The American Psychological Association (APA) has released a report calling for developers to prioritize features that protect adolescents from exploitation, manipulation, and erosion of real-world relationships in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The report, “Artificial Intelligence and Adolescent Well-being: An APA Health Advisory,” warns against repeating the mistakes made with social media and urges stakeholders to ensure youth safety is considered early in AI development.

The APA expert advisory panel notes that adolescence is a complex period of brain development, spanning ages 10-25. During this time, age is not a foolproof marker for maturity or psychological competence. The report emphasizes the need for special safeguards aimed at younger users.

“We urge all stakeholders to ensure youth safety is considered relatively early in the evolution of AI,” said APA Chief of Psychology Mitch Prinstein, PhD. “AI offers new efficiencies and opportunities, yet its deeper integration into daily life requires careful consideration to ensure that AI tools are safe, especially for adolescents.”

The report makes several recommendations to make certain that adolescents can use AI safely:

1. Healthy boundaries with simulated human relationships: Ensure that adolescents understand the difference between interactions with humans and chatbots.
2. Age-appropriate defaults in privacy settings, interaction limits, and content: Implement transparency, human oversight, support, and rigorous testing to safeguard adolescents’ online experiences.
3. Encourage uses of AI that promote healthy development: Assist students in brainstorming, creating, summarizing, and synthesizing information while acknowledging AI’s limitations.
4. Limit access to and engagement with harmful and inaccurate content: Build protections to prevent adolescents from exposure to damaging material.
5. Protect adolescents’ data privacy and likenesses: Limit the use of adolescents’ data for targeted advertising and sale to third parties.

The report also calls for comprehensive AI literacy education, integrating it into core curricula and developing national and state guidelines for literacy education.

Additional Resources:

* Report:
* Guidance for parents on AI and keeping teens safe: [APA.org](http://APA.org)
* Resources for teens on AI literacy: [APA.org](http://APA.org)

The study published in Child Development found that singing to infants can significantly boost their mood. This is according to researchers at Yale University’s Child Study Center, who conducted an experiment where parents were encouraged to sing more frequently to their babies. The results showed a measurable improvement in infants’ moods overall, compared to those in the control group.

The study included 110 parents and their babies, most of whom were under four months old. Parents were randomly assigned into two groups: one group received encouragement to sing more frequently by teaching them new songs, providing karaoke-style instructional videos, and sending weekly newsletters with ideas for incorporating music into daily routines. For four weeks, these parents received surveys on their smartphones at random times throughout the day.

The researchers found that parents were successfully able to increase the amount of time they spent singing to their babies. Not only did the parents sing more frequently, but they also chose to use music especially in one context: calming their infants when they were fussy.

“This simple practice can lead to real health benefits for babies,” said Eun Cho, postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Child Study Center and co-first author of the study. “We show that singing is something that anyone can do, and most families are already doing.”

The researchers believe that the benefits of singing may be even stronger than the current study shows, especially in a family that does not already rely on music as a way of soothing their infants.

A follow-up study, “Together We Grow,” will investigate the impact of infant-directed singing over an eight-month period. The Child Study Center researchers are currently enrolling parents and babies under four months old in this study to further explore the benefits of singing.

The findings have implications for alleviating stress or conditions such as postpartum depression in the long term, and may also show benefits beyond mood in infants, such as improved sleep.

As Samuel Mehr, an adjunct associate professor at the Child Study Center and director of The Music Lab, said, “Our understanding of the evolutionary functions of music points to a role of music in communication. Parents send babies a clear signal in their lullabies: I’m close by, I hear you, I’m looking out for you — so things can’t be all that bad.”

The bond between a child and their caregiver is the foundation upon which a lifetime of emotional and physical well-being is built. A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry has revealed that the warmth and affection shown by mothers to their children in early childhood can have a profound impact on their mental and physical health as they grow into teenagers.

Researchers from UCLA Health followed over 8,500 children as part of the Millennium Cohort Study in the United Kingdom. At age 3, independent evaluators assessed the mother’s warmth (praise, positive tone of voice) and harshness (physically restraining or grabbing the child). The same children were then asked about their perceptions of social safety at age 14. This included questions such as “Do I have family and friends who help me feel safe, secure, and happy?” At age 17, the participants reported on their overall physical health, psychiatric problems, and psychological distress.

The study found that maternal warmth at age 3 was strongly associated with more positive perceptions of social safety at age 14. This, in turn, predicted better physical and mental health outcomes at age 17. The researchers discovered that this relationship was not only significant but also influenced by the mother’s warmth rather than her harshness.

Dr. Jenna Alley, lead author of the study, explained that children who experience more maternal warmth tend to develop a positive view of the social world. This perspective is shaped by their early experiences and influences how they interpret, organize, and make predictions about social situations and relationships. In essence, a child’s “social safety schema” becomes their lens for viewing every interaction.

Dr. George Slavich, senior author of the study, noted that the findings have important implications for interventions and public health campaigns designed to enhance resilience across the lifespan. By focusing on enhancing a teenager’s sense of social safety, rather than just reducing perceptions of harshness, we can potentially have a positive impact on their health outcomes for years to come.

The study highlights the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our perception of the world and ourselves. While it may not be possible to change past experiences, this research suggests that focusing on enhancing warmth and safety can greatly improve lives.

Additional studies are needed to determine how maternal warmth affects children in other contexts outside the United Kingdom and to explore ways in which healthcare providers and policymakers can use these findings to develop better interventions and public health campaigns.