Raised on AI

The author recounts how, when their first child was born, they eagerly created Gmail and Twitter accounts and shared photos online, building the child's digital footprint from birth. By the second child, the author had the opposite reaction, prioritizing privacy, scrubbing the first child's early online presence, and feeling the promise of the early internet give way to abuse potential. The author's wife, a pediatric nurse, saw children hospitalized with body dysmorphia and cyberbullying linked to social media, leading the family to become the kind of parents who give kids flip phones and keep them off TikTok.

This personal shift reflects a broader societal change: many big tech workers also keep their children away from technology, and even Mark Zuckerberg does not publicly post his kids' faces. Jonathan Haidt's 2024 book The Anxious Generation pushed the issue mainstream, despite criticism from developmental psychologists. In 2024, Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s, and other nations from Austria to Indonesia followed. The US Supreme Court upheld a Texas age verification law that acts as a de facto ban, and states and school districts are pursuing similar measures, including banning iPads and Chromebooks in favor of books. Kids themselves show tech skepticism, with vintage Sony Walkmans becoming popular among Gen Alpha.

The author acknowledges the irony and impossibility of hiding from technology, arguing that parents must prepare children to live in the actual world. The essay poses the urgent question of how to help kids survive and thrive in the AI era, and introduces the editors of Anyway, a magazine for teens and tweens, as part of the answer.