Meta is changing how its AI chatbot responds to children.
The company told Business Insider on Friday that it is making "temporary changes" to "provide teens with safe, age-appropriate AI experiences," while it develops additional longer-term measures.
The changes came after a Reuters report earlier in August that detailed an internal Meta document showing that it was acceptable for the chatbot to engage in romantic conversations with children.
"As we continue to refine our systems, we're adding more guardrails as an extra precaution — including training our AIs not to engage with teens on these topics, but to guide them to expert resources, and limiting teen access to a select group of AI characters for now," Stephanie Otway, a Meta spokesperson, told Business Insider.
Aside from romantic discussions, other off-limit topics include self-harm, suicide, and disordered eating, Otway said. The AI characters available to teens would only be for the purposes of education and creative expression, says Otway.
After the initial Reuters report, Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on August 15 that he would launch an investigation into how Meta trains its chatbots to have "sensual" conversations with children.
"Only after Meta got CAUGHT did it retract portions of its company doc that deemed it 'permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children," Hawley wrote in an online statement.
On Thursday, nonprofit digital safety advocacy group Common Sense Media wrote in a risk assessment that it strongly recommends the Meta AI chatbot not be used by anyone under 18.
The watchdog report found the AI tools regularly mislead teens with "claims of 'realness,' readily promote suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, drug use, and more."
This is not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the safety of children. In January 2024, Zuckerberg testified alongside executives from TikTok, Snap, X, and Discord, as lawmakers questioned them over potentially addictive platform designs, abusive content, and the mental health risks social media poses to minors.
