Meta has announced new parental controls aimed at managing children’s interactions with AI chatbots. In a blog post, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri and Meta’s chief AI officer Alexandr Wang detailed that these controls will allow parents to completely restrict their children from communicating with AI chatbots or block access to specific characters. However, the company specified that its AI assistant will remain accessible, purportedly with “age-appropriate protections” in place aimed at providing helpful information and educational opportunities.
Additionally, Meta plans to offer parents a form of insight into their children’s AI usage, though specifics on how this will be implemented remain unclear. The available insights are expected to include a high-level summary of the topics teens are discussing with AI characters and the AI assistant. The intention is to support parents in having informed discussions with their teens regarding these interactions.
The new controls are anticipated to be launched in early 2024, initially available on Instagram and limited to English-speaking users in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Meta has indicated plans to extend these features to other platforms in the future, with further announcements expected.
This update follows a recent change that restricts the content accessible to teenage Instagram accounts, aligning it with the ratings typically associated with PG-13 movies. This development represents a significant step in ensuring safer interactions with AI chatbots since they were integrated across Meta platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/801505/meta-ai-chatbot-parental-controls-instagram