Meta is introducing a new set of parental controls to help parents manage how their teenagers interact with AI chatbots across its platforms, following months of public concern and regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The announcement, made in a blog post by Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, outlines tools designed to give parents greater oversight of AI conversations and limit potentially inappropriate interactions.<\/p>\n
Starting early next year, parents will be able to turn off their teens\u2019 access to one-on-one chats with AI characters entirely or selectively block specific chatbots. The company said these controls will first appear on Instagram and will be available in English in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.<\/p>\n
Meta says parents will also gain new visibility into \u201cthe topics their teens are chatting about with AI characters,\u201d allowing them to start \u201cthoughtful conversations\u201d about AI use<\/a>. While these insights won\u2019t reveal full chat logs, the company says they\u2019ll provide an overview of interaction trends.<\/p>\n The company emphasized that its main AI assistant will remain active for teens, offering educational support and information with \u201cage-appropriate protections in place.\u201d As Mosseri and Wang stated in the announcement<\/a>, \u201cTechnology will never replace the value of critical thinking, real-life connections, and human interaction \u2014 and that\u2019s not our aim.\u201d<\/p>\n The move builds on Meta\u2019s existing safeguards for Teen Accounts, which already restrict content to PG-13 standards<\/a>. That means the company\u2019s AI systems are programmed to avoid responses involving sensitive or explicit subjects \u2014 such as self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating \u2014 and instead direct teens to professional resources when necessary.<\/p>\n Meta said only a limited set of AI characters focused on topics like education, sports, and hobbies are available for teen interactions. Parents can also set daily screen time limits, including time spent talking to AI characters.<\/p>\n The rollout comes after criticism that Meta failed to prevent inappropriate chatbot behavior<\/a>. In August, Reuters reported<\/a> that some AI characters had engaged in romantic conversations with underage users, prompting Meta to overhaul its AI safety policies. The company now blocks all romantic or sexual dialogue between AI chatbots and teens.<\/p>\n The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)<\/a> has also launched an inquiry into major tech companies \u2014 including Meta and OpenAI \u2014 to investigate whether AI chatbots<\/a> pose risks to minors. The agency said it aims to understand how these firms \u201cevaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions.\u201d<\/p>\n Meta says it hopes the new features will reassure families as AI continues to evolve rapidly. \u201cWe\u2019re committed to providing parents with helpful tools and resources that make things simpler for them, especially as they think about new technology like AI,\u201d Mosseri and Wang wrote.<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs says the <\/strong>AI boom<\/strong><\/a> is still in its early stages, despite growing market concerns that an AI bubble could be forming.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Meta Rolls Out New AI Parental Controls Amid Rising Concerns Over Teen Safety<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meta is introducing a new set of parental controls to help parents manage how their teenagers interact with AI chatbots across its platforms, following months of public concern and regulatory scrutiny. The announcement, made in a blog post by Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, outlines tools designed to give […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Strengthening teen protections<\/h2>\n