Are AI tutors safe and accurate for kids

The short answer

The technology behind AI tutors is the same kind of language model that powers general chatbots, and those models have real weaknesses: they can be wrong while sounding sure, and they can be talked into giving answers. General-purpose AI products are also not always designed with children’s data in mind.

None of these are reasons to avoid AI tutoring altogether. They are reasons to look closely at a specific product before your child uses it.

It helps to think about safety in three parts: accuracy, learning, and privacy.

Accuracy: can an AI tutor be wrong

Yes. A language model predicts likely words, and a likely-sounding sentence is not always a true one.

In math this shows up as arithmetic slips, a sign that flips between steps, or a confident explanation of a rule that does not exist. For a child, an error from a tutor is worse than an error in a textbook, because the child has less reason to doubt it.

The fix is to check the math with something other than the language model, such as a separate math system that recomputes each step. Not every tutor does this. Ask the company directly how they check answers and explanations, and what happens when a check fails.

Speech adds one more source of error: the tutor can mishear. A good voice tutor should show what it heard, through captions or on the board, so a student can correct it.

Learning: does it do the work for them

The second risk is quieter. A tutor that gives answers on request can make homework look finished while the student learns very little. Look for a tutor that asks questions and gives hints first, saves full worked solutions for after real attempts, and follows a shown step with a similar problem for the student to try.

It also helps when parents and teachers can see how a session went, including how often a student asked to be shown a step. That is not about catching anyone. It tells you whether the tutor is being used for practice or for answers.

Privacy: the rules that apply

Several US and California laws cover children's and students' data. This is general information, not legal advice.

• COPPA, a federal law, requires online services directed at children under 13 to get verifiable parental consent before collecting a child's personal information.
• FERPA, a federal law, protects students’ education records at schools that receive federal education funding and limits how schools share them, including with technology providers acting on the school’s behalf.
• SOPIPA, a California law, bars operators of online services used for K-12 school purposes from using student information for targeted advertising, selling it, or building profiles for non-school purposes.
• AB 1584, a California law, sets out what contracts between California school districts and technology providers must say about student records, including that the records stay under the district's control.

Questions to ask before your child uses an AI tutor

• How is the math checked before my child sees or hears it?
• What happens when my child asks for the answer?
• Is my child's voice recorded and stored, or only turned into text?
• What do you keep, for how long, and can I download or delete it?
• Is my child's work used to train AI models, and can I say no?
• Are there ads, points, streaks, or other features designed to keep my child on the app?
• What can I see after a session, and can I set a daily time limit?
• What does the tutor do if my child says something worrying or goes off topic?

How Helio handles these

• Helio checks every math claim before it says it.
• It gives hints first, and shows a worked step only when the student asks or after real attempts.
• For children under 13, Helio keeps nothing until a parent says yes. Children join only through a parent or a school, never with their own email.
• Speech becomes text as Helio listens. The sound is not saved.
• Each child’s saved work is locked with its own key. Deleting the work from the parent page destroys that key.
• A child’s work is not used to train models unless a parent agrees.
• There are no ads, points or leaderboards. Helio’s voice is computer-made, and it says so.

What you can do as a parent

Sit in on the first session or two. You will learn quickly whether the tutor asks good questions, whether your child is comfortable, and whether the explanations make sense to you.

After that, check the session history once a week and ask your child to explain one thing they learned. If they can teach it back to you, the tutor is doing its job.