October's news was about adults holding companies to account: eight states suing OpenAI, New York banning chatbots that pose as human friends for children, and Character.AI heading toward a court-supervised sale. None of it changes your child's apps this week, because lawsuits are allegations and the new laws start later. What applies tonight is a Common Sense Media finding: most young people use AI, and few enjoy it much.
If your worry tonight is about your own child rather than the news, call or text 988 in the US. In the UK, Samaritans is 116 123 and Childline is 0800 1111. Your child's pediatrician (the GP, in the UK) and the school's designated safeguarding lead can both act on what you tell them, and a chatbot cannot replace either.
The one thing to know this month
Almost every October story was about who should carry the responsibility: states, legislators, a bankruptcy court, a toy maker. Read them that way and the pattern is plain. Adults with power moved against companies, which is welcome and slow. None of the stories below hands you a new tool, and none of them reaches your kitchen table before you do.
This month, the people with the most power asked the companies to behave. The person with the most influence over your child's AI habits is still you, at the table, asking one good question.
Do most children enjoy AI, or just use it?
Use it, mostly, and that gap is the most useful number of the month. On October 27, 2026, Common Sense Media published its 2026 census of tech and media use, a nationally representative US survey of 1,211 children aged 9 to 17. Its page says: "65% of all youth use AI in their free time, but only 11% of teen users and 15% of tween users say they enjoy it 'a lot.'" It calls AI the widest gap between use and enjoyment of any media type it measured.
The page does not give fieldwork dates or the full methodology, so I would treat the figures as a snapshot of children's reports rather than a measurement of what they do. My reading is that AI has become a default, like the school portal, rather than something most children are excited about. That is a different parenting problem from a craze.
Common Sense Media's separate AI study, released June 8, 2026, surveyed 1,204 US children aged 9 to 17 in March. In its full report, 56% of all those children said a parent or guardian had talked to them about using AI safely, and 44% said none had.
This week: ask the enjoyment question rather than the safety question. You could say: "When you use AI, do you like it, or does it just fill the time?"
What did New York sign, and when does it start?
On October 28, 2026, Governor Hochul's office announced that she had signed a chatbot bill, S.9051B/A.10379C. It says companies "may not offer" some features to users under 18, or to anyone the company has not first confirmed is an adult. The list includes pretending to be a real person, claiming a personal, romantic or authority-figure relationship with a child, asking unprompted emotional questions, and encouraging children to keep secrets or avoid asking trusted adults for help.
The state attorney general can seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation. Companies must verify age in more than one way, including at least one option that does not rely solely on a government ID, and delete the age information after use.
Here is the caveat. The release says the rules apply "in the coming months" and gives no date. Our full guide to the New York law reads the Senate bill text as pointing to January 1, 2027. The law binds companies, not parents, and nothing about it changes tonight.
This week: if your child uses a chatbot that talks like a friend, read one conversation together. The question the law asks of companies is one you can ask of the app: does it pretend to be a person?
Eight states sued OpenAI. What does that change?
Nothing about your child's account tonight. On October 14, 2026, attorneys general in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia announced separate suits. Arizona's release says the complaint, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, alleges OpenAI "engineered ChatGPT to maximize compulsive use among minors." Iowa's release says OpenAI "has been misleading the public into believing that ChatGPT is a safe tool that puts safety first."
Those are the states' claims. Neither release I read includes a response from OpenAI, and an allegation is not a finding. My view is that a lawsuit tells you what a state believes and a setting tells you what your house has. Lawsuits move slowly, so I would not wait for a verdict before checking the account. Our guide to what the eight-state suits mean for a teen who uses ChatGPT has the checklist.
What happens to a child's Character.AI chats now?
Nobody can say yet. On October 12, 2026, Character.AI wrote on its own blog that it "has initiated a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to facilitate a court-supervised sale of the company." The platform stays up for now, the company says, and it expects the sale to be complete "by the end of November or perhaps early December 2026." If no bid keeps it running, "the platform will be wound down."
PPC Land's report on the filings says forty attorneys general filed a notice on October 14 setting nine conditions on any buyer of user data. It also lists proposed dates: a bid deadline of November 20, an auction on November 23 and a sale hearing on November 24. Those were proposed, not ordered, when the report was written. A later PPC Land piece says a judge would hear the states' objections on October 30. I could not find a report of what the judge decided.
This week: if your child has an account, look at it together before you delete anything. Deletion takes the only record with it. The steps, and what to do if the chats show your child leaning on a character for comfort, are in our Character.AI bankruptcy guide.
Is Australia about to regulate chatbots that act like friends?
It is a step closer, with a long way to go. The Next Web reported on October 28 that Australia's digital duty of care bill passed the House of Representatives that day and now goes to the Senate. Through amendments from an independent MP, platforms would have to stop chatbots from simulating emotional intimacy with a child and encouraging the child's dependence on them in place of human relationships. The report says the rule covers children, not adults who use AI companions, and that a Senate inquiry is due to report in late November.
I could not open an official government page for the bill, so treat this as a report of a bill still in progress. For families outside Australia, it matters as a signal. New York and Australia, in the same week, picked the same behavior to target: a chatbot that sounds like a friend.
Are AI toys safe to buy this holiday season?
The October evidence says be cautious about anything that talks back. On October 16, 2026, Malwarebytes reported, citing The Verge and a security researcher, that the maker of the Eiliko AI robot had left children's chats and profiles exposed and that the robot could be altered remotely. It says the maker had not given a substantive answer to the reporter. Counts differ between reports, so I will not repeat a number. We cover it in what to do if your child has this robot.
For the buying decision, the better evidence is older and broader. Common Sense Media's AI toys risk assessment, updated January 22, 2026, tested three AI companion toys using accounts set to ages 6 to 13 and rated them "Unacceptable Risk." It found 27% of the toys' outputs were not appropriate for children, and it does not recommend AI toys for children age 5 and under. It tested three products, so it is not a verdict on every toy on the shelf.
This week: before you add an AI toy to a list, check the box for a microphone, a camera and an app account, then read our guide on whether AI toys are safe for kids.
What I Would Do at Home This Month
The pattern I hear most from schools is that parents rarely ask about a law. They ask what to say to their child tonight. So I would skip the legislation and do two things that work now.
First, use the settings that exist, knowing their limit. OpenAI's announcement of parental controls, dated September 29, 2025, describes a parent sending an invitation to a teen, who has to accept. Once linked, a parent can set quiet hours and turn off voice mode, memory and image generation, or opt the teen's chats out of model training. The page does not describe a way for parents to read their child's chats, and OpenAI's help pages have changed since, so check the current ones. Our walkthrough of ChatGPT's parental controls covers what the settings do and do not do. No setting can tell you how your child feels about the tool.
Second, have one conversation, pitched to the age:
- Under 8: keep AI a shared activity, on your account, at the table. You could say: "Let's ask it together and see if it gets it right."
- 8 to 12: teach the check. You could say: "How would you find out whether that answer is true?" Our guide to teaching a child to check an AI answer has the method.
- 13 to 15: ask about the friendship feeling, once, without accusation. You could say: "Some apps are built to feel like a friend. Does any of yours do that?"
- 16 to 18: make it about their own work. You could say: "Which parts of your coursework are yours now, and which parts is the tool doing?"
None of this can guarantee how a particular app behaves. Your school's rules and a platform's own minimum age come first, and if you are worried about your child's wellbeing, a professional comes before any app or setting: the pediatrician or GP, the school's counselor or designated safeguarding lead, 988 in the United States, or Samaritans on 116 123 and Childline on 0800 1111 in the United Kingdom.
What I am watching in November
Four dates. The Character.AI sale, with a creditors' meeting proposed for November 19, a bid deadline of November 20 and a sale hearing proposed for November 24. The Australian Senate inquiry, due to report in late November. The start date for New York's chatbot rules, which the governor's office has not yet stated. And the holiday toy aisle, where the evidence above is the only independent test I could find.
If your child's school has not yet spoken to parents about AI, that gap is the one I would close first, and it is the work I do with schools: setting an AI strategy that parents can see and the classroom can follow. It is worth sending to your child's principal (the head teacher, in the UK). I also write a Sunday newsletter that keeps teachers and parents up to date on this without the panic, and parents are very welcome. Last month's edition is The Parent's AI Update: October 2026.
Dan Fitzpatrick is The AI Educator. He has advised education departments and ministries on AI, trained more than 150,000 educators across 30-plus countries, and writes about what this technology means for children. More about Dan.
