Ms Clare Daly:

The harms are only becoming more and more known as chatbots are becoming more and more popular. As the CyberSafeKids survey shows, a quarter of children under the age of 12 are using chatbots. These are children between the ages of eight and 12. That is a very young age to be engaging in these technologies which are really not tested. Their own terms and conditions say they are prone to mistakes because they are in a developmental phase. These are untested technologies that young children are using. to answer the first part of the question, the harms are only becoming apparent. We really do not fully know. There are cases that are being litigated in the United States where children have died by suicide following the use of chatbots and reliance on them. It is emotional use and that is one of the risks.

The AI Act was mentioned. It might touch on chatbots but while chatbots are included in Article 52 which speaks to transparency, it does not address the physiological or developmental risks when children form relationships with human-like bots which are designed to appear empathetic. This relational aspect is important, especially when we are talking about very young children or teenagers. The cases in the US relate to children who were aged 15 and 16. I think the harms are only becoming known.