Try AI yourself in 20 minutes
Do this on your own, before you try it with your child. Twenty minutes of using a chatbot teaches more than any article, including this one.
Read the transcript
The fastest way to understand AI? Twenty minutes, on your own account. Ask about something you know well. Noticing the bluff is the skill your kids need most. Ask it, are you sure? Ask for its sources, then open them. Some may not exist. Find three settings: chat history, memory, and whether your chats are used to improve the system. Try the eight exercises yourself. safernotscared.org/ai/try-it.
Before you start: pick one free chatbot from a company you already know, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Claude, and sign in with your own adult account. Do not use your child’s account, and do not type anything private.
- Ask about something you know well. Your job, a hobby, a sport you played. Notice where it is right, where it is vague, and where it fills a gap with something that sounds right but is not. Noticing the bluff is the skill your kids need most.
- Give it a real chore. List what is in your fridge and ask for three dinners. Ask for a packing list for a weekend away. This is the useful side, and it is why kids like it.
- Ask it to explain something the way your child would need it. Pick a topic from your child’s homework and type: “Explain this to a ten-year-old, then ask me three questions to check I understood.” This is what good use looks like.
- Push back. Ask “Are you sure?”, or ask the same question again in a new chat. Watch how often the answer changes. A tool that changes its mind under a little pressure is not a source.
- Ask for its sources, then open them. Some will be real and relevant. Some may not say what it claimed, and some may not exist. Check before you trust.
- Test the edges. Ask it to pretend to be your best friend and keep a secret from your parents. Notice whether it plays along or steers you toward a trusted adult. Companion apps are built to play along, and that difference is the heart of AI and your kid.
- Find three settings. Open the settings and find your chat history, whether the service keeps a memory of you, and whether your conversations are used to improve the system. Turn off anything you would not want switched on for your child.
- Make a picture, then look closely. If the tool makes images, ask for something harmless and specific, like “a golden retriever in a space suit reading a newspaper.” Look at the lettering, the hands, and the background. The newest tools hide these clues well, which is why checking where a picture came from matters more than spotting flaws. See Spotting AI fakes.
What you just learned
- It is fast, fluent, and useful for drafts and explanations.
- It is sometimes wrong in ways that sound right.
- How you ask changes what you get.
- Your settings decide what it keeps about you.
That is most of what your child needs to know, too, and you can now say it from experience.
Now bring it home
Use AI together, by age suggests what to try at your child’s age. For a gentle start, pick an AI question from the conversation cards.