An alarming new survey from media and tech non-profit Common Sense Media has found that children begin interacting with AI chatbots at an alarmingly early age — with nearly half of 9-12-year-olds having bypassed the 13+ age restriction common to most LLMs.

The survey is titled The 2026 Common Sense Media Census: Tech and Media Use by Tweens and Teens . In the paper, the organization conducted interviews with more than 1,200 American children aged 9 to 17, asking questions about AI use as well as television, gaming, and social media habits. More importantly, the interviews asked these young children how they feel about their own media consumption habits.

Standout findings include the sharp rise in smartphone ownership, with more than half of 11-year-olds already owning a smartphone and near-universal smartphone access by age 17, as well as the incredible amount of time spent on screens: eight hours per day for teenagers and five hours per day for tweens.

Mashable Trend Report

Because social scientists…