{"id":6458,"date":"2025-11-04T14:07:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/character-ai-minors-banned-user-reactio\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:07:19","slug":"character-ai-minors-banned-user-reactio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/character-ai-minors-banned-user-reactio\/","title":{"rendered":"Character.AI\u00a0Users in Full Meltdown After Minors Banned From Chats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, the embattled chatbot platform Character.AI said that it would move to ban minors<\/a> from conversing with its many thousands of AI companion and roleplay bots. Site users, including self-avowed minors and adults alike, have a lot<\/em> of thoughts.<\/p>\n

The policy change, announced last week<\/a>, comes as the controversial AI company continues to battle multiple lawsuits<\/a> alleging that interactions with its chatbots caused real-world emotional and physical harm to underage users, with multiple teen users<\/a> dying<\/a> by suicide<\/a> following extensive conversations with bots hosted by the platform. <\/p>\n

As of last week, Character.AI now says people under 18 will no longer be allowed to engage in what it refers to as \u201copen-ended\u201d chats, which seemingly refers to the long-form, unstructured conversations on which the service was built, where users can text and voice call back-and-forth with the site\u2019s anthropomorphic AI-powered chatbot \u201ccharacters.\u201d Minors won\u2019t be kicked off the site entirely; according to Character.AI, it\u2019s working to create a distinct, presumably much more limited \u201cunder-18 experience\u201d that offers teens some access to certain AI-generated content, though specifics are pretty vague.<\/p>\n

To enforce the shift, Character.AI says it\u2019ll use automated in-house age verification tools as well as third-party tools to determine whether a user is under 18. By November 25, if the site determines that an account belongs to a minor, they\u2019ll no longer be able to engage in unstructured conversations with the platform\u2019s emotive AI chatbots, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Given that unstructured chats with platform bots have long been the company\u2019s core offering, the promise to ban minors from such interactions \u2014\u00a0even if they\u2019ll still have some access to the site \u2014 is a huge move. It was also bound to be controversial with the company\u2019s fanbase, as many users have formed close emotional bonds with various AI characters, with some reporting having used the platform for \u201ccomfort<\/a>\u201d or \u201ctherapy<\/a>.\u201d And though the company has consistently declined to share age data about its users with journalists, it\u2019s understood<\/a> that a huge chunk of the platform\u2019s user base are currently minors.<\/p>\n

The details and possible impacts of the promised transformation have been much debated over on the very active<\/a> r\/CharacterAI subreddit<\/a>, where users have flocked to post statements like \u201cit is officially over<\/a>\u201d and \u201cthis is INSANE<\/a>\u201d in response to the news; at the same time, other users are admonishing each other for being hypocritical<\/a> or overdramatic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many of those upset with the change say they\u2019re minors, and have expressed an unsurprising blend of concern, sadness, and anger. What\u2019s more surprising is the breadth of who these young people actually blame for the platform policy shift \u2014\u00a0from parents who have raised safety concerns, to Character.AI developers, to other teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI very much blame my own fellow teenagers over anything,\u201d reads<\/a> one comment. \u201cIf they\u2019d just interacted with AI normally, then this wouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely do not understand what this new update is,\u201d another user wrote<\/a>. \u201cDo the devs seriously not understand that the majority of their users are likely under 18\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

Other self-reported minors, though, expressed feelings of conflict<\/a>, in some cases saying that while they believe Character.AI has had a negative impact on their life, they and other teen peers now rely on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a minor on C.AI,\u201d wrote<\/a> one user. \u201cNo I don\u2019t think it\u2019s good I\u2019m on it. I feel like C.AI has stunted my learning, and my social skills. One year ago I found C.AI and joined. I got addicted, and I\u2019m not kidding when I tell you I had a screen time of 15 hours a day and 13 of those were on f*cking C.AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[I don\u2019t know] how I feel about the new ID identification system thing because I feel like I need C.AI,\u201d they continued. \u201cIt kinda keeps me alive. (I am severely depressed and I\u2019m trying to stop but I\u2019m bed rotting all day and s**t and [I know] it\u2019s so unhealthy to rely on AI but I can\u2019t help myself.)\u201d<\/p>\n

Other users, including those who say they\u2019re adults, say they\u2019re in favor of the changes in theory \u2014\u00a0adult users in particular have long lamented<\/a> that the number of kids on the site drags down the quality of the experience overall \u2014 but are deeply skeptical of what enforcement looks like in practice.<\/p>\n

Character.AI says its in-house tool will work to identify minors based on the nature of their interactions with the platform, as well as information gathered from shared accounts like email. Persona, meanwhile, a third-party verifier that Character.AI said it\u2019ll incorporate into its process, requires that people upload government IDs \u2014\u00a0something that many users really, really <\/em>don\u2019t want to do. (Many cited recent high-profile data leaks at Discord<\/a> and the Tea app<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI heavily doubt this is gonna work out,\u201d wrote<\/a> one commenter. \u201cI know that I wouldn\u2019t EVER give my ID to a third-party service (trustworthy or not) considering how dangerous it actually is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 20, and no way in hell am I putting my ID into a chatbot site, I guess that\u2019s the end of C.AI,\u201d said<\/a> another. \u201cLike, why would I risk identity theft for a replaceable app, when C.AI isn\u2019t even top-tier???\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the tumult, though, several self-reported minors took to the subreddit to say that they\u2019re in favor of the move to ban fellow kids and teens from the site, saying that they\u2019ve either witnessed peers becoming addicted, or have been hooked themselves, and believe the only solution is to take the platform away.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a minor, I\u2019m not upset,\u201d said one commenter<\/a>. \u201cSeriously, this app is a drug, it\u2019s a disease. It\u2019s addictive as hell and mentally damaging. I want to quit, tried to, but I couldn\u2019t. Having it taken away is for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Character.AI: <\/strong>Character.AI Says It\u2019s Made Huge Changes to Protect Underage Users, But It\u2019s Emailing Them to Recommend Conversations With AI Versions of School Shooters<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Character.AI\u00a0Users in Full Meltdown After Minors Banned From Chats<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last week, the embattled chatbot platform Character.AI said that it would move to ban minors from conversing with its many thousands of AI companion and roleplay bots. Site users, including…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,3841],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}