In brief
Yes. AI is becoming part of everyday life, so helping your child become familiar with it at home can be valuable.
You don't need to give them their own AI account or become an AI expert yourself. Start by exploring it together. Show them how different questions produce different results, test whether it gets things right, use it to investigate subjects they already enjoy and gradually introduce conversations about privacy, accuracy and responsible use.
Think of it in much the same way as teaching your child to use the internet. Familiarity, judgement and good habits are more important than simply knowing which buttons to press.
A closer look
What Should I Actually Teach My Child About AI?
You don't need to teach your child how artificial intelligence works at a technical level.
Start with a few practical lessons.
Learn how to ask better questions. Try asking AI the same thing in several different ways. Add more information or context and compare the answers. Your child will quickly discover that what they put in can dramatically change what comes back.
Don't accept the first answer automatically. Ask, "How could we check that?" Use a book, another trusted source or your own knowledge.
Keep personal information private. Teach your child not to enter names, addresses, photographs, school information or other private details without understanding where that information is going.
Know when AI is appropriate. There is a difference between asking AI to explain something you're struggling to understand and asking it to complete your homework for you.
Explore rather than just answer. Some of the best uses of AI begin after the first response. Encourage your child to ask "why?", "what if?", "can you show me another way?" and "what would happen if?"
The objective is to build good habits early, before AI becomes something they use routinely.
What Can I Actually Do With AI With My Child?
Start with something your child already loves.
If they're fascinated by dinosaurs, ask AI to create a quiz for them. Then let your child create questions to test the AI in return.
If they love football, ask it to help them compare statistics or design a training session.
If they enjoy making things, describe the materials you have available and ask for three ideas for something they could build. Your child then chooses, adapts and makes it.
If they're fascinated by space, ask AI to imagine a mission to Mars. What would the astronauts need? What problems would they face? Which of AI's suggestions are realistic?
You can even deliberately try to catch it out.
Ask it questions about something your child knows particularly well. When it makes a mistake, you've taught one of the most useful AI lessons possible:
It can sound extremely confident and still be wrong.
That lesson is much more memorable when your child discovers it for themselves.
Teach Your Child That the Input Matters
This is one of the most useful things you can explore together.
Ask AI:
"Tell me about sharks."
Look at the answer.
Then try:
"I'm nine years old and fascinated by sharks. Give me five surprising facts about great white sharks, explain each one simply and then ask me three questions to test what I've learned."
Compare the difference.
Your child begins to see that AI isn't simply something you ask for an answer. The quality of the information, context and instructions you give it influences what it gives you back.
You can turn this into a game. Who can improve the question most? What extra information could you provide? Can you get a more useful answer without simply making the question longer?
That's an early form of a skill they're likely to use increasingly as they grow.
How Do I Stop My Child Simply Using AI to Do Their Work?
Agree some simple boundaries.
Before using AI, your child could first have a go themselves. Once they have an idea, answer or piece of work, AI can then be used to challenge it, explain something, suggest alternatives or provide feedback.
For example, rather than:
"Write my story about a dragon."
Try:
"I've created a dragon that lives underneath a castle and is frightened of people. Ask me five questions that will help me develop my character."
AI has now made the child do more thinking rather than removing the challenge.
Another useful approach is to ask your child to explain what the AI has told them in their own words.
If they can't explain it, they probably haven't understood it yet.
What Age Should My Child Start Using AI?
There isn't a single age at which every child should begin.
For younger children, you can operate the technology while they provide the questions and ideas. This allows them to experience what AI can do without needing their own account.
As they grow, you can gradually give them greater involvement and independence, depending on their maturity and the particular tool.
Always check the minimum-age requirements and parental controls of the service you're using. You should also supervise what younger children enter into AI tools and what those tools produce.
There's no prize for introducing AI particularly early. The aim is confident, age-appropriate familiarity over time.
What If I Don't Know Much About AI Myself?
Start alongside your child.
You aren't expected to become an AI expert before you can help them.
Spend half an hour trying an AI tool yourself. Ask it about something you know well. Ask follow-up questions. Give it deliberately vague instructions and then improve them. See whether you can find something it gets wrong.
There are also free resources available if you'd like more guidance. The Department for Education provides introductory materials explaining generative AI, its opportunities and its limitations. The OECD and European Commission have also produced an AI Literacy Framework for primary and secondary education.
You can learn some of this together.
In fact, allowing your child to see you encounter something unfamiliar, investigate it and gradually become better at using it is a valuable lesson in itself.
Try One AI Activity This Week
There is no need to suddenly introduce "AI lessons" at home.
Choose one thing.
Spend 20 minutes exploring AI together this weekend. Pick something your child already finds fascinating and see where the conversation takes you.
Next time, try something different.
Over time, introduce ideas around accuracy, privacy, better questions, responsible use and knowing when another source or approach would be better.
Small experiences accumulated over several years are far more manageable than trying to teach your child everything about a technology that is changing constantly anyway.
Useful Resources for Parents
If you'd like to understand AI a little better yourself, these are useful starting points:
Department for Education: Understanding AI in Education. A free introduction to generative AI, including how it works, opportunities, limitations and responsible use.
OECD and European Commission: AI Literacy Framework. A framework explaining the knowledge, skills and attitudes children increasingly need to engage confidently and responsibly with AI.
You don't need to work through these with your child. They're there to give you more confidence about the subject.
How We Think About This at The Mount
At The Mount, we want children to be curious about the world they're growing into.
AI is becoming part of that world, so we believe children should gradually develop an understanding of what it can do and how to use it responsibly.
The most exciting opportunities come when technology meets a child's own curiosity.
A child interested in engineering can use AI to explore designs. A budding author can use it to challenge their ideas. Someone fascinated by science can use it to generate questions they hadn't considered. A child with an idea for something completely new may have access to tools that help them explore that idea far further than previous generations could.
School and home can play different roles in developing that familiarity.
You don't have to know where AI will eventually lead. Neither do we.
We can give children opportunities to explore it, ask questions about it and gradually discover what they can do with it.
Key takeaway
Start exploring AI with your child rather than worrying about teaching them everything about it.
Ask questions together. Experiment with different instructions. Catch it making mistakes. Use it to explore things your child already loves. Talk about privacy and responsible use. Gradually give them more independence as they mature.
You don't need to prepare your child for every AI tool they'll encounter. Help them develop the judgement to work out how to use whichever tools come next.
