While it may be irrelevant to the OP, this is true. AA is required to do this by the FAA. Families with young children (under age 14) will automatically be assigned seats together if they do not select scattered seats on the seatmap. Since BE pax cannot select seats, any BE families will be seated together by an automatic process within 48 hours of booking. I should clarify that these families will be seated so that each child is near an adult. A family of two parents and 2 kids may have two seats together in the front and two seats together in the back, with each child near an adult, so the whole family may not be together, but the kids will not be alone either.