AI is being integrated into a lot of software and services, probably without you knowing, in some cases. But one area where its use is obvious is in AI character chats, or chatbots. Instagram allows its users to create a custom AI with Meta AI Studio and start chatting with it, but this has proven to be problematic. Meta is now giving parents a way to limit and block chatting with AI characters on Instagram “early next year”.

Other users can create these to be shared with anyone with access, so you can imagine that there are some pretty interesting characters out there – whatever your interpretation of that may be. Meta is committed to making the platform safer following valid concerns from parents. This starts with new “parental supervision controls” for Instagram.

Instagram gets parental controls for AI characters “early next year”

In a recent blog post from Meta, the owner of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the tech giant covers some upcoming AI safety measures being put in place. The new measures are predominantly aimed at restricting content accessible by teenagers in response to parents’ concerns.

Parents will have control over a number of variables on their teen’s account. This includes the following:

• Turn off one-to-one chats with AI characters entirely
• Block specific AI characters
• View and limit the amount of time spent chatting with AI characters, to as little as 15 minutes (this feature is already rolling out in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia)

AI is evolving rapidly, which means we are going to need to constantly adapt and strengthen our protections for teens, while listening and responding to concerns parents have about this new technology. We hope today's updates bring parents some peace of mind that their teens can make the most of all the benefits AI offers, with the right guardrails and oversight in place.

We're building these new parental supervision controls now and you'll start to see these changes, beginning with Instagram, early next year. As with our Teen Accounts protections, we'll plan to roll out first in English, to the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Making updates that affect billions of users across Meta platforms is something we have to do with care, and we'll have more to share soon.

Source: Meta

In addition to the parental actions above, Meta says it is already rolling out measures to ensure AI characters do not engage in “age-inappropriate discussions about self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating” – or indeed any kind of conversation that will enable these topics. Where appropriate, the AI may redirect the user to expert resources or support. Teens will also be locked to chatting with specific types of AI characters, locking out inappropriate topics and focusing on things such as their education, sports, or hobbies.

Overall, this should be seen as a step in the right direction. There have already been too many horror stories of teens influenced by AI in the wrong way, and in ways that are avoidable with measures such as these.

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Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.