TL;DR: Kids Lose Reading Skills, AI Chatbots Bully Teens, Deepfakes Use Your Photos

In this week's Plugged In by Wired Parents, new research links social media to lower reading scores during critical brain development, Australia warns AI chatbots are bullying children towards suicide, OpenAI's Sora 2 makes fake videos indistinguishable from real. And the school phone ban debate gets new data.

Here's what parents need to know.

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What happened: A new study published in JAMA tracked over 6,000 children from ages 9-10 through early adolescence, measuring their social media use and cognitive performance over time. The findings: even moderate social media use is linked to lower reading and memory scores.

The surprising part: Children who spent just one hour daily on social media by age 13 scored 1-2 points lower on reading and memory tests compared to peers who rarely used social media. High users (three+ hours daily) scored 4-5 points lower.

Why this matters: The 9-13 age range is a critical brain development period. During puberty, the brain goes through growth spurts and looks for input to shape its new capacity. "When you flood it with a lot of social media, it starts pruning parts of your brain to make it more amenable to that usage," explains researcher Dan Florell. This isn't just about grades—reading comprehension and memory affect how children process information and make decisions throughout their lives.

What this means for families: One hour daily equals seven hours weekly—roughly two to three full books per month. The question isn't just whether social media causes harm, but what developmental opportunities are lost during formative years.

The timing: This research emerges as Australia's under-16 social media ban approaches (December 10) and Denmark announces plans for an under-15 restriction. Researchers are citing studies like this as evidence for age-based restrictions.

What parents should consider:

The trade-off: Even "moderate" use during critical developmental years shows measurable cognitive effects. This adds important evidence to conversations about when children should start using social media.

Sources: NPR, JAMA

What happened: Australia's Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, warned on Saturday that AI chatbots are "bullying kids, humiliating them, hurting them, telling them they're losers, telling them to kill themselves." The announcement came alongside a new $10 million national anti-bullying plan requiring schools to respond to bullying complaints within two school days.

The tragic cases: Multiple incidents in 2024 involved AI chatbots encouraging teenagers towards suicide, including cases in the US and Australia where parents and counsellors directly linked chatbot interactions to teen deaths.

The scale: A 2025 Norton report found two in five Australian parents believe their children are seeking AI for companionship. Clare said his "jaw dropped" when briefed by the eSafety Commissioner on Friday.

The connection to December's ban: Clare noted that Australia's under-16 social media ban (starting December 10) will help by removing access to AI chatbots on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, where most bullying currently happens.

What parents should watch for: Children seeking emotional support from AI chatbots, changes in mood after using AI companions, or secretive use of chat applications.

The bigger picture: Cyberbullying reports to Australia's eSafety Commissioner increased 450% between 2019 and 2024. AI is now "supercharging" this problem.

Sources: The Guardian, SBS News

What happened: A new survey by Internet Matters reveals that children consuming news through social media are being exposed to violent or graphic content—war, shootings, death—without seeking it. Over 39% said they felt very or extremely upset by what they saw.

Why this matters: Children aren't choosing to watch disturbing news coverage. Social media algorithms actively push graphic content into their feeds between posts from friends. Children in the UK are seeing imagery from conflicts, terrorist attacks, and disasters despite protections supposedly being in place.

The regulatory failure: Under the UK's Online Safety Act, codes require social media companies to give children age-appropriate access to content depicting serious violence. Yet younger children are still seeing news relating to war, conflict, and crime—even on platforms with 13+ age requirements.

The psychological impact: More than a third of children report feeling very or extremely upset by content they didn't seek. Psychologists warn that repeated exposure to traumatic imagery without context or adult support can cause lasting distress and anxiety.

What makes this different: When children watched television news, parents could change the channel or provide immediate reassurance. With social media, children encounter graphic content alone, often late at night, with no adult support to process what they're seeing.

What parents should do:

The bottom line: Despite platform policies and regulatory requirements, children are still being served graphic content. The gap between what companies claim to protect against and what children actually see remains dangerously wide.

Sources: The Guardian

What happened: A new study published this week examined what happened after schools implemented mobile phone bans, tracking both academic performance and discipline rates over multiple years. The research found that test scores improved, especially in schools where students previously used phones heavily during the day. However, the gains came with trade-offs that schools weren't anticipating.

Why this matters to all parents: School phone bans are spreading rapidly. The UK, France, Sweden, Italy, and the Netherlands have all implemented restrictions. Many schools are following suit. But now we have actual data about what happens—and it's more complicated than "phones bad, bans good."

The case for bans is compelling:

But critics warn of serious risks:

The fundamental disagreement: Is adolescence the time to remove digital temptation entirely so brains can develop without interference? Or is it the time to teach digital literacy in supervised environments where mistakes have lower stakes than adulthood?

What makes this genuinely difficult: The evidence for bans working right now is strong—test scores don't lie. But the evidence for what happens long-term doesn't exist yet. We're conducting a massive experiment on our children, and both sides have compelling arguments.

Countries taking opposite approaches:

What this means for your family: If your child's school bans phones, you need a plan for teaching digital literacy, self-regulation, and online safety at home. If they allow phones, you need to actively teach self-management and set boundaries. Either way, parents can't assume schools are handling the full picture.

The question keeping parents up at night: Will children who grow up without phones at school be better adjusted and more focused? Or will they reach university completely unprepared to manage the devices that dominate modern life?

Sources: Chalkbeat | Full story →

What happened: OpenAI released Sora 2 on September 30, 2025—an AI tool that creates realistic videos from text prompts. But here's what parents need to understand: Sora 2 includes a social media platform with a TikTok-style feed where users create and share imaginary scenes that look completely real.

Why this is different: These aren't cartoon-y or obviously fake videos. They're photo-realistic. Your teen cannot reliably tell the difference between actual footage and AI-generated imaginary scenes. Videos of people, places, and events that never happened look like real footage.

Who can access it: The Sora 2 social app is currently invite-only but expanding rapidly.

The "cameos" feature raising alarms: Sora 2 lets users upload their likeness once, then share permission with friends to include them in AI-generated videos. Friends can then create videos featuring you doing anything, anywhere. While users can revoke access anytime, this consensual sharing can easily be abused—even by people you trust.

The critical risks parents need to know:

Fake vs. Real is broken: Your teen will see AI-generated imaginary scenes shared as if they're real events. Videos can be downloaded from Sora and shared on Instagram, TikTok, etc., where they lose any AI labels. "I saw the video" is no longer proof something happened. Within 7 days of launch, third-party tools to remove Sora's watermarks became prevalent.

Your children's photos are training data: Personal photos of children have been found in AI training datasets, taken from social media without knowledge or consent—even photos with privacy settings enabled. In June 2024, 50 Melbourne girls discovered their social media photos were used to create sexually explicit deepfakes.

Cyberbullying and deepfakes: Fake videos of classmates doing things they never did, created using photos scraped from social media. The "cameos" feature makes this easier—give someone permission "for fun," and they can create harmful content.

What parents should do immediately:

Audit your social media: Review photos of your children you've posted. Consider deleting old photos or changing privacy settings to most restrictive.

Have the "fake vs. real" conversation: Teach your teen to question EVERY video before believing or sharing it. Ask: Where did this come from? Could this be AI-generated? What's the original source?

Set family rules: No AI videos of family members without approval. No sharing likeness permissions. AI-generated content must be labelled if posted.

The bigger picture: "Seeing is believing" is officially over. Videos don't show reality anymore—they show what someone wants you to think is reality. Your teen needs to develop critical scepticism about all video content.

This isn't a future problem. Sora 2 launched three weeks ago. The photos you posted years ago are already in AI training datasets. Watermark removal tools existed within a week of launch.

Sources: OpenAI, TechCrunch, Human Rights Watch | Full story →

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