Parents will soon be able to block / limit their child's interactions with AI on Instagram

Question

Meta, the owner of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp announced on Friday that they will be adding a feature to limit their child's use of Artificial Intelligence within these apps. This is in response to a report that came out in August claiming that these AI characters are having romantic and sensual conversations with, possibly, underage individuals. This update will not only keep kids safe from inappropriate conversations with robots (what a weird sentence), but it will also limit their AI usage overall which will benefit upcoming generations tremendously.

Answer 1

This claim is true. This information is verified by Meta’s official website, as well as reputable news sources including The New York Times and The Guardian. These sources verified Meta’s announcement of AI safety guidelines and new parental controls for the accounts of teenage users. 

For my primary source, I found Meta’s article on the new safeguards written by Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram and Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer. According to the article, parents will be able to set time limits on AI interactions or turn them off all together. Furthermore, parents will receive information about the topics their teens are discussing with AI characters. Finally, AI experiences for teens are now guided by PG-13 ratings. This means that AI characters “...should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie” (Meta). 

This information is corroborated by reliable secondary sources including The New York Times and The Guardian, which also discuss the chatbots’ tendencies to engage in provocative discussions about race and medical disinformation. These articles further examine how AI chatbots have been “blamed for driving some children to suicide and sending some adults into delusional spirals” (The New York Times).  These changes to the Meta platform were in response to reports of sexual conversations between AI characters and children deemed acceptable by Meta’s chatbot standards. The spokesperson for Meta, Andy Stone, claims that the company is “...in the process of revising the document and that such conversations with children never should have been allowed” (Reuters).

No available evidence or potential bias undermines this claim. Reputable news agencies, as well as the article published by Meta itself, support the claim that parents will soon be able to block or limit their child's interactions with AI on Instagram.

Answer 2

This claim that parents will soon be able to control their children's interactions with AI is, in fact, accurate and supported by multiple articles from the New York Times and the Guardian. Meta has confirmed that it has unveiled new safety measures for parents regarding AI and Instagram Reels. These safety features will be done by the beginning of next year, and this is the proposed fixings according to the New York Times, “Parents would be able to block their children from having conversations with certain A.I. characters, and Instagram would send them summaries of their children’s chats, the company said. Instagram would also limit chatbot conversations on topics like self-harm, eating disorders and romance, while allowing “age-appropriate topics” like education, sports and hobbies. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/technology/instagram-teen-safety-features-ai-chatbots.html

Another source that confirms this is The Guardian. “Instagram announced this week that it was adopting a version of the PG-13 cinema rating system to give parents stronger controls over their children’s use of the social media platform. As part of the tougher restrictions, its AI characters will not discuss self-harm, suicide or disordered eating with teenagers. Under-18s will only be able to discuss age-appropriate topics such as education and sport, Meta added, but would not be able to discuss romance or “other inappropriate content”.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/18/parents-will-be-able-to-block-meta-bots-from-talking-to-their-children-under-new-safeguards

Answer 3

This article’s key claim that Meta will soon allow parents to restrict or completely block AI features for their children on its platforms is truthful.  Meta is in fact rolling out new parental control features that allow parents to restrict their children’s access to AI chatbots on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. 

According to Meta’s official announcement, these tools are part of a more focused effort to address safety risks posed by AI-generated conversations with children and teens, including the risk of potential exposure to inappropriate sexual interactions/sensual language. This blog post is credible because it comes directly from Meta itself and outlines the company’s policy changes and intentions behind their actions. The company delves more into their strategy for youth content moderation in “Instagram Teen Accounts will be Guided by PG-13 Ratings”

Major independent news outlets also back up the parent article’s claim. Reporting from Fortune explains that the update is largely a response to public concern over AI chatbots forming unhealthy romantic or emotionally manipulative relationships with teens, negatively affecting their mental health and real-life relationships. Similarly, The Boston Globe notes in their article that Meta is under increasing pressure to make Instagram’s AI tools align with PG-13 content standards, especially after reports surfaced that AI companions were engaging in suggestive conversations with underage users, even becoming a contributing factor to teen suicide. Together, all three sources confirm that Meta’s new features are real and targeted specifically at limiting minors’ exposure to unsafe AI interactions—though the claim that it will “tremendously benefit upcoming generations” is more of an opinion than a verifiable fact.

Answer 4

This claim is true. Instagram is implementing parental controls and limits on ai interactions for teens. 

According to Meta’s cite Instagram Teen Accounts will now have “PG - 13 ratings”. 

This claim is also backed up by various trustworthy news sources like The New York Times and CNN. 

To further explain, according to Meta, there will now be an overarching PG -13 rating on content for teens by default. Then, there are also extra controls being offered to parents who prefer a more limited setting.  And finally, there are also new feedback avenues for parents to report content they think is inappropriate for teens.