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Halo Aware

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Insights about AI safety, parenting in the age of artificial intelligence, and practical guidance for families navigating this new frontier together.

ChatGPT Was Rated “Unacceptable Risk” for Teens
Latest3 min read

ChatGPT Was Rated “Unacceptable Risk” for Teens

In October, Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute published a report that got a lot of attention. After testing more than 4,000 prompts on teen accounts, it rated ChatGPT for Teens, OpenAI...

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Amy North
November 2, 2026

Articles

Will Parental Controls Make My Teen Stop Talking to Me?
4 min read

Will Parental Controls Make My Teen Stop Talking to Me?

Thousands of monitored kids have shared how parental controls made them feel. Here’s what breaks trust, what doesn’t, and a 30-second check for your own setup.

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Amy North
Is Grok Safe for Teens? What Parents Need to Know
3 min read

Is Grok Safe for Teens? What Parents Need to Know

Grok's own safety assessment calls it one of the worst AI chatbots for teens: weak age checks, a companion that steers toward romance, and a "Kids Mode" that doesn't really work.

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Amy North
Is Character.AI Shutting Down?
3 min read

Is Character.AI Shutting Down?

Character.AI has filed for bankruptcy, with a real chance it shuts down by mid-December if no buyer steps in. Here's what's actually happening, and what to do about your child's account now.

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Amy North
How Well Do You Actually Know Your Teen’s AI Chatbot? Take the Quiz
2 min read

How Well Do You Actually Know Your Teen’s AI Chatbot? Take the Quiz

Do ChatGPT’s parent alerts arrive straight away? Can under-18s still chat freely on Character.AI? Five quick true-or-false questions to see how well you really know your teen’s AI chatbot.

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Amy North
What Age Do You Have to Be to Use Talkie? What Parents Need to Know
2 min read

What Age Do You Have to Be to Use Talkie? What Parents Need to Know

Talkie's own terms say 14+, but the App Store rates it 18+. And on the website, there's very little stopping a younger child from starting a chat. Here's what parents need to know.

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Amy North
What Age Do You Have to Be to Use PolyBuzz? What Parents Need to Know
3 min read

What Age Do You Have to Be to Use PolyBuzz? What Parents Need to Know

PolyBuzz's own rules say 18+, worldwide, no exceptions. Here's how the age check actually works, what it doesn't catch, and what parents should know before assuming the rule is enough.

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Amy North
ChatGPT for Teens: What Parents Can (and Can't) See
3 min read

ChatGPT for Teens: What Parents Can (and Can't) See

OpenAI's new teen mode adds quiet hours, distress alerts and stricter content limits, real progress. But there's one thing it still won't show you: what your teen actually said.

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Amy North
Can Bark see ChatGPT conversations?
2 min read

Can Bark see ChatGPT conversations?

Bark can see ChatGPT chats on Android only, never in a browser or on iPhone, and even then no parent reads the actual conversation. Here's what's really covered.

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Amy North
Best Apps for Monitoring Your Child's AI Use
6 min read

Best Apps for Monitoring Your Child's AI Use

Bark, Aura, Qustodio, AirDroid and Halo Aware all help parents keep children safer online. But which ones can actually see what your child says to AI chatbots? Here’s an honest, up-to-date comparison.

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Amy North
Character.AI, Replika, and the Apps Your Kid Might Be Talking To
4 min read

Character.AI, Replika, and the Apps Your Kid Might Be Talking To

Ask most parents about their child's friends and they can name them. Ask about the AI their child talks to every night, and most couldn't. Here's what to know.

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Amy North
Could Your Child Trick an AI Into Ignoring Its Safety Rules?
4 min read

Could Your Child Trick an AI Into Ignoring Its Safety Rules?

Kids are quietly learning how to talk an AI out of its own safety rules. Would you spot it if your child tried? Take this two-minute quiz and find out.

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Amy North
Is the AI Chatbot Your Child Uses Actually Safe? We Built a Tool to Check.
2 min read

Is the AI Chatbot Your Child Uses Actually Safe? We Built a Tool to Check.

A new kid-safety AI app seems to launch every month. We built a free, public tool that scores the ones your child is likely already using, and we're publishing exactly how we score them.

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Amy North