AI for Parents

The book

Most parenting books about technology arrive either as a warning or a pep talk — Marcus Hale writes as neither. In a grounded look at 2026's actual landscape, he traces what children are genuinely doing with AI: drafting homework in ChatGPT, talking to Character.AI after lights-out, navigating school systems that increasingly run on algorithms. Drawing on research from Common Sense Media and a measured reading of Jonathan Haidt's findings — including where critics push back — he works toward something less dramatic than a verdict and more useful than a rule: a way for parents to stay in the conversation as the ground keeps shifting.

What you'll learn

• How to talk with your child about AI and homework without triggering defensiveness or shutting down honesty
• What kids reveal to chatbots — personal information, anxieties, relationships — and how to build privacy habits before those habits matter
• Practical ways to teach critical thinking about AI-generated content, from quietly fabricated facts to deepfake video
• When AI tools in school genuinely support learning and when they quietly replace the cognitive work that builds real understanding
• How to encourage children who want to build with AI, not just consume it
• Why the next decade calls for ongoing conversation rather than a single household policy written once and left to age

Who it's for

This book is for working parents who have already noticed the gap between what they know about AI and what their children are doing with it every day. It is especially for the parent who picked up the phone their twelve-year-old left unlocked, saw a long conversation with a chatbot, and did not quite know what to say next.