We Took Every Space Teens Had. Then We Gave Them AI.
No Mall. No Social Media. Just a Chatbot
We’re banning teenagers from malls and McDonald’s. Then, banning them from social media. Then wondering why they’re lonely, struggling, and forming parasocial bonds with AI chatbots.
For a lot of kids, especially those who are Black, Brown, queer, or low-income, third spaces are the only places that ask nothing of them.
No fee. No performance. Just room to exist and find their people.
Those spaces exist online, too. And for LGBTQ+ teens in particular, they’re not optional. Only 9% feel safe expressing their identity in person. Online spaces fill a gap that physical communities are actively failing to provide.
So when we ban teens from both, we’re not protecting them. We’re just deciding that public life, physical or digital, isn’t for them.
This piece from Hopelab is worth your time.
Derek E. Baird is a Child Rights & AI Policy expert with over 20 years of experience building trust and safety systems for young people at organizations such as The Walt Disney Company, Facebook, BeMe Health, and Yahoo! He is the author of the best-selling book, The Gen Z Frequency.
