Meta has announced a global pause on teenagers’ access to its AI characters across all its applications. The company clarified to TechCrunch that this is not an abandonment of the feature but rather a temporary measure to develop an enhanced version of AI characters specifically for teens.
This decision precedes a forthcoming trial in New Mexico where Meta faces accusations of failing to safeguard children from sexual exploitation on its platforms. As reported by Wired on Thursday, Meta has attempted to restrict information gathering concerning social media’s effects on adolescent mental health during the discovery phase.
Last October, Meta demonstrated upcoming parental controls for its AI characters, designed to enable parents and guardians to oversee discussion topics and restrict access to specific characters. Meta had indicated that parents would have the option to entirely disable conversations with AI characters. While these functionalities were slated for release this year, the company has instead opted to disable AI characters for teenagers entirely during the development of an updated version.
Meta attributed these adjustments to feedback from parents, who expressed a desire for greater visibility and authority over their teenagers’ engagements with AI characters.
Meta has been progressively tightening restrictions on teenagers’ access to AI-generated content within its applications. Concurrently in October, the company launched new parental control functionalities on Instagram, aiming to customize the AI interaction experience for teens. These features, drawing inspiration from the PG-13 movie rating system, limited adolescent exposure to subjects such as graphic violence, nudity, and explicit drug references.
“Beginning in the coming weeks, teenagers will lose access to AI characters across our applications until the enhanced experience is fully prepared. This restriction will apply to all users who have provided a teenage birth date, alongside individuals who claim to be adults but are identified as teens by our age prediction systems,” the company stated in an updated blog post.
Meta further explained that the re-introduced AI characters will incorporate integrated parental controls. The company specified that these updated characters will deliver age-appropriate responses and concentrate on subjects such as education, sports, and recreational activities.
Regulatory bodies are intensely scrutinizing social media companies. Beyond the New Mexico lawsuit previously mentioned, Meta is also scheduled for a trial next week, facing allegations of fostering social media addiction. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is anticipated to testify once that trial commences.
In addition to social media platforms, AI companies have been compelled to adjust their offerings for adolescents due to lawsuits claiming their involvement in promoting self-harm. In October, Character.AI, a startup enabling users to engage with diverse AI avatars, prohibited open-ended chatbot conversations for users under 18. The following November, the startup announced its intention to develop interactive stories for children. Over recent months, OpenAI introduced new safety regulations for ChatGPT aimed at teens and began estimating user ages to enforce content limitations.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that the forthcoming version of AI characters, when launched, will be available to all users, not exclusively teenagers, and will incorporate parental control features.