About one in six secondary students surveyed in Hong Kong said they had formed an emotionally intimate relationship with a virtual character, through AI chat or romance simulation games. The Hong Kong Sex Culture Society study put the proportion at 15.9%.
The society surveyed 3,389 students aged 12 to 18 at 17 full-time secondary schools in May and June 2026. It released its report on 13 October.
The reported rate was 21.8% among female students and 11.2% among male students. About 70% of students who had used virtual intimacy were in junior secondary school, according to the study.
Some 27.5% of virtual-intimacy users had depressive tendencies, including low mood, in the two weeks before answering the questionnaire — more than 1.3 times the rate among non-users. Separately, the rate of extreme depressive symptoms among students who had tried virtual romance was reported as 3.6 times the rate among students who had not.
One student told HK01 she used AI to simulate conversations and activities with a favourite anime character. At times she spent about three to four hours a day chatting with it. The AI was configured to support her unconditionally, and she later noticed she was speaking to it more harshly. She wondered whether that unconditional support had made her feel she could treat it badly without concern for hurting it, and gradually stopped the habit.
Kwan Kai Man, chair of the Hong Kong Sex Culture Society and a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said over-reliance on AI communication might weaken young people's communication skills. He urged parents to talk with young people to understand their thoughts and feelings, rather than rely only on taking away phones or moral criticism. For schools, he suggested teaching students more about AI and providing platforms where they could share their feelings.