Begin with curiosity
Ask each person to describe one way they encounter AI: search, homework, image making, entertainment or conversation. Avoid beginning with a demand to disclose private conversations. The aim is to understand what the tool offers and why it is appealing. Adults should describe their own uses too. This makes the conversation about shared judgment rather than a test children alone must pass.
What do we use? __________. What do we like about it? __________. What confuses us? __________.
Try a source-checking exercise
Choose a harmless factual question with a checkable answer. Read the answer together and select one claim. Follow its citation to the original page, check whether that page exists and locate the supporting passage. If there is no citation, record that the claim remains unverified. Then compare a generated explanation of a Bible passage with the passage in context and discuss what the explanation adds. Do not ask the tool itself to certify that it is correct.
Claim: __________. Source: __________. Does it actually support the claim? __________.
Discuss companionship without shaming
An always-available answer may feel comforting. Ask what a responsive system can provide and what it cannot know about your family’s life. A child or adult should be able to say that a tool felt helpful without being ridiculed. At the same time, agree that serious personal concerns should reach a trusted person who can listen, respond and remain accountable. A family agreement should make asking for help easier, including when someone has already shared something they regret.
Trusted people we can approach: __________. How we ask for help without punishment for asking: __________.
Connect faith with practice
First Thessalonians 5:19–22 joins discernment with holding on to what is good. Its context is a Christian community; it is not a technical endorsement of a product. As an application, families can practice patient examination rather than assuming that everything new is either trustworthy or forbidden. Ephesians 4:25 connects truthfulness with belonging to one another. That matters when an image, quotation or homework answer is easy to produce but misleading to share.
Read the passages: 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; Ephesians 4:25 (NIV)
One way we can practice truthfulness: __________.
Write a small agreement
Choose three habits your family can actually follow. Examples are checking consequential claims with a person and an original source, asking before sharing someone else’s image, and keeping private family information out of prompts. Decide when devices will be put aside for conversation. Rules should fit age, understanding and the actual tools involved; this worksheet does not replace a school’s requirements or a parent’s judgment.
Our three habits: 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________. Review date: __________.
Return to the conversation
After a week, ask for one example of a useful answer and one that needed correction. Discuss what changed in behavior, not just what rule was broken. Update the agreement when a product or a family member’s needs change. A tool’s name, friendly voice or religious vocabulary should not substitute for examining what it does.
What helped: __________. What needs to change: __________.