Cali, Alec & van Kolfschooten, Hannah: Beyond Social Media: Public Health Governance of Artificial Intelligence-Based Chatbots Used by Adolescents

_European Journal of Public Health_. forthcomingAI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are rapidly becoming part of adolescents’ everyday lives. Yet despite their growing role in providing companionship, advice, and even mental health support, these systems remain largely absent from public health discussions on digital regulation. We argue that AI chatbots should be understood as emerging public health technologies. By "public health technologies," we refer to technologies that, due to