Character.AI Launches Feature to Notify Parents of Kids’ Activity
Character.AI launches ‘Parental Insights,’ offering parents weekly reports on kids’ AI bot activity amid rising child safety concerns and lawsuits.
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California-based AI platform Character.AI has launched a new feature, ‘Parental Insights,’ aimed at informing parents about their children’s activity on the platform. The initiative comes as the company faces scrutiny over child safety concerns and multiple lawsuits alleging inadequate protections for underage users.
Character.AI enables users to create and interact with AI-generated characters. The new feature provides parents with a weekly report detailing their child’s screen time and interactions with different AI bots. Reports will be sent via email and will summarize usage patterns without disclosing conversation content, as reported by The Verge.
The feature is optional and can be activated through the platform’s settings. Parents do not need an account on Character.AI to access these reports. The company states that the purpose of the feature is to offer an overview rather than a detailed record of chat interactions.
Character.AI enforces age restrictions, barring children under 13 in most regions and those under 16 in Europe from accessing its services. The platform, developed by Character Technologies Inc., was co-founded by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas.
The AI service has gained significant traction, particularly among younger users, due to its interactive AI versions of celebrities and fictional characters. Users can also create their own custom AI personas. The platform operates on a free model with a waitlist to access chatbots, while a subscription model allows users to bypass the queue.
