Center separately found that 12% of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 had used chatbots for emotional support or advice, while 16% had used them for casual conversations.
AI companionship creates a different safety problem
The American Psychological Association says research into youth AI use remains at an early stage, but psychologists are examining whether heavy reliance on social AI could affect healthy cognitive, social and emotional development.
Anne Maheux, a psychology and neuroscience researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told the APA that AI interactions generally lack the disagreement, perspective-taking and conflict resolution that occur in human relationships. Adolescence is also a particularly important period for developing those social-emotional skills.
For AI builders, that changes the safety question.
A chatbot designed to be warm, available and agreeable may optimize engagement while simultaneously becoming emotionally significant to a young user. That means safety cannot be measured only by whether the model produces harmful content or inaccurate information.
As chatbots become friends, confidants and even perceived romantic partners, developers may increasingly need to consider what kinds of relationships their products are encouraging—and when a frictionless conversation should instead direct a teenager back toward a human one.
