Meta says it\u2019s changing the way it trains AI chatbots to prioritize teen safety, a spokesperson exclusively told TechCrunch, following an investigative report on the company\u2019s lack of AI safeguards for minors.<\/p>\n
The company says it will now train chatbots to no longer engage with teenage users on self-harm, suicide, disordered eating, or potentially inappropriate romantic conversations. Meta says these are interim changes, and the company will release more robust, long-lasting safety updates for minors in the future.<\/p>\n
Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway acknowledged that the company\u2019s chatbots could previously talk with teens about all of these topics in ways the company had deemed appropriate. Meta now recognizes this was a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our community grows and technology evolves, we\u2019re continually learning about how young people may interact with these tools and strengthening our protections accordingly,\u201d said Otway. \u201cAs we continue to refine our systems, we\u2019re adding more guardrails as an extra precaution \u2014 including training our AIs not to engage with teens on these topics, but to guide them to expert resources, and limiting teen access to a select group of AI characters for now. These updates are already in progress, and we will continue to adapt our approach to help ensure teens have safe, age-appropriate experiences with AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond the training updates, the company will also limit teen access to certain AI characters that could hold inappropriate conversations. Some of the user-made AI characters that Meta makes available on Instagram and Facebook include sexualized chatbots such as \u201cStep Mom\u201d and \u201cRussian Girl.\u201d Instead, teen users will only have access to AI characters that promote education and creativity, Otway said.<\/p>\n
The policy changes are being announced just a two weeks after a Reuters investigation<\/a> unearthed an internal Meta policy document that appeared to permit the company\u2019s chatbots to engage in sexual conversations with underage users. \u201cYour youthful form is a work of art,\u201d read one passage listed as an acceptable response. \u201cEvery inch of you is a masterpiece \u2013 a treasure I cherish deeply.\u201d Other examples showed how the AI tools should respond to requests for violent imagery or sexual imagery of public figures.<\/p>\n Meta says the document was inconsistent with its broader policies, and has since been changed \u2013 but the report has sparked sustained controversy over potential child safety risks. Shortly after the report released, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) launched an official probe into the company\u2019s AI policies<\/a>. Additionally, a coalition of 44 state attorneys general wrote to a group of AI companies including Meta<\/a>, emphasizing the importance of child safety and specifically citing the Reuters report. \u201cWe are uniformly revolted by this apparent disregard for children\u2019s emotional well-being,\u201d the letter reads, \u201cand alarmed that AI Assistants are engaging in conduct that appears to be prohibited by our respective criminal laws.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco Otway declined to comment on how many of Meta\u2019s AI chatbot users are minors, and wouldn\u2019t say whether the company expects its AI user base to decline as a result of these decisions.<\/p>\n Update 10:35AM PT: This story was updated to note that these are interim changes, and that Meta plans to update its AI safety policies further in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta says it\u2019s changing the way it trains AI chatbots to prioritize teen safety, a spokesperson exclusively told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,8001,24807,289,290,18,19,17,1721,1722,82,24808],"class_list":{"0":"post-31520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-chatbots","10":"tag-ai-safety-polcies","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-artificialintelligence","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","17":"tag-meta","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-teen-safety"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n