Meta is making AI experiences safer for teens
What's the story
Meta has announced a new set of parental control features for its platforms, including Instagram. The move comes as part of the company's effort to make AI experiences safer and more manageable for teens and their parents. The upcoming features will let parents block specific characters in conversations between their children and AI chatbots, and provide insights into the topics being discussed.
Control options
Parents can completely disable AI chats for their kids
Starting next year, parents will have the option to completely disable chats with AI characters for their teens. However, this won't affect access to Meta's general-purpose AI chatbot, which only discusses age-appropriate content. The company also plans to give parents insights into what topics their kids are discussing with these chatbots and Meta's own AI assistant.
Safety assurance
Commitment to safe AI experiences for teens
Meta has emphasized its commitment to providing safe AI experiences for teens. The company said, "We recognize parents already have a lot on their plates when it comes to navigating the internet safely with their teens." It also added that its content and AI experiences for teens will follow a PG-13 movie rating standard and avoid sensitive topics such as extreme violence, nudity, and graphic drug use.
Interaction limits
Current parental controls on Instagram
Currently, teens can only interact with a limited number of characters that follow age-appropriate content guidelines Parents can also set time limits on their kids' interactions with these AI characters. Earlier this year, Instagram announced that it is using AI to identify users trying to bypass age limits by faking their age on the app.