Character AI, a California-based artificial intelligence platform, announced a new safety feature on Tuesday designed specifically for users under the age of 18. The feature, named Parental Insights, allows these young users to input a parent or guardian’s email address, enabling the platform to send summaries of their online activities. This initiative seeks to enhance transparency between parents and teenagers regarding in-app interactions, following recent lawsuits that highlighted the AI chatbot’s potential risks to minors.
Character AI Launches Parental Insights Feature
In a blog entry, the company detailed the new feature, which will be accessible to both premium users and those on the free tier. All registered users under 18 can utilize this feature to send a summary of their activity to their respective parent or guardian. The post emphasized, “These insights help give a clearer understanding of how users under 18 engage with Character.AI.”
Character AI’s Parental Insights Feature
Photo Credit: Character AI
Parents and guardians of teenage users will receive daily reports that include information such as the average daily time spent on the platform across both web and mobile applications, the most frequently interacted AI characters, and the amount of time spent with each character. The platform clarified that these reports will provide insights into the engagement patterns of their teenagers, although no chat content will be included.
To integrate a parent or guardian’s email, the underage user must go to Settings, then Preferences, and select the Parental Insights tab. This action opens a new page where the email address can be entered. Once submitted, an invitation will be sent to the specified address, and the recipient can confirm participation by clicking the “Agree” icon in the email to start receiving daily activity reports.
If users wish to discontinue sharing their activity, they can request the removal of the email address via the dropdown menu next to the address in the parental insights tab. Parents or guardians will then receive an email notification about the removal request, which they must confirm before the email address can be deleted from the system.
