TV, social media, junk food -- parents have been setting limits on their kids forever. Now, add AI chatbots to the list. Meta announced Friday that, starting in 2026, parents will be able to block teenagers from interacting with AI chatbots on Instagram. Parents will be able to block all access or block access to specific AI characters.
Meta, owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, is adding the parental controls months after a report came out in August showing the company's AI guidelines allowed chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." Another report came out earlier this month that said 3 in 5 children aged 13 to 15 encounter unsafe content or unwanted messages on Instagram.
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The company said in a blog post Friday that the new AI chatbot controls align with parental concerns about "who (children are) interacting with, what type of content they're seeing, and whether their time is well-spent."
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"We hope today's updates bring parents some peace of mind that their teens can make the most of all the benefits AI offers, with the right guardrails and oversight in place," said Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang in the blog post.
How parents can control AI chatbot interactions
Meta
Teens can interact with AI chatbots through Instagram's direct message section. The chat could be with a creator's AI, a custom AI character, or Meta's general-use AI.
Meta said the new controls allow parents to turn off their teen's access to one-on-one chats with AI characters entirely or block specific AI characters if they don't want to turn off access to AI characters altogether.
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