What advocates want to prevent is these bots fueling the loss of social skills because they pull people away from relationships with other people, where they have social accountability, Hiner says.

Yeah this is one of my big worries here. And the last section where it's praised compared to other warning systems for not being punitive is horrible though not surprising. It had already become like that when I was a teen. But also, it doesn't have to be like that, we should be treating teenagers like people who fuck up regularly, especially when they're going through shit.

All said though, I do think we need a non Ai way to encourage teens to feel comfortable reaching out for help. I know I didn't trust counselors with my home issues or even consider talking to them about it. Mostly because I knew they'd just make it worse.