TV, social media, junk food — parents have been setting limits on their kids forever. Now, add AI chatbots to the list. Meta announced Friday that, starting in 2026, parents will be able to block teenagers from interacting with AI chatbots on Instagram. Parents will be able to block all access or block access to specific AI characters.
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“We hope today’s updates bring parents some peace of mind that their teens can make the most of all the benefits AI offers, with the right guardrails and oversight in place,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang in the blog post.
Teens can interact with AI chatbots through Instagram’s direct message section. The chat could be with a creator’s AI, a custom AI character, or Meta’s general-use AI.
Meta said the new controls allow parents to turn off their teen’s access to one-on-one chats with AI characters entirely or block specific AI characters if they don’t want to turn off access to AI characters altogether.
Moreover, parents can “get insights into the topics their teens are chatting about with AI characters.”
Teens can still use Meta’s regular AI assistant “with default, age-appropriate protections in place to help keep teens safe.”
“We’ve already gathered high-level inputs from experts which have shaped our initial thinking, and we will continue working with experts and parents to help ensure a thoughtful, privacy-conscious approach,” the representative told CNET.
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