The release of AI chatbots has harmed teens’ learning and Canada needs to act

Two decades after the launch of social media, Meta settled a lawsuit in August in the United States about the negative impact of Facebook and Instagram on teens’ well-being.

The company paid US$18 billion and agreed to limit teens’ access to prevent American government regulation.

Just before this, in June, the Canadian government finally announced its own regulations, the Safe Social Media act , forcing platforms to remove harmful content.

While better late than never, neither the American or Canadian intervention addresses AI chatbots.

We should be concerned not only about about the effects of AI on teens’ safety, but also, as recent data from global standardized testing suggests, on teens’ learning.

Read more: A safe AI strategy for Canadian youth should include age-associated risks AI and schoolwork In September, data from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was released.

PISA is a recurring, worldwide assessment of 15-year-olds’ science, mathematics and reading ability.

In Canada, 24,600 students from 897 schools completed the 2025 assessment.

This year’s report focused on science and asked teens how frequently they use AI for learning, how they use it and why.

Data from more than 760,000 15-year-olds indicated that 86 per cent of teens globally use AI for school, and teens who use AI for schoolwork every week score one year behind teens who never use AI.

Canadian students who use AI every week score two years behind.

Overall , PISA scores have been declining since 2006.

The same is true in Canada.

The latest decline since 2022 happens to coincide with the release of ChatGPT, but that’s not evidence of causality.