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Deloitte Study: Half of US Parents Fear Children Rely Too Much on AI
A new Deloitte study finds that 50 percent of American parents worry their children rely too much on artificial intelligence, while schools struggle to set clear rules. In Poland, 43 percent of children aged 7 to 14 have already used ChatGPT.
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Half of parents in the United States worry that their children rely too heavily on artificial intelligence in schoolwork and everyday life. That's according to a Deloitte study published on July 9, which highlights the growing presence of AI tools in schools against a backdrop of unclear rules for using them. A similar picture emerges from Polish data, where nearly half of children aged 7 to 14 have already used ChatGPT.
The Deloitte study, conducted ahead of the new school year among 1,150 parents of school-age children, reveals the bind adults find themselves in. On one hand, they fear children are losing the ability to think and write independently because they turn to a chatbot every time. On the other, they worry that a child who never learns to use AI will fall behind in the job market.
Schools Without a Plan
Just 22 percent of parents say their child's school provides any approved AI tools, and only 33 percent report clear guidelines on using the technology. The rest of parents are navigating blind, unsure whether homework completed with a chatbot's help is allowed or counts as cheating.
30 percent of respondents openly admit their children use AI for schoolwork, regardless of whether a teacher approved it. One in eight parents, about 12.5 percent, plans to pay extra for tutoring or camps that teach children to work with AI, treating it as an investment in future job skills.
The tools are reaching students faster than schools can build rules to govern them - from commentary accompanying the Deloitte study
Polish Children Already Using It
A similar picture emerges from Poland's Internet dzieci 2026 ("Children's Internet 2026") report, prepared by the Digital Citizenship Institute Foundation (Fundacja Instytut Cyfrowego Obywatelstwa) together with Polskie Badania Internetu, Gemius, and the State Commission for Preventing Sexual Abuse of Minors (Państwowa Komisja do spraw przeciwdziałania wykorzystaniu seksualnemu małoletnich), presented in mid-June at the Sejm (the lower house of Poland's parliament). According to the data, 43 percent of children aged 7-14 have already used ChatGPT or similar tools, and 18 percent do so regularly.
The report's authors note that children spend an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes online per day, more than the average adult, and AI tools are increasingly built into the messaging apps young children use, such as WhatsApp or Messenger. That means a child's contact with AI often happens without a parent's conscious decision, incidental to an ordinary conversation with peers.
Risks Without Oversight
Researchers cited in the Polish report point to worse sleep quality, reduced physical activity, and diminished social contact among children who use the internet and AI intensively, as well as heightened risk of cyberbullying and behavioral addiction. Deloitte does not study these effects directly, but American parents signal similar concerns about excessive reliance on technology at the expense of independent thinking.
Both studies converge on one conclusion: adults feel institutions aren't keeping pace with how quickly children are adopting AI. In the US, the problem is schools without procedures; in Poland, it's the lack of systemic solutions at the level of education and parental oversight of apps children already have at their fingertips.
What This Means for Polish Families
For Polish parents and teachers, the two reports together offer a practical takeaway: with nearly one in two school-age children already having encountered a chatbot, waiting for top-down regulation may not be enough. Experts cited in the Internet dzieci 2026 report recommend household conversations about what AI is and isn't good for, rather than outright bans that are difficult to enforce anyway.
Poland's Ministry of National Education (Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej) currently has no uniform guidelines on using AI in Polish schools, much like the American school districts surveyed by Deloitte. Both markets are heading in a similar direction - the question is no longer whether children will use AI, but who will teach them to do so responsibly, and how.
Sources: Half of parents worry their children rely on AI too much, survey finds (thenextweb.com), Internet dzieci 2026 report (gazetaprawna.pl)
