Children’s use of generative artificial intelligence in learning and everyday practices raises new questions about family regulation and parental mediation. Although these technologies can support learning, they are also associated with risks such as overreliance on generated answers, reduced learning effort, weaker critical evaluation, privacy concerns, and questionable content reliability. The article addresses the problem that parental awareness of generative artificial intelligence does not necessarily translate into clear regulatory practices regarding children’s use of these technologies.
The aim of the study is to examine parents’ mediation and regulation practices in the context of children’s use of generative artificial intelligence. The study involved 189 parents of school-age children. Data were collected through an online survey using a structured questionnaire and analysed by applying descriptive statistics, the χ² test, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Spearman’s correlation, and binary logistic regression. The results showed that clear rules for the use of generative artificial intelligence are rare in families. Parents’ self-rated competence and the type of rules applied were found to be significantly associated with children’s use of generative artificial intelligence. Logistic regression results indicated that higher parental understanding of the technology, lower self-rated competence, and general or informal rules were associated with a higher likelihood of children using generative artificial intelligence. The study reveals that, in the context of children’s use of generative artificial intelligence, parental awareness alone is not sufficient; what becomes important is the ability to translate this awareness into clear family regulation practices.
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