The rise of AI offering teens advice
How teens use and misuse AI for guidance
From whether heavy bleeding is normal to how to spot a toxic boyfriend, thousands of teens are turning to ChatGPT before anyone else.
But is that a good idea? And what are the risks?
Moreover…what happens next after a young person receives advice? Are they satisfied? Do they follow a chatbot’s advice to the letter, or do they leave the exchange worried, confused, or more alone than when they started?
We’re here to shed some light on the matter.
At luna, the leading app that supports young people through adolescence, we hear from teens every day who’ve already tried an AI tool and are now fact-checking what they were told via luna’s anonymous Q&A.
We see the aftermath, the reassurance that helped, the “DIY hack” that hurt, the diagnoses that soothed but didn’t cover all bases – and everything in between.
So let’s explore what we’re seeing.
Are teens really asking AI for advice?
Yes. Every day.
More and more of the questions we see from young people in the Luna app now include: “ChatGPT told me…” or “I asked AI and it said…”.
Teens are literally fact-checking bots with us, or coming to us when the advice backfired.
Of course, this wasn’t always the case – back in 2022, when luna launched, we never could have predicted we’d be both an AI-powered app (at luna, it is used to speed up processes, not replace the humans behind the app!) whilst also tackling AI misinformation at the same time.
The reality is that AI is quickly becoming part of teens’ help-seeking journey, and it’s definitely not all bad; it can be a useful tool just like any other form of technology.
But there are some things to watch out for, or at least be aware of, in HOW teens are using AI in 2025.
AI as “doctor”: can it be helpful?
Many of us will have turned to AI for some health guidance, for example, a summary of health conditions related to symptoms, or routine ideas to make healthy lifestyle changes.
And with how accessible and anonymous AI is currently, it makes sense why people are doing this – to avoid appointment wait times, or any potential embarrassment that comes from a sit-down chat with a doctor.
In fact, a recent luna poll found that around half (51%) of respondents have asked AI about their health.
We also learnt recently from nearly 2,500 teen girls that more of them turn to Google or TikTok (31%) than to doctors (2%) for health and wellbeing help!
But – and we’re stating the obvious here – health questions carry high stakes.
There are so many nuances when it comes to someone's health – their medical history, their symptoms, their age, gender and so on.
Small omissions in AI consultation can turn “helpful” into harmful very quickly.
And whilst there are now AI resources available to schools, it’s hard to say just yet how effective these teachings will be, given how fast AI is evolving.
What happens when AI as doctor falls short
As mentioned, teens are already using ChatGPT as a stand-in GP.
Sometimes the advice sounds convincing, but when it misses context, age filters, or safety nets, the results can be risky.
Here are three real examples shared on Luna (names changed for privacy).
Holly, 14: fungal acne hack gone wrong
“I have fungal acne and it’s sooooo annoying I had tried EVERYTHING and so went to chat gpt which told me to use Head and Shoulders and I didn’t have that at home so I went to buy it and when I used it finally I was soo excited it started to burn real bad the I REALISED IT WAS WITH MINT EXTRACT! I just dont have the ability to buy expensive skincare or any skincare at all I wanted was something easy and natural that would help me”
Using dandruff shampoo for fungal acne is actually a common online tip – we’ve had many questions about it before from luna, usually discovered by teens from TikTok.
And while it may work in certain cases, it generally isn’t recommended as a hack above going to see a doctor about their skin, and anything with mint in it can really sting, especially on sore skin.
Holly needed clear, age-safe advice and a simple skincare routine that wouldn’t harm her, which she didn’t receive.
Maya, 13: extremely heavy periods
“I had been getting super super heavy periods for about 4 months. I would bleed through the heaviest night pads I could find on top of 24-hour Modibodi period pants that were bigger than my baby cousin’s nappies overnight and still leak all the time. I had to sleep on a red towel, and I regularly got blood on my chair in school. I changed my pads at break at school and every hour at home, and I also got really huge clots.
One period, around 9 pm, I started getting really bad pains. It got worse and worse and I felt like throwing up – honestly I kind of wanted to because I just needed the pain to stop. I was nauseous, dizzy, couldn’t stop shaking and wasn’t thinking straight. It didn’t stop until about 1 am but it felt like an eternity. The next day, I still felt awful even though it had ended, because it had been so traumatising. Later that night,t I got my period.
I went to ChatGPT and it said it could just be a hormone balance but to keep an eye on it. The next month, on day three of my period, it started happening again. I tried taking a bath to help the pain, but I was so scared because I really couldn’t go through it again.”
ChatGPT minimised symptoms that are red flags under NHS guidance about heavy periods.
Maya needed to see her doctor as this pain was affecting her everyday life, not reassurance or to “keep an eye on it” or a note that it might be “hormone balance”.
On luna, she was given practical coping strategies and a guide on how to seek help.
Zara, 12: waiting for her first period
“I was 11 and had some symptoms that showed my first menstruation was getting close. I actually wanted to get it so bad. I wanted to be the first in my class to get it and to have something special. The year before, I had taken a quiz on the internet and it said I would get it in 4 to 8 months. But 13 months passed and I still didn’t have it. My friends, who were only a little older than me, had theirs already and they told me I shouldn’t wish for it. I asked ChatGPT and it said that I was going to get it in 3 to 6 months but I didn’t.”
AI offered a false timeline here, fuelling Zara’s anxiety and comparison with her peers.
In reality, first periods can start anywhere between 8 and 17, and you can’t pinpoint an exact timeline, no matter how many quizzes you take.
What she needed was reassurance that her body was normal and preparation tips so she’d feel confident, whenever it happened – which is luna’s approach in the app.
But what about AI as “agony aunt”? Is it less high stakes?
Teens don’t just ask AI about rashes and cramps; they bring it their most personal dilemmas.
And it makes sense. AI is instant (no waiting), anonymous (no embarrassment), and doesn’t roll its eyes or offer a response that doesn’t take them seriously.
In fact, in a recent luna poll, nearly two-thirds (63%) said they trust AI with personal questions, even if it's sporadic.
But there’s a catch.
General-purpose chatbots are designed to be agreeable!
This may be fixed in time – who knows! – but as it stands, they tend to mirror what the user assumes, telling them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
- When a teen asks, “How do I drop a friend?”, ChatGPT might suggest “cut them off” rather than ways to be more inclusive and kind
- Or when a teen asks, “How can I make my boyfriend talk to me more?”, it may not explain the signs of healthy relationships or warn them about relationship red flags
Because teens don’t always know how to “prompt” for context, they’re left with answers that sound confident but can miss the bigger picture or genuine human kindnesses.
“We’ve tested free, uncustomised AI chatbots using real teen questions we’ve received against our own answers (as free versions are what they tell us they turn to the majority of the time),” says Jas Schembri-Stothart, Co-Founder of luna. “Where a bot might give a fix they WANT to hear, we add the missing layer: age-appropriate context, empathy, and guidance from a human who really gets where they’re coming from.”
So what point are we trying to make?
We’re not here to say that AI is inherently bad.
In fact, in the right hands, it can be a powerful tool for health and wellbeing information and even to improve efficiencies for healthcare and childcare services.
But there are still open questions that no study has answered yet, such as:
- How will reliance on AI in adolescence for personal dilemmas affect confidence in human relationships and communication later in life?
- What happens to the sensitive data young people type in, and who might use it later?
We don’t yet know how this is impacting young people entirely, particularly those who went through many of their formative years in isolation during a COVID-19 lockdown.
And how having their most personal conversations with AI might shape how they communicate with people in the real world.
We see less and less context and nuance being added to many of our questions in the luna app today than we used to.
More “search-based” language, like “Pads not sticking properly” or “Tell me everything about periods” .
Understandable, maybe, as an app offering advice rather than a person, but it’s an interesting distinction from our more meaningful messages in the past, such as:
Hello luna! I love this app so so much, it has helped me a lot! 🌸 So the thing is, I got my first period exactly a month ago and I started getting some brown discharge for a week and a half now and I’m worried it’s bad. I would like to know if it’s normal or do I have to seek help and how long it lasts. Thank you very much!!
We don’t yet know the impacts of AI reliance on younger generations. Which is why we need to watch carefully now.
The reality is that AI is here, and teens are already using it.
Sometimes it helps if the alternative is suffering in silence with no sounding board at all. But sometimes it harms, and hopefully we’ve demonstrated that today.
What’s missing is the human layer: empathy, safeguarding, and age-aware context.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to arm teens with tools and experts that, yes, may even use AI themselves – the reality is that this is the future – but who have the guardrails and training in place to use it responsibly.
As one 15-year-old put it after using both luna and ChatGPT:
“I felt like ChatGPT told me what I wanted to hear, and it honestly didn’t give me much to work with. luna told me what to do next and made me feel okay. i liked knowing that there was someone there who cares, looking out for me.”
Because ultimately, conversations around growing up and our wellbeing shouldn't be shaped entirely by prompts and outputs. It’s about being heard, understood, and helped by people who get it.
Why choose luna?
At luna, we believe that growing up shouldn’t mean growing confused.
Every answer in our app comes from real people with real expertise – not from a faceless algorithm.
We work closely with NHS doctors, adolescent health specialists, and mental health professionals to make sure the guidance teens receive is safe, accurate, and up to date.
Our dedicated team keeps a constant eye on the latest health developments, online trends, and myths that shape how young people see themselves and their bodies.
And when teens reach out to luna, they can ask anonymous questions – receiving personalised, age-appropriate answers that add empathy, reassurance, and real-world context, not just surface-level fixes.
In a world where AI chatbots are fast becoming teens’ go-to source for advice, luna offers something different: a trusted, human-led space that listens, understands, and guides them through adolescence with care.
Because every young person deserves to feel informed, supported, and never alone – and every parent deserves to know that their teen’s questions are being answered responsibly.
How we created this article:
luna's team of experts comprises GPs, Dermatologists, Safeguarding Leads and Junior Doctors as well as Medical Students with specialised interests in paediatric care, mental health and gynaecology. All articles are created by experts, and reviewed by a member of luna's senior review team.
Find out about trends when your teen does
Sign up to our parent newsletter for emails on the latest teen trends, insights into our luna community and to keep up to date
By signing up, you are agreeing that we can use your email address to market to you. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the link in our emails. For more information, please review our privacy statement.