Character.AI Rolls Out New Parental Insights Feature Amid Safety Concerns

Chatbot platform Character.AI has introduced a new Parental Insights feature aimed at giving parents a window into their children's activity on the platform. The feature allows users under 18 to share a weekly report of their chatbot interactions directly with a parent's e-mail address.

The move comes as the company, which has faced criticism and multiple lawsuits over its handling of minors' safety, seeks to bolster its parental oversight tools and ensure its platform is used more responsibly.

Parental Insights was designed to provide parents with an overview of their child's activity on Character.AI without sharing specific chat logs or conversations. According to the company, the weekly report includes key details such as the average daily time a child spends on both the web and mobile platforms, the characters they interact with most frequently, and how much time they spend chatting with each of those characters.

"We are a small team here at Character.AI, but many of us are parents who know firsthand the challenge of navigating new technologies while raising teenagers," the company said in a blog post. "Over the past year, we have rolled out a suite of new safety features across our platform, designed specifically with teens in mind. These features include a separate model for our teen users, improvements to our detection and intervention systems for human behavior and model responses, and more."

The feature is optional, and teens can activate or deactivate it via their account settings. Once set up, parents can receive the reports automatically without needing to create an account on the platform themselves. If a teen wishes to revoke parental access to this data at any point, they can do so, but the request will require confirmation from the parent.

The platform, which allows users to create and interact with customized AI chatbots, has been widely popular among teenagers, but its content moderation policies have been called into question after reports of bots offering content that could be potentially dangerous.

In response to these concerns, Character.AI has implemented several safety features over the past year. These include a new model tailored to users under 18 that is trained to avoid sensitive or inappropriate output, as well as clear notifications that remind users their interactions are with AI, not real people. The platform has also introduced time-spent alerts and restrictions on sensitive content, aiming to foster a safer environment for younger users.

About the Author

John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS.  He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • glowing digital brain-shaped neural network surrounded by charts, graphs, and data visualizations

    Google Launches Advanced AI Model for Complex Reasoning Tasks

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Deep Think, an advanced artificial intelligence model designed for complex reasoning tasks.

  • colorful geometric illustration features gaming devices, computer accessories, and stacks of books

    Gaming in K–12 Classrooms Is Powering the Future Tech Workforce

    Today's most forward-thinking schools are using gaming as a platform to train students for real-world roles in fields like aviation, robotics, remote operations, and data center management.

  • blue and green network lines

    HPE Intros Agentic AI Enhancements to Mist Platform

    HPE recently introduced new capabilities for its Juniper Mist platform that leverage agentic AI to enable more autonomous, intelligent, and proactive network operations.

  • stylized illustration of a desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone all displaying an orange AI icon

    Survey: AI Shifting from Cloud to PCs

    A recent Intel-commissioned report identifies a significant shift in AI adoption, moving away from the cloud and closer to the user. Businesses are increasingly turning to the specialized hardware of AI PCs, the survey found, recognizing their potential not just for productivity gains, but for revolutionizing IT efficiency, fortifying data security, and delivering a compelling return on investment by bringing AI capabilities directly to the edge.