Whether we realize it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasing part of our teens’ lives. According to a Common Sense Media report last fall, 7 in 10 teens have used at least one type of generative AI tool, whether for homework help or simply out of boredom. And over half the time, they did so without their parents’ knowledge!
With its ease of access, vast knowledge base, sophisticated reasoning skills, and lure of 24/7 companionship, AI promises greater freedoms—and possibly greater harms—for our youth than we’ve ever known before. And yet, technologies throughout history have heralded both real advancement and real dangers.
Moreover, the Bible offers wisdom for helping our children engage wisely, not just with AI, but with any of the new tech tools and platforms they will encounter. Let’s examine two starting points supported by Scripture that can lead us to two applications for tech-wise parenting.
First, the Bible shows us that in its proper context, technology is a wonderful gift under God. Isaiah 28:23-29 describes how technological (and, in that particular context, agricultural) wisdom comes from God. Technology—the human activity of using tools to transform God’s creation for practical purposes [1]—is a gift from God, the only true innovator, to help us cultivate our world and push back on Adam’s curse. When designed and used well, it’s something we should marvel at to the glory of God. Furthermore, all technology is under God’s sovereign will; no technology is a surprise to God. He has control over the innovator, implementer, and outcomes of all technologies (Isaiah 54:16-17). [2]
At the same time, however, technology is never neutral: in both design and use, technology can accomplish incredible evil and incredible good. Scripture gives us the framework to grasp this principle. God’s Word explains our innate depravity from the Fall (Genesis 3, Mark 7:21-23), while also proclaiming Christ’s redemption (Eph. 2:4-7), thereby enabling us to seek good and bring good out of even our most dangerous inventions. The biblical doctrine of common grace (Matthew 5:45) also helps us see that nonbelievers as well as believers can do amazing good through technology.
If we recognize that technology is a wonderful gift under God, yet also see its capability for great harm and good, we can encourage our teens to put technologies like AI in its proper context. First, we help our teens understand its limits and false freedoms. Second, we still embrace the good it offers in the true freedom of Christ.
Understand the limits and false freedoms of technology.
Because of their continuing neurological and psychological development, our teens often see the freedoms of technology without recognizing the ways its design and use can enslave and deceive.
For example, tech’s design and use can give our teens a sense of false rest—meaningless distraction and dopamine hits instead of true reprieve and restoration from their labors. It can offer false omniscience—acting as if all knowledge is at their fingertips with a single AI search, without realizing that the information they consume can be misleading, out of context, or in a vacuum. It can suggest false omnipotence—a dizzying sense of power to control time, distance, and relationships. And it promises false connection—a sense of closeness and intimacy, whether to humans or AI chatbots, that leave them lonelier and more maladapted than ever.
Our children may not realize that they’re absorbing a false gospel of meeting their deepest desires through technology. But we can raise awareness by discussing its false freedoms with our kids, and setting healthy, age-appropriate boundaries in how, how often, when, and where they engage with technology.
Embrace technology within the true freedom given to us in Christ.
The beauty of the gospel is that it never just leaves us with an awareness of our broken world and depraved selves. Instead, through his life, death, and resurrection, Christ offers the means of true human flourishing here on earth. The freedom he provides from sin, and for the purpose of whole-heartedly living for God, enables us to embrace technology for transformed purposes and aims. In the same manner, rather than only pointing out tech’s pitfalls and limiting its use, we can point our kids to the beauty and joy of a gospel-centered lifestyle in which healthy tech use is but a part.
One practical application of this is to model and encourage healthy tech habits and priorities. We can enjoy positive tech use, individually and together. We can practice digital citizenship, including online safety and etiquette. We can be discerning of what we consume and repost.
And more broadly, we can frame our tech use within God’s greater desires for us by asking ourselves, How is technology shaping me? Am I using it to love God and neighbor? Does my tech use make God’s name great? How would our teen’s adoption of AI, for example, change if this were their rubric?
A second application is to contextualize our teen’s tech life within a holistic, gospel-centered lifestyle:
God designed us to live in our physical bodies, which he intentionally limits in its function and in a particular time and space. As such, we can encourage non-virtual activities for our teens—that which Andy Crouch describes as “scoring high” on the “heart-soul-mind-strength” scale,[2] like singing, taking nature walks, or participating in a worship service together.
God designed us for union with himself, so we prioritize habits and activities that keep us abiding in him and connected to his people.
God designed us for human connection, so we encourage in-person relationships, partnering with our church communities to help our teens work through messy social dynamics, helping them see why and how it’s worth it.
And as finite, limited creatures, God designed for us rhythms of rest, which means we build in times to regularly unplug and create “tech-free” zones in our households (e.g. bedrooms, bathrooms, dinner tables, car rides). More positively, we can regularly seek soul-restorative leisure and recreation, and build in the “white space” that is so helpful for diffuse learning, creativity, and renewal.
Paradoxically, the freedom of Christ constrains us. We are free to not look to technology for limitless comfort, pleasure, or connection. We are free to stop deceiving ourselves with the lie that technology offers us consummate knowledge or power.
Instead, Christ’s freedom joyfully compels us to rely on a God who offers true soul-rest; who alone has all power and knowledge; who is Love itself. By placing technology within this freedom, our teens can inhabit their technological world with both wisdom and delight.
For gospel-centered parenting resources, check out the Rooted Parent Podcast!
[1] John Dyer, From the Garden to the City: The Place of Technology in the Story of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2022) 73 (giving credit also to Stephen V. Monsma for his contribution to the definition).
[2] I am indebted to Tony Reinke for these insights in his book, God, Technology, and the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021).
[3] Andy Crouch, “The Tech-Wise Family Video Series: The Big Picture,” Right Now Media, 2021, https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/content/details/516727.
