Someone that age is much more likely to turn to ChatGPT or character.ai for life advice. About the only way I’d start off on the “believing it’s real” side is (tip for future trolls) if they specifically mention they’re here to talk to real people instead of AI.
On the other hand, my 12 year old likes to hangout on Pinterest and tumblr, also places not really known for their youth culture.
I ducked out of that thread after reading half of the original post, because I’m too tired from having the same argument irl. (Of course here “too strict” often means “won’t drive me 1 mile to my friends house even though I have perfectly working legs and an electric bicycle.”)