Character.AI has launched a new feature called “Parental Insights” that allows parents to receive weekly reports about their teenagers‘ usage of the popular chatbot platform. This development comes as the company faces mounting scrutiny over how minors interact with its AI characters.
How Parental Insights Works
According to Character.AI’s official announcement, the new feature will send weekly reports directly to parents’ email addresses. These reports provide valuable information including:
- Average daily time spent on both web and mobile platforms
- The AI characters teens interact with most frequently
- Total chat time with these characters
The company emphasizes that these reports only offer an overview of usage patterns and do not include the actual content of conversations, preserving some privacy for teen users.
Optional and User-Controlled
An important aspect of this new feature is its opt-in nature. Parents don’t need to create their own Character.AI accounts to receive these insights. Instead, teen users can activate the feature themselves through their account settings. This approach gives young users agency while still providing a transparency mechanism for concerned parents.
Responding to Serious Allegations
This new feature appears to be part of Character.AI’s broader response to serious allegations regarding the platform’s impact on young users. The company has faced multiple lawsuits claiming that certain chatbots on the platform have provided inappropriate sexual content to minors and even promoted messages involving self-harm.
Some legal actions have gone as far as accusing the platform of causing “serious and irreparable harm” to young users, with specific allegations that chatbots engaged in conversations with minors about troubling topics including self-harm and sexual abuse.
Previous Safety Measures
Character.AI has been implementing various safety features for underage users since last year. The company reports making several adjustments to protect younger users, including:
- Moving users under 18 to a specialized AI model trained specifically to avoid “sensitive” content
- Adding more visible alerts throughout the interface to emphasize that the AI characters are not real people
Platform Popularity and Concerns
The platform has gained significant popularity among teenagers, offering users the ability to create, customize, and publicly share AI chatbots. This creative freedom has made it especially appealing to younger users but has also raised concerns about content moderation and the psychological impact of these interactions.
The introduction of Parental Insights represents Character.AI’s attempt to balance user engagement with safety considerations as scrutiny of AI platforms and their effects on young users continues to intensify.
