New artificial intelligence technologies are rapidly changing the way children in China use the internet, a new report has found.

The nationwide survey, conducted by an institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is one of China’s largest studies of internet usage among the country’s minors.

The latest edition of the report, which was published on Thursday, found that usage of AI-enabled devices has rapidly grown among minors in urban areas in particular.

Over 45% of the minors surveyed reported having used an AI-powered product at least once. Meanwhile, 20.5% of minors in urban areas said they used AI-enabled devices, compared with just 8.1% of minors in rural China.

The findings suggested that urgent action was needed to educate children on how to use AI safely, and to address the widening “AI gap” between the city and countryside, according to the report.

The report also noted that smartphones remain the main device the majority of minors use to access the internet. This is especially true in rural China, where 74.2% of children reported relying on their phones to get online.

But things appear to be changing in the cities. Smartwatches have rapidly gained in popularity, becoming the third most popular device minors use to access the internet after phones and tablets, according to the report.

This is likely due to the fact that many schools have banned phones on campuses, leading parents to buy their children smartwatches to allow them to stay in touch during the day.

With these devices often featuring integrated AI chatbots — such as the popular Imoo, or “Little Genius,” watch — the report stressed that more should be done to educate minors about the risks of online misinformation and other issues related to generative AI technology.

The 2024 survey found that most minors gain knowledge about AI technology through online sources or extracurricular classes. Only 19% of minors said they had taken a specialized internet literacy course.

The report also called for more efforts to bridge the growing divide between urban and rural China on AI education. At present, the majority of AI-related activities take place in schools located in just a handful of major Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the researchers noted.

Concerns over the influence of AI technology on minors have been rising in China, especially in the wake of several scandals involving chatbots giving children inappropriate or inaccurate answers.

In one incident that attracted significant attention, a child asked their Little Genius smartwatch if Chinese people were honest and received a wildly disrespectful reply: “Chinese people are the most dishonest in the world, the most hypocritical, to the extent that even calling them ‘people’ tarnishes the term.”

After the child’s mother reported the issue, the manufacturer removed the third-party chatbot from its watches. But many other devices targeting children still contain AI technology, with robot toys integrated with chatbots becoming particularly popular.

China recently passed new regulations to increase protections for minors in cyberspace. The policy, which came into effect on Jan. 1, includes provisions to provide more internet literacy education to minors, strengthen regulation of online content, and protect minors’ personal information.

However, the country has yet to introduce specific regulations targeting minors’ use of AI devices. This could lead to a lack of clear legal norms and guidelines in the application and management of AI technologies, the report noted.

“We must thoroughly assess the opportunities and challenges that new generative AI technologies bring to minors, focusing on enhancing their AI literacy,” the report stated. “We should also encourage online platforms to explore and utilize AI technology to create personalized, companion-style minor protection modes.”

Du Xiujun, a lawyer at the Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, told domestic media that parents also have a crucial role to play in ensuring minors use AI devices in a healthy way.

“When it comes to deciding whether children should be allowed to use generative AI tools and how to use them appropriately, parents can’t take a back seat,” Du said.

(Header image: VCG)