What 2025 Taught Us About Kids, Screens, and AI

By Rebecca Paredes

December 31, 2025

Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:

Nearly three in 10 teens use AI chatbots daily, and most of them are on ChatGPT.
Did your kiddo get a new iPhone or iPad for the holidays? We’re sharing all of our must-read guides to parental controls across texts, social media, and popular platforms like Roblox and YouTube.
In our Year in Review: BrightCanary monitored over 500 million keystrokes across families in the U.S. and Canada.

Digital parenting

📊 Teens, social media, and AI: Pew Research Center recently released a new report on how teens are using social media and online platforms. Social media usage hasn’t shifted much — among teens ages 13–17, 92% report using YouTube, 68% use TikTok, 63% use Instagram, and 55% use Snapchat. But 21% of teens now say they use TikTok “almost constantly,” up from 16% in 2022.

This is also the first year Pew asked teens about AI chatbots. Survey says:

64% of teens have used an AI chatbot
Nearly 3 in 10 use them daily, and 16% say they use them almost constantly
A majority of teens use ChatGPT (59%), followed by Gemini (23%) and Meta AI (20%)

Earlier this year, Common Sense Media also reported that three in four teens use AI for companionship, including emotional and mental health support — but most popular chatbots fail to respond to red flags, like anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.

It’s clear that AI is an ingrained part of how kids experience digital spaces today. Parents need to have explicit conversations with kids about AI safety. Learn more about this topic, and how to protect your teen from the risks, with our guide to AI companions.

🐤 BrightCanary’s Year in Review: As we settle into the last few hours of 2025, we wanted to take a look in the rearview mirror. Here’s a snapshot of what happened at BrightCanary this year:

We monitored over 500 million keystrokes across families in the U.S. and Canada, helping parents spot risks earlier and understand what their kids are actually doing online.
We released the BrightCanary Keyboard, allowing parents to monitor what their child types across every app on their iPhone. (Yes, every app!)
We significantly improved our app’s dashboard and processing times, making it faster and easier for parents to get insights without feeling overwhelmed.
We launched an AI monitoring module, giving parents visibility into which AI apps their kids are using and how they’re interacting with them.
We were included in Wirecutter’s roundup of the best parental control apps.

And more. Thank you for trusting us with something as important as your child’s digital safety. Here’s to an even better 2026!

📱 If your kid got a new device for the holidays, start here: Did they find an iPhone under the Christmas tree? Now’s the time to lay some ground rules and make sure your kids are set up for success (and safety). Here are a few guides for setting up parental monitoring:

If they got a new iPhone or iPad:

If they got an Apple Watch: How to monitor text messages on Apple Watch

These guides walk you through setup and the conversations that matter just as much as the parental control settings.

Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.

Tech talks

As we head into 2026, many families are rethinking how phones and screens fit into everyday life. Instead of aiming for a total reset, try starting with a few honest conversations. Use these prompts to kick things off:

“What’s one thing your phone helps you with, and one thing that makes life harder?”
“Are there times when screens make it harder to focus or relax?”
“If we changed one phone habit as a family this year, what should it be?”
“I’m thinking about turning my phone off at bedtime to help me sleep better. Want to join me?”
“Do your friends ever seem to struggle with screen time?”

What’s catching our eye

⚠️ New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill requiring warning labels on social media for younger users — a move that signals growing pressure on platforms to change default designs.

🎊 Do you have any parenting resolutions for 2026? Some of the ones we’ve heard around the Slack watercooler: trying one new screen-free hobby per month, being more present, and charging phones outside the bedroom at night.