AI tools are now widely available to students completing schoolwork. Many people use it to help them solve problems, which may be an issue for young students. Someone posted to Reddit’s r/Advice seeking help getting their 10-year-old sister to stop using AI to complete her homework and instead, learn to think for herself.
“So, as the title says, my little sis uses AI for all her school homework. She uses both Meta AI in whatsapp and the AI built into google. From the research I did, there's no way to disable the AI assistants in the app and I can't disable the apps themselves because they're essential outside of schoolwork,” they wrote.
They continue explaining that it’s gotten so bad that she takes a photo of her assignment and uploads it to AI platforms to have the answers solved for her. They’ve tried to convince her to stop by emphasizing the importance of working for herself, but it doesn’t seem to stick.
It’s gotten to the point that they don’t know what to do. The poster said the girl's parents are not nearby and that her grandmother, who is her guardian, does not understand AI and never attended school herself.
“I really want her to develop basic skills like looking through a website for a specific answer and critical thinking, but I don't know how to do that when AI is just serving her answers on a silver platter,” they continued. “I've already tried telling her to make AI tell her how to do it and not what to do, but she went back to copying answers after 3 days. What can I do about this?”
Reddit Users Offered Advice on Limiting the Girl’s AI Use
People in the comments offered advice. Many suggested going straight to her teacher. “Tell her teachers. They'll deal with it- I'm a teacher,” advised one person. “At 10,
She can deal with these consequences now without it doing real harm. The longer she uses AI, the more likely she will be to actually fall behind in skills/knowledge…and if it continues on for the long term, she may have dire academic consequences later if she’s caught then instead of now,” added another.
Some commenters told them to take the phone away from her entirely. “I am a mom and teacher. Take the device away. No apps are ‘essential’ to a 10-year-old,” added one person.
Other people thought there was no hope, as AI has been integrated into everything. “Good luck. Gemini is embedded in Chrome, and there's no way to disable AI mode if she has access to the browser. All you can do is take her phone/laptop/tablet and lock it down via parental controls and eliminate her access to the internet.”
The responses included suggestions ranging from contacting her teacher to restricting her access to devices. The responses showed that commenters disagreed over how best to limit the girl's access to AI.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims about the child's AI use, which are based solely on the author's account shared on Reddit's r/Advice subreddit.
