Adolescents across the United States and beyond are increasingly forming romantic and emotional bonds with artificial intelligence, according to a series of recent surveys that document the scale of the phenomenon for the first time. The most authoritative snapshot comes from a 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, the nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, which found that 15 percent of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 have engaged in a romantic or sexual conversation with an AI chatbot.
Conducted between March and April of that year among 1,500 respondents, the survey carries a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points, making it a statistically robust measure of a behavior that until recently flew largely under the radar of parents and educators.
National Survey Captures the Trend
The Pew figure is one pillar of a growing body of evidence. A 2023 study by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit founded in 2003, surveyed 1,200 U.S. teens and found that 30 percent had used a chatbot for companionship or romantic interaction — a proportion twice as high as Pew’s 15 percent, likely reflecting differences in question wording and the inclusion of non-romantic companionship in the Common Sense study. Together, the two surveys indicate that well over a million American teenagers have at least experimented with AI-facilitated emotional or romantic connections.
The data also underscores how deeply these digital companions have woven themselves into adolescent life. Teens encounter chatbots through smartphones, school-issued devices, gaming platforms, and peer recommendations.
Social media influencers and online communities further normalize the practice. The result is a generation for whom an algorithmically responsive conversation partner is often just a screen tap away.
A Global Pattern Emerges
The trend is not confined to the United States. In the United Kingdom, a 2024 study by the charity Childnet International reported that 12 percent of boys aged 11 to 16 had used a chatbot for romantic purposes. In Japan, a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications put the figure at 8 percent of high school students.
From Tokyo high schoolers to British pre-teens, the pattern holds: a measurable minority of young people are seeking emotional and romantic connection through AI. The platforms themselves confirm the youth skew of their user bases.
Replika, a companionship-focused chatbot, reported in 2023 that 30 percent of its users were under 18. Character.AI reported in 2024 that 40 percent of its users were aged 16 to 24. A 2024 analysis by app analytics firm Sensor Tower found that the average time spent per day on these apps was 45 minutes — roughly the length of a typical classroom period.
The economic footprint is significant as well: in-app purchases for AI chatbots generated $500 million in revenue globally in 2023, according to a report by market research firm Statista.
Platforms, Revenue, and the Road Ahead
Artificial intelligence chatbots entered mainstream digital life in the early 2010s as customer-service tools and conversation simulators. Over time, they evolved beyond scripted responses into more responsive, emotionally attuned programs that could mimic companionship.
By the mid-2010s, developers began releasing companionship-focused bots aimed at adult users seeking emotional support. Teenagers, already immersed in social media and messaging apps, soon encountered these tools through school devices, gaming platforms, and peer recommendations. What makes this moment significant is the scale of access: smartphones and school-issued devices put chatbots in most teens’ pockets, while online communities normalize their use.
Schools and parents now face questions about boundaries, safety, and emotional development in a landscape where digital companions are always available. The phenomenon also raises broader concerns about privacy, data collection, and the impact of algorithmically shaped relationships on adolescent social skills.
The platforms are already a fixture in young people’s lives — the question now is what comes next. Policymakers, educators, and families must decide how to respond to a technology that offers companionship but also carries risks that are only beginning to be understood.
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