Meta adds parental controls to limit teens’ access to AI chatbots on Instagram

Meta is building new supervision tools that will let parents cut off their teens’ access to user-made AI characters on its platforms, while still allowing access to the general Meta AI chatbot. Parents will also be able to block specific AI characters and receive insights into topics their children discuss with AI bots.

Key details:

• Controls can remove one-on-one access to AI characters or block specific bots.
• Parents will get topic-level insights about teens’ AI conversations.
• Rollout: Instagram, English-language, early next year in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

These measures come after leaked internal documents showed troubling interactions between Meta chatbots and minors, prompting scrutiny from 44 U.S. state attorneys general and inquiries from the Senate Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. Meta has since retrained its models, limited teen access to user-created characters, and applied age-appropriate response settings.

What this means: The new controls give parents fine-grained options — from full cutoffs to targeted blocks — and more visibility into kids’ AI use. However, experts and regulators will likely keep pressure on Meta to prove these tools are effective and enforceable.

For more details, see the original report on Engadget.

Discussion: Do you think these controls will be enough to keep teens safe around AI chatbots? Share your thoughts below.