Key points

We need to consider how we provide kids with access to AI and how we guide their use to prevent past mistakes.

Smartphones and social media marked the tipping point to unsupervised screen time and algorithmic influence.

Early screen-based technologies and video games were primarily about play, fun, and learning.

AI has great potential for neurodivergent children, but it is fraught with numerous potential problems.

Years ago (more than 35), I was an unabashed supporter of kids playing video games and other "screen play” (that phrase eventually became the name of this Psychology Today blog). Now I find myself asking: Will AI be powerful or problematic for kids?

I came from an undergraduate and graduate school training that taught me something simple but profound: that play

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