A mom called out her kid's school for using AI. Other parents are still in the dark.

Nikki Anderson's 6-year-old daughter, Harper, came home from her public school with a picture of her future self in her backpack: an AI-generated image depicting her at 25, working as a nurse.

The Charleston, S.C., mom had questions. Had parents consented? What AI tool had been used? What happened to the information that was uploaded? Beyond privacy, what might an image like that mean for a child's creativity and body image?

Anderson took those questions to Instagram, where her original post has more than 753K likes. Country singer Martina McBride was among those who weighed in, writing, "This is just terrible."

Anderson has since shared updates about her efforts to get answers from school officials. In a statement to USA Today, Charleston County School District acknowledged the AI assignment and said the principal directed that similar activities be discontinued. The district also said educator training on AI was planned.

Anderson has made clear that she isn't seeking the teacher's firing or trying to vilify the school. Her daughter is thriving there, she wrote. She did not respond to Yahoo's requests for comment.

But her post has prompted a conversation beyond her child's classroom: How is AI being used in elementary schools — and how much do parents know about it?

Other parents recognized versions of the assignment. Commenters described kindergartners' images aged to 100 for a 100th-day-of-school celebration and displayed in district schools, and a child depicted as a "future YouTuber," with the image on the wall at back-to-school night.

I heard about a teacher making an AI-generated cookbook for students' parents. A recipe for a small salad called for three entire heads of lettuce. Another mom complained about her school's PTA frequently sending out flyers clearly made with AI.

Kids have turned "That's AI" into a catchphrase . For parents, figuring out exactly which classroom tools use AI can be less straightforward.

My sixth grader did science homework through Snorkl , which I later learned uses AI to give feedback on students' spoken and visual responses. She uses MusicFirst to track her progress in band; the company offers an AI-powered music tool too. Does her school use it? I have no idea.

"AI use in elementary school is rarely a student interacting with a chatbot," Eisha Buch, head of teaching and learning at Common Sense Media , tells Yahoo. "More often, it shows up in the learning tools kids use every day."

Buch points to AI reading tutors that listen and respond to children reading aloud, processing their voices, and math and reading programs that adjust based on student performance.

"These features usually aren't labeled as AI," she says. "They're typically described as 'adaptive' or 'personalized.'"

Children also encounter AI-generated content without using the technology themselves, Buch notes. Tools such as MagicSchool help teachers generate writing prompts, quizzes and reading materials, potentially reducing preparation time.

"By upper elementary, when students start doing more independent research on devices, AI becomes hard to avoid," Buch says. "A simple Google search now shows an AI summary by default, even at schools that don't allow students to use chatbots."

Everyone is figuring this out, including schools

Teachers, administrators, parents and students are learning about this technology in real time, including where it can help and where it might cause harm.

Buch understands why Harper's teacher might have tried the future-self activity.

"It probably felt like a fun, magical surprise for the kids, and came from a place of wanting to inspire them," she says. "I don't think it was the right call, but it shows that AI literacy is something all of us need, adults as well as children."

There are potential benefits. Panayiota "Pani" Kendeou, an educational psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, led an expert consensus report on generative AI in education. In a university Q&A , she described its promise to reinforce learning through practice, feedback and examples — such as generating practice problems after a math lesson or a quiz before a science test.

But younger learners need particular care.

"Elementary school students are still developing foundational knowledge and skills, including reading, writing, reasoning and the ability to manage their own learning," Kendeou said. "These foundations require sustained practice. As AI tools become more common, it is important to ensure that students continue to have opportunities to build these foundations themselves."

An AI summary, for instance, cannot replace the practice of reading, she noted.

Schools are drawing different boundaries. New York City public schools have paused student-facing generative AI from pre-K through eighth grade for the 2026-27 school year, while allowing approved teacher uses.

Meanwhile, the private Alpha School model embraces AI-supported academics, concentrating core subjects into two hours a day and using the rest of the day for workshops and real-world skills.

Teachers also need support. A 2026 Walton Family Foundation–Gallup survey released in May found that just 18% of public K-12 teachers had received formal guidance from administrators on AI use. Earlier research found that 3 in 10 teachers were using it at least weekly during the 2024-25 school year.

"Teachers are being handed powerful tools without clear guidance or training, and that's a gap schools need to close," Buch says.

For educators considering AI-generated classroom content, she suggests starting with the learning goal: "Does [it] support the child's own thinking and imagination, or substitute for it?"

Other questions include whether the activity helps children understand AI or presents it "as magic," and whether it involves student information.

"Does it involve any student data, like photos, voice or work, and if so, where does that data go?" she asks.

A future career image also supplies a future face and body

Anderson described the woman in the AI image given to her daughter as "young, thin, conventionally attractive with long hair, clear skin."

"My child's interpretation of the world has been replaced with an algorithm's interpretation of what a successful adult woman should look like," she wrote.

Jennifer Harriger, a psychology professor at Pepperdine University who studies body image in children, sees a potential concern.

"It is possible that AI-generated images of a child's future self may reflect idealized beauty standards and invite appearance-based comparisons, even if that was never the intent," she tells Yahoo.

Harriger says she couldn't find research examining this specific activity. But studies have linked exposure to idealized appearances on social media with body dissatisfaction and worse mood . Editing and filtering images of oneself has also been associated with greater body dissatisfaction .

Filters let users picture themselves with different features and potentially prefer the altered version to their actual appearance.

"It is possible that this may also be the case when children view AI-generated images of themselves," Harriger says.

Buch says families should know which tools use AI, what data they collect and how they've been vetted before schools adopt them. Parents can also ask what choices they have.

Getting clarity isn't always straightforward. I contacted technology directors at three local school districts to discuss the use of AI in elementary classrooms. None had responded by publication.

Meanwhile, Buch's position is firm: "I don't think elementary students should be using generative AI tools directly, and schools shouldn't be uploading children's photos into AI tools at any grade. Even parental permission doesn't make those OK."

That doesn't mean keeping children in the dark. For younger students, AI literacy can mean discussing whether an image is real, understanding that AI isn't a person and knowing to turn to a trusted adult with questions.

"AI literacy belongs in every grade, starting in kindergarten, and learning about AI doesn't require using it," says Buch, who points to Common Sense's resources .

And if a child brings home a picture of their supposed future self, Harriger recommends explaining that it isn't a prediction.

"It is impossible for AI to know what a child will look like in the future," she says.