News

Under the Influence: How social media preys on young NZers - and AI will make it worse

  • Joanna Wane--New Zealand Herald
  • published date: 2026-06-19 21:00:00 UTC

Under the Influence investigates teen mental health, the manosphere, AI chatbots and porn.

With AI companions, her advice is to steer clear. Despite knowing the bots are trained to manipulate their users, she found herself subtly drawn in. You can feel it hacking your psychology, she sa… [+5093 chars]