# A Responsive Present, a Shared Past, a Social Other: Teens' Overreliance on Companion AI Chatbots

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.14843 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.14843/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 88 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Specializing Smaller Language Models towards Multi-Step Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12726/) (2023)
- [The Dark Side of AI Companionship: A Taxonomy of Harmful Algorithmic Behaviors in Human-AI Relationships](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20130/) (2024)
- [Continual Harness: Online Adaptation for Self-Improving Foundation Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09998/) (2026)
- [Training language models to be warm and empathetic makes them less reliable and more sycophantic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21919/) (2025)
- [HarnessForge: Joint Harness and Policy Evolution for Adaptive Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.01779/) (2026)
- [Co-Harness: Co-Evolving Harnesses and Model Weights for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.22688/) (2026)
- [Harness-R1: Learning to Edit Executable Runtime Harnesses from Agent Failure Trajectories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02276/) (2026)
- [Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15783/) (2025)
- [From Question Answering to Task Completion: A Survey on Agent System and Harness Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.20683/) (2026)
- [The Interplay of Harness Design and Post-Training in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25447/) (2026)
- [ESC-Judge: A Framework for Comparing Emotional Support Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12531/) (2025)
- [INTIMA: A Benchmark for Human-AI Companionship Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09998/) (2025)
- [Harmful Traits of AI Companions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.14972/) (2025)
- [AI-induced sexual harassment: Investigating Contextual Characteristics and User Reactions of Sexual Harassment by a Companion Chatbot](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04299/) (2025)
- [ComBodied Agents: a New Paradigm of Human-Centric Agentic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10915/) (2026)
- [Illusions of Intimacy: How Emotional Dynamics Shape Human-AI Relationships](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11649/) (2025)
- [Efficiency vs. Alignment: Investigating Safety and Fairness Risks in Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning of LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00382/) (2025)
- [Advancing Responsible Innovation in Agentic AI: A study of Ethical Frameworks for Household Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15901/) (2025)
- [Detecting and Preventing Harmful Behaviors in AI Companions: Development and Evaluation of the SHIELD Supervisory System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15891/) (2025)
- [EmoHarbor: Evaluating Personalized Emotional Support by Simulating the User's Internal World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01530/) (2026)
- [Manipulating Transformer-Based Models: Controllability, Steerability, and Robust Interventions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04549/) (2025)
- [Regulating Artificial Intimacy: From Locks and Blocks to Relational Accountability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18893/) (2026)
- [Dialoging Resonance: How Users Perceive, Reciprocate and React to Chatbot's Self-Disclosure in Conversational Recommendations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.01666/) (2021)
- [Tracing Users' Privacy Concerns Across the Lifecycle of a Romantic AI Companion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.21106/) (2026)
- [ComPASS: Towards Personalized Agentic Social Support via Tool-Augmented Companionship](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18356/) (2026)
- [Engagement-Optimized Care: When LLMs become Mental Health Infrastructure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23787/) (2026)
- [Training Agents to Evolve with Their Harness: TaoLive Digital Avatar Agent Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.15763/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

AI companions provide socially engaging interaction through availability, personalization, memory, roleplay, and emotionally responsive language. For teens, these systems may support sensitive self-disclosure, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal while shaping intimacy expectations, offline relationships, emotional wellbeing, and self-understanding. We analyzed 17,053 verified quotations from 3,930 teen-relevant Reddit posts using thematic analysis. We identified 53 topics across seven thematic groups. Users described AI companions as sources of comfort, recognition, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal, but also reported problematic attachment, social substitution, emotional dependence, and disruption to academic and social life. Roleplay, memory, perceived reciprocity, unwanted romantic or sexual role drift, privacy concerns, platform changes, and service interruptions shaped users' boundaries and control. Awareness that the AI was artificial did not prevent guilt, obligation, grief, or distress. These findings show that companion-AI safety must address relationships over time through user-controlled memory, privacy, relational boundaries, and healthy disengagement.