Saint John’s Preparatory School Student Work

Benjamin Suo

Document Type

Paper

Publication Date

4-11-2025

Advisor

Kelly Fitch and Sarah Pasela

Abstract

As digital voice assistants (DVAs) like Siri and Alexa become more common in households, their influence on young children becomes more vast and often overlooked. Using secondary research from news reports, academic research studies, and expert opinions, this paper explores the question: how do DVAs influence children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development, and in what ways can early exposure to such technology shape the behavior of future generations? While there are benefits—such as nurturing children’s curiosity by providing immediate feedback to questions and helping with language skills when the child queries the chatbot—the unemotional and mechanical ways that DVAs are designed to interact with discourages empathy, limits critical thinking, and even subtly reinforces social and gender biases. The extent to which DVAs create harm can be reduced through thoughtful design, early AI literacy, and active adult involvement, and when used responsibly, they can become tools that help children grow more curious, reflective, and socially aware—ready to engage thoughtfully in a world where technology and human connection becomes increasingly intersected.

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