Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping education, entertainment and work. But are parents prepared to guide their children through this change? According to new research from family-activities publisher KidsOutAndAbout.com, apparently not. Based on a November 2025 survey of more than 300 parents and grandparents in the US and Canada, the report highlights a significant disconnect: adults are beginning to understand the basics of AI, yet feel unprepared to help the next generation navigate it. The findings were also discussed by Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of SmarterX and the Marketing AI Institute, on episode 184 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
The confidence gap
The survey, led by KidsOutAndAbout.com publisher Debra Ross, reveals a striking pattern. Around 54% of respondents say they feel “somewhat confident” in their general understanding of AI — they know what it is, and many use it in some form. But when the question turns to parenting, that confidence collapses: 52% of parents and grandparents say outright that they do not feel equipped to help kids navigate AI technology, and only 5% report feeling truly confident in their ability to guide children.
The gap is between use and judgment. Adults may comfortably use ChatGPT to draft an email or plan a trip, yet struggle to translate that familiarity into lessons on ethics, safety and responsible use for their children.
What parents want
When asked what they most wanted to learn, parents did not request tech tutorials or coding lessons. They asked for what might be called digital defense: the top requested topics were how to detect misinformation or bias in AI tools, and how to help children use AI responsibly.
The qualitative responses paint a sharper picture still. Parents described AI as a “runaway train,” voiced concerns about security, privacy and the erosion of children’s critical thinking, and in some cases admitted that they use AI tools daily while still not understanding them well enough to set family limits.
A shared sense of urgency
For Roetzer, who speaks frequently with students and teachers, the findings match a sentiment that has been building for some time: parents consistently express urgency to do more, and even experts concede that AI parenting is uncharted territory in which everyone is experimenting. That candor matters — the honest state of the art is trial, error and shared notes, not settled playbooks.
How to bridge the gap
The survey’s underlying message is that the technology is advancing faster than curricula or parenting guides can keep up. Resources are emerging — from AI-literacy guides aimed at families to purpose-built tools for supervised child AI use — but the need for comprehensive, accessible education remains largely unmet.
In the meantime, several practical starting points follow directly from what the surveyed parents asked for. Talking with children about how AI-generated content can be confidently wrong addresses the misinformation concern head-on. Using AI tools together, rather than banning or ignoring them, converts daily exposure into teachable moments. And setting explicit family norms — what AI may be used for, what stays human, what gets checked — does not require technical expertise, only the same deliberateness parents already apply to screen time. These concerns are not unique to families, either: the same questions about critical thinking and healthy AI dependence are being raised at the highest levels, including in Pope Leo XIV’s recent warnings about AI and human development.
Limitations of the research
The findings should be read with appropriate caution. This is a self-selected survey of roughly 300 respondents drawn from one publisher’s audience of engaged parents — not a random, representative sample — and it has not been peer-reviewed. Respondents who already follow a family-activities publication may differ systematically from the broader population, and self-reported confidence is an imperfect measure of actual capability in either direction. The core finding, however — a wide gap between general AI awareness and parenting-specific confidence — is consistent with what larger studies of family technology use have repeatedly shown, and the practical need it points to is real regardless of the precise percentages. As AI becomes embedded in schools and homes, closing this literacy gap is less about understanding the technology than about preparing the next generation to live well alongside it.
