Meta today said it is pausing teen access to AI characters globally across all apps. The company stated that it did not abandon its efforts, but wanted to develop a special version of the AI character for teenagers, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.
The move comes days before a case against Meta is set to go to trial in New Mexico, where the company is accused of failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on its apps. Cable It was reported that Meta has sought to limit the findings related to the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents, along with the story
In October, Meta launched New Parental control featurefocused on creating the experience of teenagers interacting with AI in applications. These new features, inspired by the PG-13 movie rating, limit teenagers’ access to certain topics such as extreme violence, nudity, and drug use.
The next day, The company also previews controls for AI charactersallow parents and guardians to monitor topics and block access to certain characters. Meta said at that time the parents will be able to completely turn off the chat with the AI character as well. The feature was set to launch this year, but Meta is now taking a hardened approach to killing AI characters entirely. Meta said it heard from parents that they wanted more insight and control over their teen’s interactions with AI characters, and decided to pause that access.
“Starting in the coming weeks, teenagers will not be able to access the AI characters in our application until the updated experience is ready. This will apply to anyone who has given a teenage birthday, as well as people who claim to be adults but who are suspected of being a teenager based on our age prediction technology,” the company said in an updated blog post.
Meta added that when they finally launch their new teen-specific AI characters, they will have parental controls. The company says that the new characters will provide age-appropriate responses and will stick to topics like education, sports, and hobbies.
Social media companies are under heavy scrutiny from regulators. Two of the cases in New Mexico, Meta is also faces trial next weekaccuse the platform of causing social media addiction. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify in the case after the trial begins.
In addition to social platforms, AI companies must change their experiences for teenagers after facing lawsuits that claim they have a role in helping themselves. In October, Character.AI, a startup that allows users to chat with various AI avatars, was banned open conversations with chatbots for users under 18 years of age. In November, the startup said it would build interactive stories for children. In the last few months, OpenAI was added New teen safety rules for ChatGPT and also started predict the age of users to apply content restrictions.