When Reality Bends: What Parents Need to Know About Sora and Meta’s New AI Apps
Lately, it feels like every day we wake up to another “groundbreaking” AI tool being released. As a mom and digital wellness educator, I’ve learned to pay close attention to these new technologies not just because they are mindblowing (their capabilities truly boggle the mind!), but for how they might impact our children's developing sense of reality and trust. Two recent releases in particular have me concerned: OpenAI’s new Sora app and Meta’s latest AI-powered tools.
How These Apps Work:
OpenAI’s Sora lets users type a short description - say, “a girl walking her dog down a street at sunset” - and within moments it creates a realistic-looking video that didn’t exist before. The latest version Sora 2 even has a new feature is calls Cameo which allows people to biometrical scan their own face and voice and enter it into the app for future use. This option makes it possible to create deepfakes that make it look as if they were really there in the scene. While the videos often still look glitchy and in some cases don’t quite hit the mark, to an untrained eye (or a young child) they can be very convincing.
Meanwhile, Meta (the company behind Instagram and Facebook) alongside its AI chatbots, is rolling out Vibes. Vibes is a new social sharing app where all the short form content in the scroll is AI generated by the user with some of the most sophisticated video generating tools out there.
Undoubtedly, the potential for creativity and positive experiences exists with these new technologies. However, when it comes to children and teens, who are still developing critical thinking skills and a solid sense of what’s real and what’s not, the potential for confusion and emotional harm is significant.
Reasons to be Concerned
We’ve all seen deepfakes of celebrities or political figures, but what worries me most is the ability to fake ordinary life. Imagine a convincing video that shows a classmate saying something unkind that they never actually said, or a clip that appears to show your child doing something they didn’t do. When we can no longer trust what our eyes see, things start to get messy very quickly.
This kind of technology has the potential to fuel conflict among friends, spread rumors and damage reputations. For kids, it can create deep confusion about what’s real. For parents, it can trigger anxiety and a constant need to verify everything. When we lose our collective grip on “what really happened,” we risk living in a state of low-level paranoia that’s exhausting and destabilizing.
What Parents Can Do
Talk about it early and with curiosity - avoid lectures
Don’t wait until your child stumbles across this technology. Explain in simple terms: “There are now apps that can make fake videos that look totally real, what do you think about that? Can you imagine upsides and potential downsides?” Encourage curiosity, not fear.
Encourage and model healthy skepticism.
Teach your child that blind trust is no longer an option when it comes to videos that don’t come straight from a verified news source. Kids should learn to become investigators - find the source of the original video, look for inconsistencies and wonder why this video is circulating.
Delay and restrict access.
These tools are not appropriate for children and young teens without adult supervision. Use parental controls when possible to block the downloading of apps and the use of these websites. If you allow your child to experiment with these apps I recommend doing it with them.
Keep the conversation going
These apps are in their infancy so chances are your child will be exposed to them soon if they aren’t already. Make yourself a resource to them. It’s ok to say you don’t know - we’re all new to this! Your presence and critical eye will go a long way toward helping your child develop their own media literacy skills.
Final thought
As many of you know I am a pragmatist and not into fear mongering when it comes to kids and screen time issues, but the truth is I find these new technologies pretty concerning. My sense is that our kids will likely develop a keen eye and the skills to navigate these new AI frontiers in a way that we as parents may not be able to. In the meantime, we don’t need to panic; we just need to stay informed and intentional. The most powerful thing we can do is raise kids who know that truth still matters, that trust is built on honesty, and that not everything we see on a screen deserves to be believed.