Surveys: young people increasingly turn to AI for mental health support

Aug 3, 2026 · Issue 1 · 5 sources, 5 articles

Articles published on 3–4 August report that the share of young people using AI to seek mental health help is rising; one researcher who works on surveys says this could fill the gap left by a shortage of clinicians, if the advice is reliable. Many young people turn to AI to be 'their real, unfiltered selves'.

Who is affected and how

parent

It is worth asking your child whether they use a chatbot for emotional problems, and going through the advice it gave together.

Sources

• AI use surging for mental health help among young peoplenews.harvard.edu · Aug 3, 2026
• Youth Mental Health and the Rise of AI Chatbot Usagehealthmaking.com · Aug 4, 2026
• Working with the American Psychological Association on youth mental health and AI | OpenAIopenai.com · Aug 6, 2026
• Young people turn to AI to be ‘their real, unfiltered selves’ - ABC17NEWSabc17news.com · Aug 4, 2026
• ‘Not healthy’ LLM use is more common than you think | The Vergetheverge.com · Aug 4, 2026

Machine-generated summary based on the titles and excerpts of the source articles. The facts come from the linked article.