Meta Platforms will temporarily block teenage users from accessing its artificial intelligence characters as the company updates its platform. In a blog post on Friday, Meta stated that users registered as teenagers based on their birthdates, or those flagged as potentially underage by the company's age-prediction technology, will be unable to access AI characters "until the updated experience is ready." Meta wrote: "This means that when we deliver on our commitment to give parents more oversight of their teen’s AI experiences, these parental controls will apply to the latest version of AI characters." Meta indicated that teenagers will still be able to access Meta's AI assistant, which comes with default, age-appropriate safeguards. This announcement builds upon protections Meta introduced in October for underage AI users, which included setting up guardrails to prevent discussions of inappropriate content or sensitive topics such as self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders. Meta continues to face scrutiny over teenage usage of its platforms and features. Reports in April indicated that Meta's AI characters engaged in discussions involving sexual content, even when users were minors, raising concerns among the company's own employees. At the time, Meta stated that media organizations' testing of its AI characters did not represent how the majority of users interact with the feature, but the company made several changes to its product after the media shared its findings.
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