Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies in Family and Parenting Contexts

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies are increasingly influencing family life, parenting practices, and pediatric health and mental health services. Applications include AI-enabled parenting support tools, mobile health interventions, digital therapeutics, remote monitoring systems, and algorithm-based platforms for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric assessment. While these technologies offer opportunities to enhance parental support, personalize care, and improve access to services, they also raise concerns related to ethics, equity, data privacy, and parent–child relationships. This narrative review offers an integrative overview of AI and digital technologies in family and parenting contexts, focusing on key domains such as AI-supported parenting interventions, digital health literacy, pediatric and perinatal care, neurodevelopmental and mental health assessment, digital media use, and family communication. Reported benefits, emerging risks, and unintended consequences are discussed with particular attention to parental roles, family-centered design, and implementation challenges. Overall, evidence suggests that AI-enabled tools are most effective when they are transparent, co-designed with parents and clinicians, and integrated into existing health and social care systems. Nonetheless, gaps remain regarding long-term outcomes, equitable access, ethical governance, and sustainable implementation. AI in digital parenting should therefore be viewed as a complementary resource that augments, rather than replaces, parental judgment and professional care.

Keywords

• Artificial Intelligence
• family
• digital parenting

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