Drawing on Darren’s 30 years in policing and training in Neuro Linguistic Programming, this article explores how AI companionship apps use the same rapport-building methods once used by skilled interrogators, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual connection, to earn trust and create dependency. Parents and educators learn how to teach youth to spot synthetic empathy, question digital rapport, and stay grounded in real human connection.

Teens are turning to AI companion and role-play apps for connection—but these tools risk emotional manipulation, false intimacy, and data misuse.