Meta tightens teens' access to AI characters amid safety concerns

Meta has officially declared a global suspension of teenagers' access to its AI characters in a major move to safeguard minors from unsuitable content and to provide parents with more control.

The recent changes announced on Friday state that teenagers' access to existing AI characters has been suspended while the company builds a new version for those users.

Meta said in an updated blog post on its website: “Starting in the coming weeks, teens will no longer be able to access AI characters across our apps until the updated experience is ready.”

Meta’s recent announcement confirms that the suspension of AI characters' access applies to all registered teenagers and any users suspected of being minors via age prediction technology.

The move allows a 2025 safety preview in which Meta promised parents the ability to entirely disable their teens’ one-on-one chats with AI characters, a response to reports of sensual and inappropriate bot behavior.

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The company stated that the tool will allow parents to block specific AI characters while provisioning insights into the broader topics that teens discuss with chatbots and Meta’s AI assistant without requiring them to disable AI access entirely.

While these controls have not yet; launched, Meta confirmed they will be integrated into the updated version of its AI characters upon their official release. The company said that these new AI experiences for teenagers will follow a PG-13 rating system, specifically designed to prevent minors from accessing mature or inappropriate content.

Nonetheless, the recent push for new safety measures comes following a September 2025 report which found that several of Instagram’s existing minor protections were ineffective. 

 Regarding the current suspension, Meta stated: “Teens will be able to access Meta’s AI assistant with age-appropriate protections in place.”