mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives

arXiv 2507.15783 ↗First posted 21 Jul 2025cs.HC cs.AI cs.CYcited by 12

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Abstract (arXiv)

AI companion chatbots are increasingly popular with teens. While these interactions are entertaining, they also risk overuse that can potentially disrupt offline daily life. We examined how adolescents describe reliance on AI companions, mapping their experiences onto behavioral addiction frameworks and exploring pathways to disengagement, by analyzing 318 Reddit posts made by users who self-disclosed as 13-17 years old on the Character.AI subreddit. We found teens often begin using chatbots for support or creative play, but these activities can deepen into strong attachments marked by conflict, withdrawal, tolerance, relapse, and mood regulation. Reported consequences include sleep loss, academic decline, and strained real-world connections. Disengagement commonly arises when teens recognize harm, re-engage with offline life, or encounter restrictive platform changes. We highlight specific risks of character-based companion chatbots based on teens' perspectives and introduce a design framework (CARE) for guidance for safer systems and setting directions for future teen-centered research.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 22 of its 156 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Jul 2025.

Builds on

22 of 156 references.

References · 22

  1. 2021RedditBias: A Real-World Resource for Bias Evaluation and Debiasing of Conversational Language Modelscited by 149
  2. 2019How should my chatbot interact? A survey on human-chatbot interaction designcited by 56
  3. 2023Red Teaming Language Model Detectors with Language Modelscited by 55
  4. 2023MindfulDiary: Harnessing Large Language Model to Support Psychiatric Patients' Journalingcited by 50
  5. 2023Large Language Models Are Zero-Shot Text Classifierscited by 35
  6. 2023ChaCha: Leveraging Large Language Models to Prompt Children to Share Their Emotions about Personal Eventscited by 31
  7. 2024Understanding the Impact of Long-Term Memory on Self-Disclosure with Large Language Model-Driven Chatbots for Public Health Interventioncited by 15
  8. 2024The Role of AI in Peer Support for Young People: A Study of Preferences for Human- and AI-Generated Responsescited by 15
  9. 2024Lessons From an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationshipscited by 15
  10. 2025AI Chatbots for Mental Health: Values and Harms from Lived Experiences of Depressioncited by 13
  11. 2020Appropriateness of Performance Indices for Imbalanced Data Classification: An Analysiscited by 7
  12. 2025Understanding Generative AI Risks for Youth: A Taxonomy Based on Empirical Datacited by 7
10 more
  1. 2023Towards User-Centric Guidelines for Chatbot Conversational Designcited by 6
  2. 2023Community Archetypes: An Empirical Framework for Guiding Research Methodologies to Reflect User Experiences of Sense of Virtual Communitycited by 5
  3. 2025AI-induced sexual harassment: Investigating Contextual Characteristics and User Reactions of Sexual Harassment by a Companion Chatbotcited by 5
  4. 2024CO-oPS: A Mobile App for Community Oversight of Privacy and Securitycited by 2
  5. 2024Exploring the Impact of Anthropomorphism in Role-Playing AI Chatbots on Media Dependency: A Case Study of Xuanhe AIcited by 2
  6. 2025AI Mimicry and Human Dignity: Chatbot Use as a Violation of Self-Respectcited by 2
  7. 2023Designing for Disengagement: Challenges and Opportunities for Game Design to Support Children's Exit From Playcited by 1
  8. 2024Teen Talk: The Good, the Bad, and the Neutral of Adolescent Social Media Usecited by 1
  9. 2025Uncovering the Sociodemographic Fabric of Redditcited by 1
  10. 2025Calculating Connection vs. Risk: Understanding How Youth Negotiate Digital Privacy and Security with Peers Onlinecited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.

12 papers.

  1. 2026CIRCLE: A Framework for Evaluating AI from a Real-World Lenscited by 2
  2. 2026Regulating Artificial Intimacy: From Locks and Blocks to Relational Accountabilitycited by 2
  3. 2026Technically Love: The Evolution of Human-AI Romance Discourse on Redditcited by 1
  4. 2026Frictionless Love: Associations Between AI Companion Roles and Behavioral Addictioncited by 1
  5. 2026AICompanionBench: Benchmarking LLMs-as-Judges for AI Companion Safetycited by 1
  6. 2026CounselReflect: Opportunities and Challenges for Designing Tools to Support Self-Reflection on Mental Health and Well-Being Conversations with AIcited by 0
  7. 2026Examining Human-Like Behaviors in LLMs: A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Model Behaviors, User Factors, and System Promptscited by 0
  8. 2026Beyond Feeling Better: Capability-Sustaining Emotional Dialogue as a Longitudinal Research Paradigmcited by 0
  9. 2026A Responsive Present, a Shared Past, a Social Other: Teens' Overreliance on Companion AI Chatbotscited by 0
  10. 2026Disrupted Companionship: A Risk Assessment Framework and Cross-Platform Quantitative Analysis of Psychosocial Responses to AI Companion Disruptionscited by 0
  11. 2026Right Words, Wrong Moment: A Clinician-Grounded Analysis of Distress in 19,930 Conversations between Young People and ChatGPTcited by 0
  12. 2026Understanding Parents' Complex Views of AI for Children's Pretend Playcited by 0