Most parents in Northern Colorado already know the usual tech worries. Phones. Social media. Gaming. Homework shortcuts. Endless scrolling.
What catches a lot of families off guard is this newer category that doesn’t fit neatly into any of those boxes. It’s not quite a study tool, not quite entertainment, not exactly social media either. A teen opens an app and says, “I’m just talking to it.” That sounds harmless until you stop and ask what it actually is.
Because in a lot of cases, it’s not a simple chatbot. It’s an AI companion — something designed to feel personal, responsive, and emotionally available.
That distinction is exactly why Colorado got involved. Earlier this year, Governor Jared Polis signed House Bill 26-1263, and it focuses specifically on what the state calls “conversational artificial intelligence services.” As North Forty News recently reported, the law creates stronger protections for young users. Beginning January 1, 2027, operators will have to estimate whether a user is a minor, clearly disclose when a young person is interacting with AI, put limits around certain sexual content and emotional-dependence cues, and create protocols for self-harm and suicide-related interactions. That is a pretty strong signal that the state sees these products as something more than ordinary apps.
And Colorado is not reacting to some tiny, fringe behavior.
Common Sense Media found in 2025 that 72% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 had used AI companions at least once, and 52% were regular users, meaning they used them at least a few times a month. Just as striking, 33% said they were using them for social interaction and relationships. That means millions of teenagers are not only asking AI for help with school or random questions. They are using it for company, advice, emotional support, role-play, and conversation practice.
That may sound dramatic if you are hearing it for the first time, but the appeal is not hard to understand.
Teenagers are curious. They are awkward sometimes. They are lonely sometimes too, even when their lives look busy from the outside. They want privacy, but they also want a response. They want somewhere to say things before those things have to land in front of another real person. An AI companion can feel easy in a way human interaction often doesn’t. It doesn’t interrupt. It doesn’t screenshot the chat. It doesn’t laugh in the group thread. It just keeps answering.
That doesn’t automatically make it dangerous. It does make it powerful.
Some of the research reflects that more complicated reality. Bangor University researchers found that 67% of teens they surveyed said AI companions were not affecting their human friendships at all, while 26% said they thought the tools were actually helping them make more human friendships. For some teenagers, these systems seem to act like rehearsal space — somewhere to test out thoughts, ask awkward questions, or practice social interaction before bringing it to real life. That part is important, because it reminds parents that not every teen using one of these apps is spiraling into some dystopian emotional dependency.
But the same Bangor research also showed why parents should take the issue seriously. 52% of respondents had confided in an AI companion about something important or serious at least once, and 53% said they had at least moderate trust in the information or advice they got back. That changes the conversation. Once a teenager starts treating a system as emotionally trustworthy, the quality of that system matters a lot more. Tone matters. Guardrails matter. What it encourages matters.
That is where many parents need to adjust their picture of what is happening. A lot of adults still imagine AI as a glorified search box. For teens, it can feel much closer to a relationship-shaped product. Not necessarily a romance, not necessarily a crisis, but definitely something more personal than software in the old sense.
Sometimes the first sign is not the app name. It is the pattern around it.
A teen starts staying up later in a private chat window. They seem oddly attached to a particular “character” or companion. They talk about the bot as if it understands them better than real people do. Or they get defensive when a parent asks what the app actually does. None of that proves there is a serious problem. But it does suggest the technology may be doing more emotional work than the adults in the house realize.
That is why the worst response is usually either mockery or panic.
If you laugh at it, your teenager is likely to shut down. If you overreact before you understand what is actually going on, same result. The better move is curiosity with some backbone. Ask what they like about it. Ask whether the AI ever says things that feel too intense, too flattering, too sexual, or too personal. Ask whether it ever encourages secrecy. Ask whether it feels hard to stop using. Ask whether they would tell you if a conversation ever turned upsetting.
The goal is not to become a detective. It is to become talkable.
That is also why it helps to understand how these platforms present themselves. Services in this category are not marketed like calculators or search engines. They are sold in the language of connection. One example is https://joi.ai/, which describes itself as a subscription-based platform for AI companions and “AI-lationships,” built around real-time chat, photos, videos, and personalized virtual characters. That tells parents something important right away: these tools are not trying to feel neutral. They are designed to feel warm, immediate, and emotionally easy to stay inside.
For families in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Greeley, the practical takeaway is not “ban everything and hope for the best.” It is also not “this is just the future, so don’t worry about it.” The better approach is somewhere in the middle. Treat AI companions the way many families had to learn to treat social media years ago: as something real in a teen’s life, something that may offer a few benefits, but also something that needs adult context.
Colorado’s law gives parents a useful opening for that conversation. You don’t have to invent concerns from scratch. You can say: the state looked at this closely enough to regulate it, so let’s talk about why. That is a much better starting point than pretending this is too weird to discuss or too harmless to matter.
In the end, most parents are not trying to win a battle against technology. They are trying to make sure their child still has somewhere human to bring the things a machine cannot really hold. That is the real issue here. Teens are growing up in a world where attention can be simulated, warmth can be designed, and conversation can be generated on demand. Parents cannot stop that world from existing. But they can make sure it does not become the only place their kids feel heard.