Meta Pauses Teens’ Access to AI Characters Across Apps
Meta announced that it is temporarily halting teens’ access to its AI characters globally in all of its apps. The company stated that it is not abandoning its efforts but rather working on developing an updated version of AI characters specifically for teens, as exclusively disclosed to JS.
The decision comes just days before a trial against Meta is scheduled to begin in New Mexico, where the company is accused of failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation on its platforms. Wired reported that Meta has been trying to limit the scope of discovery related to the impact of social media on teen mental health.
In October, Meta introduced parental controls for AI characters, allowing parents and guardians to monitor conversations and block specific characters. The company promised that parents would have the option to completely disable chats with AI characters. Although these features were initially set to launch this year, Meta has now decided to disable AI characters for teens altogether while it updates them to a newer version.
Meta stated that feedback from parents indicated a desire for more insights and control over their teens’ interactions with AI characters, prompting the company to make these changes.
Furthermore, Meta has been implementing stricter measures on teens’ access to AI content across its apps. In October, the company introduced parental control features on Instagram aimed at customizing the teen experience with AI interactions. These features, inspired by the PG-13 movie rating system, restricted teens’ access to certain topics such as extreme violence, nudity, and explicit drug use.
“In the upcoming weeks, teens will no longer have access to AI characters across our apps until the updated experience is ready. This restriction applies to individuals who have provided a teen birthday and those who claim to be adults but are suspected to be teens based on our age prediction technology,” Meta stated in an updated blog post.
Meta also mentioned that the new AI characters, when launched, will feature built-in parental controls. These characters will provide age-appropriate responses and focus on topics like education, sports, and hobbies.
Social media platforms are facing increased scrutiny from regulators. Apart from the New Mexico case, Meta is also gearing up for a trial next week where it is accused of contributing to social media addiction. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify once the trial commences.
In addition to social platforms, AI companies are making adjustments to their services for teens following lawsuits alleging their involvement in facilitating self-harm. Character.AI, a startup that enables users to interact with various AI avatars, recently restricted open-ended conversations with chatbots for users under 18. The startup also announced plans to develop interactive stories for children. Similarly, OpenAI has implemented new safety rules for teens using ChatGPT and started predicting users’ ages to enforce content restrictions.
Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that the new version of AI characters will be accessible to everyone, not just teens, upon launch. The updated version will include parental controls.
