After enthusiastically rolling out artificial intelligence chatbots across global markets, Meta has announced new parental controls that will provide insight into how teenagers interact with AI characters, while allowing guardians to impose usage restrictions. This move comes as the tech giant seeks to rehabilitate its public image following unsettling reports about its tools engaging in romantic interactions with minors and facing heightened scrutiny over the impact of chatbots on young users.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang revealed these changes in a blog post published on Friday. They stated that the new tools will enable parents to completely block their children from communicating with AI chatbots or prevent access to specific AI personas they find inappropriate. Notably, Meta’s own AI assistant will be exempt from these restrictions. The company emphasized it will continue offering “useful information and educational opportunities” while implementing “age-appropriate safeguards.”
Meta also mentioned that parents will receive some form of “insights” regarding their children’s AI usage, although the company did not specify the exact format these insights will take. Based on Meta’s description, these insights will likely include high-level summaries such as the topics teens are discussing with AI characters and how they are engaging with the Meta AI assistant. According to the company, these details are intended to help parents have more “thoughtful conversations” with their teenagers about AI interactions.
Mosseri and Wang noted that they hope these updates will provide parents with peace of mind, allowing teens to benefit from the advantages of AI technology. However, they added that parents will have to wait until “early next year” before the tools become available. Initially, the features will be limited to Instagram and accessible only to English-speaking users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Meta indicated plans to expand these controls to more platforms in the future and promised to “share more details soon.”
This update marks one of the first major safety enhancements Meta has introduced since launching AI chatbots on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It follows another significant change rolled out just this week, which limits the content visible to teenage Instagram accounts to material comparable to what appears in PG-13-rated films.
