US EditionFortune Tech: Meta Blocks Teens From AI Characters
Meta suspends teen access to AI chatbots globally to develop safer, age-appropriate versions and parental controls amid mental health and safety concerns, ahead of a New Mexico trial.
- Last week, Meta said it will temporarily bar teens from existing AI characters across its apps in the coming weeks, while adults keep access.
- Safety advocates and internal Meta documents flagged intimate or sexualized interactions between bots and minors, amid rising teen mental-health concerns and one survey finding one in five high schoolers with romantic AI experiences.
- Accounts flagged by birthday entries or age-prediction technology will lose access to current characters as Meta rebuilds characters from scratch with safer topic limits like sports and education.
- Following legal and safety pressure, Meta quietly updated an October blog post on Friday as the industry faces lawsuits and bans of minors after reported suicides linked to chatbot interactions.
- Meta originally promised parental supervision tools early this year but missed that deadline and provided no timeline for the return of teen-optimized AI characters.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Mark Zuckerberg's company specified that the new version for minors will incorporate parental controls
Meta Temporarily Blocks Teens From AI Characters: What Parents Need to Know
Meta, the company behind Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, just announced a major change that could reshape how teens interact with artificial intelligence (AI) on social platforms. In the coming weeks, users identified as minors won’t be able to use Meta’s AI characters, according to a TechCrunch exclusive. Before this pause, your teen (and you) could open an AI character on Facebook, for example. These AI chatbots required no extra login, an…
Meta Just Quietly Admitted a Major Defeat on AI
Meta says it’s cutting off teenagers’ access to its AI characters — at least until it can build “better” ones. The Mark Zuckerberg company announced the change on Friday, signaling at least some degree of hesitation at the company over how young users are engaging with its chatbots amid mounting concern over the tech’s effects on mental health and safety. “Starting in the coming weeks, teens will no longer be able to access AI characters across …
Meta to suspend teen access to AI characters ahead of new updates
Meta is temporarily suspending teens’ access to existing AI characters across its apps as it works on updated tools that will give parents greater oversight of how their children use AI. “In October, we shared that we’re building new tools to give parents more visibility into how their teens use AI, and more control over the AI characters they can interact with,” the company said. “Since then, we’ve started building a new version of AI character…
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