Beyond Borders: U.S. and Australian Families on Online Safety, Screen Use, and the Digital Lives of Kids

Key Findings

• — 13% of children report having used AI to talk about their feelings, against 9% of parents reporting that their child has done so.
• — 71% of children and 64% of parents report at least one AI task used; schoolwork is the top use at 45% of children and 38% of parents reporting for their child.
• — Among AI users, children's optimism about AI's impact falls below half only for loneliness and isolation (48%) and cyberbullying (42%); the parent figures are 37% and 33%, with 45% for wellbeing.
• — US children reporting any AI use rose 11 points from wave one to wave four (61% to 72%) but plateaued between waves three and four (72% against 72%).
• — Samples: 1,000 US children, 1,000 US parents, 1,003 Australian children and 1,003 Australian parents, 4,006 respondents in total.

Methodology Notes

Impact-perception items are based on AI users only (parents n = 1,276; children n = 1,429). Significance is marked at p < .05. All measures are self-report, and because parents and children answer the same items, the 13% against 9% figure is a reporting-discrepancy measure rather than a validated estimate of parental under-awareness. Landing page dated 2026-07-09; the 39-page PDF (1,536,069 bytes) was downloaded and the figures verified in the text. PDF creation date 2026-07-08.

Sources