The move comes amid political pressure to restrict teen interactions with AI characters. Rival firms like Character.ai and OpenAI have introduced comparable restrictions in recent months.

Meta is halting teens’ access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in a blog post Friday

Meta is “temporarily pausing” the ability for teens to chat with its AI characters as it develops a “new version” of the characters that will offer a “better experience.” The company made the announcement in an update to a blog post from October where the company had detailed more parental controls for teen AI use.

Meta is cutting off teenagers from its AI chatbot characters worldwide while it rushes to build tools that give parents more say over how those systems interact with younger users. The move pauses one of the company’s most hyped AI experiments just as regulators,

By pausing teens’ access to AI characters worldwide, Meta is signaling a rethink of how conversational AI interacts with younger users.

Meta on Friday, Jan. 23, informed that it is halting teens' access to its artificial intelligence (AI) characters worldwide across all its apps. In a blog post, the owner of WhatsApp and Instagram said that this will start in the "coming weeks" and teenagers will no longer be allowed to access its AI characters “until the updated experience is ready” “Starting in the coming weeks,