Meta’s AI Safety Strategy: Empowering Parents and Safeguarding Teens

Meta is unveiling new strategies to support parents in assisting their teens with navigating artificial intelligence (AI). This initiative includes introducing controls that allow parents to manage and understand how their teens engage with AI characters. Meta’s vision is to help teenagers leverage AI for learning skills like coding and graphic design while providing parents with the necessary tools to ensure safe internet navigation.

Empowering Parents with New Tools

Meta is implementing new supervision mechanisms on its platforms. These tools will empower parents to make informed decisions regarding the AI characters their teens interact with. These enhancements include options for:

• Disabling one-on-one chats between teens and AI characters.
• Blocking specific AI characters while allowing access to others.
• Monitoring topics discussed by their teens with AI characters and Meta’s AI assistant.

Meta emphasizes that AI should complement traditional educational methods, with age-appropriate safeguards ensuring the safe use of technology.

Existing Teen Protections

Teen safety on AI platforms has been a priority. Protections introduced are informed by parental concerns around interaction, content, and productive use of time. Key measures include:

• Designing AI interactions consistent with PG-13 guidance, expanding initially in English-speaking countries.
• Restricting AI characters from engaging in harmful discussions, directing teens to professional resources if needed.
• Restricting interactions to educational and hobby-based topics, excluding inappropriate content.
• Enabling parents to set time restrictions for app usage, including AI interaction time.

Meta uses AI technology to ensure protections are in place for suspected underage users, even if they self-identify as adults.

Looking Forward

As AI evolves, Meta is poised to enhance teen protection continuously, responding to parent concerns. The planned enhancements will initiate with Instagram and will begin to roll out early next year in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Meta aims to offer peace of mind to parents that teens can benefit from AI with necessary supervisory controls.

Meta’s ongoing efforts underline its commitment to integrating parental oversight in AI engagement, aligning with their approach to teen account protections.