The summer AI safety check every parent should do right now
Recipe for digital-free summer fun: Yard, hose, sprinkler, water. (Photo: Mick Haupt on Unsplash)
June 10, 2026 — With schools letting out across the country, this is a good time for parents to check up on their kids’ digital safety. It’s especially important as kids, tweens, and teens engage with more AI systems, whether they realize it or not.
Here are five safety checks to carry out as the school year ends.
Check #1: Look at the apps on your child’s device. This is a simple first step, and we recommend doing it with your child. As them what they use the app for, how often they open it, and how much time they spend on it.
Check #2: Review privacy and permissions settings on each device, and for each app. Start by disabling the geolocation trackers.
We have a step-by-step TCAI guide here: How to stop apps from tracking your kids
This post explains why you should disable geolocators: Location sharing is creating a massive dataset based on your private movements
Here’s a TCAI guide to blocking apps from using data to train AI models: How to stop AI from using your images and data
Here’s a TCAI chatbot data privacy guide: How to stop chatbots from capturing and selling your personal data
Check #3: Talk about AI with your child. A couple of good starting points:
Talk about the difference between a search engine (classic Google) and an AI response (ChatGPT).
Talk about AI chatbots, why they’re not really “friends,” and why chatbots can be problematic and risky.
Resources for parents:
The Dangers of Artificial Intimacy (TCAI / Human Change)
Youth and Gen AI: A Guide for Parents (from Children and Screens)
Check #4: Set summer AI rules and create a digital diet. Every family will have different expectations, values, and boundaries. Discuss this summer’s digital plan, and limits, with your kids. Talk what’s fair, what’s healthy, and why digital limits are important for everyone. Different limits may be appropriate for siblings of different ages. A 16-year-old may be old enough to drive a car, but a 12-year-old isn’t. Screen time boundaries work in similar ways.
Resources for parents:
How to Make a Family Media Use Plan (American Academy of Pediatrics)
What’s Your Family’s Digital Diet Plan? (Mayo Clinic)
Check #5: Make a plan to get the kids outside. “Go touch grass” isn’t just a saying. Moving the kids outside is a big first step toward giving your kids a mentally and physically healthy summer. Create a Family Faraday Bag to store the kids’ devices while they’re outside. It can be a real faraday bag (that blocks incoming and outgoing signals) or just a dedicated canvas tote bag where the kids’ devices live—out of sight, out of mind—for most of the summer day.
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