{"id":48680,"date":"2025-10-17T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48680"},"modified":"2025-10-17T07:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:27:23","slug":"meta-adds-parental-controls-for-ai-teen-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48680","title":{"rendered":"Meta adds parental controls for AI-teen interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Meta is adding parental controls for kids&#8217; interactions with artificial intelligence chatbots \u2014 including the ability to turn off one-on-one chats with AI characters altogether \u2014 beginning early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">But parents won&#8217;t be able to turn off Meta&#8217;s AI assistant, which Meta says will \u201cwill remain available to offer helpful information and educational opportunities, with default, age-appropriate protections in place to help keep teens safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Parents who don&#8217;t want to turn off all chats with all AI characters will also be able to block specific chatbots. And Meta said Friday that parents will be able to get \u201cinsights\u201d about what their kids are chatting about with AI characters \u2014 although they won&#8217;t get access to the full chats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The changes come as the social media giant faces ongoing criticism over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/instagram-teens-safety-meta-bejar-13276348cde2dcc1ee94c66227ea25dc\">harms to children<\/a>&nbsp;from its platforms. AI chatbots are also drawing scrutiny over their interactions with children that lawsuits claim&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/with%20https\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ai-chatbot-teens-congress-chatgpt-character-ce3959b6a3ea1a4997bf1ccabb4f0de2\">have driven some to suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Even so, more than 70% of teens have used AI companions and half use them regularly, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonsensemedia.org\/sites\/default\/files\/research\/report\/talk-trust-and-trade-offs_2025_web.pdf\">a recent study<\/a>&nbsp;from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that studies and advocates for using screens and digital media sensibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, Meta announced that teen accounts on Instagram will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default and won\u2019t be able to change their settings without a parent\u2019s permission. This means kids using teen-specific accounts will see photos and videos on Instagram that are similar to what they would see in a PG-13 movie \u2014 no sex, drugs or dangerous stunts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Meta said the PG-13 restrictions will also apply to AI chats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Children&#8217;s online advocacy groups, however, were skeptical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom my perspective, these announcements are about two things. They\u2019re about forestalling legislation that Meta doesn\u2019t want to see, and they\u2019re about reassuring parents who are understandably concerned about what\u2019s happening on Instagram,\u201d said Josh Golin, the executive director of the nonprofit Fairplay, after Meta&#8217;s announcement Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Technology\/wireStory\/meta-adds-parental-controls-ai-teen-interactions-126608059\">abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meta is adding parental controls for kids&#8217; interactions with artificial intelligence chatbots \u2014 including the ability to turn off one-on-one chats with AI characters altogether \u2014 beginning early next year. But parents won&#8217;t be able to turn off Meta&#8217;s AI assistant, which Meta says will \u201cwill remain available to offer helpful information and educational opportunities, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5783],"tags":[5224,995,34984],"class_list":["post-48680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-ai","tag-meta","tag-parental"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48682,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48680\/revisions\/48682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}