Culturally Aware GenAI Risks for Youth: Perspectives from Youth, Parents, and Teachers in a Non-Western Context

Abstract: Generative AI tools are widely used by youth and have introduced new privacy and safety challenges. While prior research has explored youth's safety in GenAI within western context, it often overlooks the cultural, religious, and social dimensions of technology use that strongly shape youths digital experiences in countries like Saudi Arabia. To address the gap, this study explores children (aged 7 to 17), parents and teachers interactions with GenAI tools and risk perceptions through non-western lens. Through a mixed methods approach, we analyzed 736 Reddit and 1,262 X(Twitter) posts and conducted interviews with 31 Saudi Arabian participants (8 youth, 13 parents, 10 teachers). Our findings highlight context dependent and relational privacy and safety of GenAI from non-western context which often formed by communal structure and prescribed norms. We found significant risks tied to youths disclosure of personal and family information, which conflict with culturally rooted expectations of modesty, privacy, and honor, particularly when youth seek emotional support from GenAI. These risks further compounded by socio economic factors such as cost-saving practices leading to the use of shared GenAI accounts (e.g.ChatGPT) within families or even among strangers. We provide design implication reflecting on parents and teachers expectation of how youth should use GenAI. This work lays groundwork for inclusive, context sensitive parental controls that adhere to cultural norms and values.

• The paper presents a novel taxonomy categorizing religious, cultural, and data privacy risks associated with GenAI use in a Saudi context.
• It employs a mixed-methods approach by analyzing over 2,000 social media posts and conducting interviews with youth, parents, and teachers.
• Findings emphasize the need for culturally adaptive AI moderation and digital literacy initiatives to safeguard youth and uphold family values.

Culturally-Sensitive GenAI Risks for Youth: Empirical Insights from Saudi Arabia

Study Overview and Methodology

The paper "Culturally Aware GenAI Risks for Youth: Perspectives from Youth, Parents, and Teachers in a Non-Western Context" (2604.26494) provides an empirical investigation of generative AI (GenAI) usage and associated risks among youth, parents, and teachers in Saudi Arabia. The authors employ a mixed-methods approach, triangulating analysis of 736 Reddit and 1,262 X (Twitter) posts with semi-structured interviews involving 8 youth, 13 parents, and 10 teachers. The study specifically targets the Saudi context, which is characterized by strong communal structures, prescribed social norms, and high GenAI adoption rates (with 80% AI engagement, per referenced surveys).

Salient Findings: Contextual GenAI Use and Emergent Cultural Risks

Youth Engagement Patterns

Saudi youth utilize GenAI tools for educational purposes (schoolwork, test preparation), creative activities (storytelling, coding), and as sources of play (game assistance, riddles). However, youth frequently go beyond curricular assistance, seeking emotional support, guidance on religious issues, and resolving familial or social conflicts via GenAI chatbots. The conversational and personalized nature of GenAI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek) reinforces perceptions of trust and safety.

Parental and Teacher Mediation

Parents and teachers use GenAI for personalized instruction, lesson planning, and support tasks—including uploading youth homework for AI feedback. This process often entails inadvertent disclosure of sensitive youth-specific data. While some parents view GenAI as an efficient replacement for tutors, others prefer information curation and maintain reservations about its accuracy and interaction quality, especially regarding sensitive topics.

Unique, Culture-Specific Risk Taxonomy

The study expands prior, Western-centric youth-GenAI risk taxonomies [yu2025understanding] by introducing three risk categories salient in the Saudi context:

1. Religious and Moral Risk:

GenAI responses may misinterpret Islamic fundamentals, fabricate religious rulings (fatwas), or contradict established religious practices. These misalignments exacerbate confusion among youth, especially when they bypass traditional religious authorities and family guidance.

2. Cultural Norms Violation Risk:

GenAI tools frequently normalize behaviors and advice that conflict with established Saudi social values. Risks include undermining family bonds (e.g., youth preferring GenAI as confidant over family), inappropriate emotional validation, romanticization, and misinterpretation of cultural nuances (including confusion between Arabic and Persian).

3. Data Privacy Violation Risk:

Collective and relational privacy norms are violated through youth’s (and parents’) disclosure of personal and family information, often compounded by cost-driven practices such as shared GenAI accounts with family or strangers. These breaches extend to inadvertent metadata exposures (e.g., uploading photos with embedded personal data) and passive identity inference through voice or stylistic text cues.

The authors also highlight mental well-being risks (e.g., AI exacerbating OCD via validating responses on religious cleanliness), behavioral/social developmental risks (e.g., romantic development distortion), and the tension between privacy and utility.

Implications for Practice and Theory

Inclusive AI Safety Design

The findings underscore the necessity for culturally and religiously adaptive parental controls in GenAI tools, such as topic-filtering, camera/microphone restrictions, and explicit boundaries around religion, morals, and politics. Existing Western moderation tools (e.g., OpenAI’s Family Link, Google’s Gemini controls) lack support for Arabic content and do not account for collective privacy or honor-based norms, indicating a critical gap in region-specific safety architectures.

Family Dynamics and Digital Literacy

Shared-account practices, driven by socio-economic factors, necessitate nuanced interventions for privacy protection, including platform-level monitoring, clear warnings, and consent frameworks. The study further evidences the pivotal role of AI literacy, particularly in local languages, for empowering youth to understand GenAI’s operational mechanisms and associated risks. Current Saudi schools lack explicit policies on AI usage, exacerbating potential harms.

Broader Theoretical Insights

The results reveal fundamental distinctions between Western and non-Western conceptions of digital risk, specifically:

• The locus of authority and trust (family/religious leaders vs. GenAI)
• Collective vs. individualistic privacy frameworks
• Cultural sensitivity as a core requirement for AI alignment and safety

Such insights have broader ramifications for AI fairness, model alignment, and sociotechnical robustness in non-Western settings.

Anticipated Trajectories for AI Development

Future developments should emphasize:

• Regionally adaptive content moderation—using culturally grounded taxonomies
• Robust socio-technical safety tools that address relational privacy
• Early-stage integration of AI literacy in K-12 curricula
• Platform-level feedback mechanisms for iterative improvement in alignment to local norms

The AI community must prioritize participatory design with affected stakeholders in non-Western contexts, ensuring inclusivity and protecting vulnerable populations.

Conclusion

This study constitutes a rigorous, contextually grounded analysis of GenAI interactions among Saudi youth, parents, and teachers, highlighting novel risk categories absent from Western research. The taxonomy and recommendations provided are immediately relevant for AI developers seeking to implement culturally sensitive controls, and for policymakers aiming to safeguard youth in the face of rapid technological adoption. Theoretical implications challenge monolithic approaches to AI risk, advocating for pluralistic, culture-aware frameworks in future AI research and deployment.