The organization claims these enhancements stem from concerns expressed by parents regarding their teenagers’ interactions with AI.
Meta has revealed several AI Safety enhancements it intends to implement for parents wishing to monitor their teenagers’ activities with AI more closely. Soon, Instagram will offer parents the ability to manage which AI characters their teens can communicate with, along with whether they can access this feature altogether. In September, Instagram’s AI acquired the capability to identify teen accounts even if they misrepresented their age.
Meta shared a new range of AI Safety measures set to be introduced for parents of teens frequently engaging with its AI characters. In a blog entry, Meta described its ongoing efforts to roll out a new “vision” aimed at “supporting parents as they assist their teens in navigating AI.” This update is specifically related to Meta’s AI characters and the personal conversations users can have with them individually. For Teen Accounts, Meta indicates that parents will have three new options available, starting with the capability to completely turn off AI character chats.
Rather than relying on these characters for inquiries and responses, Meta mentions that any Teen Account with this feature disabled will still maintain access to its AI assistant. Through the assistant, the AI will tailor its responses to be educational and suitable for teenagers’ age.
Meta is also intending to introduce an option for parents to restrict access to certain AI characters that their teenager can interact with. This would act as an alternative to completely deactivating the feature. Finally, Meta aims to provide parents with greater visibility into the interactions their teens are having with AI characters and the company’s AI assistant.
The post highlights that these three proposed enhancements arise from “concerns” parents have voiced regarding their children’s engagement with AI chatbots.
Safeguards for younger users
The organization states that it aims to establish guidelines so parents can be better informed and can engage in the right conversations with their teens, if necessary. These AI/parental tools will initiate on Instagram in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia (English users) “early next year.”
Teen Accounts were launched roughly a year ago as a restricted version of Instagram that allows parents to oversee and control their child’s viewing content. Teens under 16 years of age are eligible for a Teen Account, and these accounts are set to “private” by default, requiring users to approve follower requests. Access to sensitive content in the Explore tab and Reels is significantly more limited as well.
Meta implemented these measures, as previously noted, in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia prior to introducing them to additional countries last year. It reached Europe two months later, before being rolled out globally the following year. There is potential for a similar rollout of this updated vision that Meta has for parents and their children.
Just last month, Instagram’s AI acquired the ability to identify teen accounts even if users have misrepresented their age. If the AI determines a user is underage, it will automatically convert their account to a Teen Account. This update also introduced notifications for parents in Canada.
