Originally written in Traditional Chinese: AI 陪伴最厲害的，是它永遠有空
My take: the most powerful thing about a virtual companion is not that it understands teenagers. It's that it is always available.
On October 13, the Hong Kong Sexual Culture Association released a survey of 3,389 secondary school students across 17 schools, conducted from May to June 2026. 86.2% had used AI to prepare homework or organize information. That part is not surprising.
This part is: 15.9% said they had engaged in emotionally intimate interactions with virtual characters, including AI chat characters and romance game characters. Among those students, 27.05% reported moderate to severe low mood, depression, or hopelessness in the past two weeks, compared with 11.43% of students who had not.
Many adults' first instinct is to take the phone away. The Association warned that simply confiscating phones or moralizing would only push children onto a more isolated "underground island" (my translation). The same week, at a national work meeting of senior high school counseling directors convened by Taiwan's Ministry of Education K-12 Education Administration, educators discussed how to identify students at risk of dependence on short videos and AI chat.
It's not that a virtual companion understands them better. It's that it is always there. At 1 a.m. After a failed exam. When no one else seems to want to listen.
To be clear, this is a survey. It shows association, not cause. AI may deepen low mood, or students who already feel low may be more likely to turn to AI. And most students in the same survey used AI to study. This is not an argument against AI, and it is not about blaming parents.
I no longer shy away from writing, and I owe that to one teacher. He cared for me like his own child. Whenever I ran into trouble, he poured himself into teaching me.
The Association's advice for parents is a daily "golden 15 minutes": no schoolwork, no lectures, just listening. Here's how I'd try it tonight. Put both phones in another room and open with:
"Was there anything today you only wanted to tell one person?"
Don't correct. Just ask, "And then?" Stop at 15 minutes.
For parents: if they don't want to talk tonight, be there again tomorrow at the same time.
For educators: give students five minutes to answer anonymously, "Who do I most want to talk to lately? A person, or AI?"
For professionals: when was the last time you told your worries to an AI instead of a person?
AI will always be available. What young people will remember is the person who truly cared.
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