Meta Previews New AI Parental Controls

Meta gave a sneak peek at its next parental control capabilities for teen chats with AI avatars on its platforms on Friday. Blocking specific characters and keeping an eye on chat topics are two of the capabilities that will be introduced next year.

Teens’ conversations with AI characters will be completely disabled for parents in the upcoming months. This measure won’t prevent users from accessing the company’s general-purpose AI chatbot, Meta AI, which will only talk about information that is suitable for their age.

If parents would rather have more selective control, they will also be able to disable conversations with specific characters. The subjects that teenagers are talking about with AI characters and Meta AI will also be explained to them. 

Early in the year to come, the business claimed, it will implement these controls on Instagram by allowing parents to set limits on their children’s interactions with AI chatbots, including the option to completely disable one-on-one conversations with AI characters. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia will all have access to them in English.

This AI assistant, however, will “remain available to offer helpful information and educational opportunities, with default, age-appropriate protections in place to help keep teens safe,” according to Meta, and parents will not be able to turn it off.

The company wrote a post by Instagram head Adam Mosseri and recently hired Meta AI head Alexandr Wang that read, “We understand parents already have a lot on their plates when it comes to navigating the internet safely with their teens, and we’re committed to providing them with helpful tools and resources that make things simpler for them, especially as they think about new technology like AI.”

It will also be possible for parents to restrict particular chatbots if they do not wish to disable all conversations with AI characters. Though they won’t have access to the entire conversations, Meta stated on Friday that parents would be able to obtain “insights” about the topics their children are discussing with AI characters.

Earlier this week, Meta announced that its teen AI experiences and material would adhere to the PG-13 movie classification standard and steer clear of delicate subjects like drug use, excessive violence, and nudity.

Currently, teens can only engage with a small number of characters who adhere to age-appropriate content rules, the business stated. Time limits for teens’ interactions with AI characters can also be established by parents. Instagram said earlier this year that it is employing artificial intelligence (AI) to detect users who are trying to circumvent age restrictions by seeming younger than they actually are.

YouTube, Meta, OpenAI, and other sites have all developed teen safety-focused tools and controls in recent weeks. These adjustments coincide with litigation against AI companies that claim they contributed to juvenile suicides and growing worries about the effect of social media on adolescent mental health.