{"id":149347,"date":"2025-08-16T02:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149347\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T02:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:09:22","slug":"sen-hawley-to-probe-meta-after-report-finds-its-ai-chatbots-flirt-with-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149347\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Hawley to probe Meta after report finds its AI chatbots flirt with kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he intends to investigate whether Meta\u2019s generative AI products exploit, deceive, or harm children, after leaked internal documents<\/a> showed the company\u2019s chatbots were allowed to have \u201cromantic\u201d and \u201csensual\u201d chats with children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there anything \u2013 ANYTHING \u2013 Big Tech won\u2019t do for a quick buck?\u201d Hawley wrote in a post on X<\/a> announcing the investigation.<\/p>\n

Hawley chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which he says will commence a probe into whether Meta\u2019s tech harms children, and \u201cwhether Meta misled the public or regulators about its safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/a> broke the story after viewing the guidelines, titled \u201cGenAI: Content Risk Standards.\u201d The document noted, among other things, that chatbots were permitted to hold romantic conversations with an 8-year-old that said, \u201cEvery inch of you is a masterpiece \u2013 a treasure I cherish deeply.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that such examples are inconsistent with Meta\u2019s policies and have since been removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable that these policies were advanced in the first place,\u201d Hawley wrote in a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying that Meta acknowledged the veracity of the reports and \u201cmade retractions only after this alarming content came to light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to learn who approved these policies, how long they were in effect, and what Meta has done to stop this conduct going forward,\u201d Hawley wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\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

Hawley has asked Meta to produce the guidelines, including every draft, redline, and final version, as well as lists of every product that adheres to those standards, other safety and incident reports, and the identities of individuals responsible for changing policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meta has until September 19 to provide the information, the letter says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others have endorsed the investigation, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to protecting precious children online, Meta has failed miserably by every possible measure,\u201d Blackburn told TechCrunch. \u201cEven worse, the company has turned a blind eye to the devastating consequences of how its platforms are designed. This report reaffirms why we need to pass the Kids Online Safety Act<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re always looking to evolve, and by providing some insight into your perspective and feedback into TechCrunch and our coverage and events, you can help us! Fill out\u00a0this survey<\/a>\u00a0to let us know how we\u2019re doing and get the chance to win a prize in return!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he intends to investigate whether Meta\u2019s generative AI products exploit, deceive, or harm…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24995,64,16539,340,17884,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-149347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ai-chatbots","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-josh-hawley","11":"tag-meta","12":"tag-meta-ai","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115036013997161799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}