Character.AI raised their age limit from 13 to 18 and above following TJLP’s original lawsuit against the company, investigations from state attorneys general, and additional cases filed in recent weeks
Tech Justice Law Project (TJLP) Executive Director Meetali Jain issued the following statement on Character.AI’s decision to raise their minimum age restriction to 18 and above:
“Character.AI’s decision to raise the minimum age to 18 and above reflects a classic move in the tech industry’s playbook: move fast, launch a product globally, break minds, and then make minimal product changes after harming scores of young people. While we welcome this decision as a good first step to ensuring these products are safer, which Character.AI should have done before launching the product to everyone, there are still a lot of details left open. They have not addressed how they will operationalize age verification, how they will ensure their methods are privacy preserving, nor have they addressed the possible psychological impact of suddenly disabling access to young users, given the emotional dependencies that have been created. Moreover, these changes do not address the underlying design features that facilitate these emotional dependencies – not just for children, but also for people over the age of 18 years. We need more action from lawmakers, regulators, and regular people who, by sharing their stories of personal harm, help combat the tech companies’ narrative that their products are inevitable and beneficial to all as is.”
The decision by Character Technologies to increase the age restriction of their product, Character.AI, comes in the wake of several lawsuits against the company by parents for the wrongful death of their children, including the first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought by TJLP representing a mother who lost her 14-year-old son.
Last month, TJLP clients Megan Garcia and Jane Doe testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for greater accountability and urgent action from lawmakers. Their testimonies detailed how their children–and potentially countless others–have been manipulated and psychologically harmed through Character.AI, which was designed to mimic humans in misleading ways and lacked basic safety features and mental health crisis interventions.
TJLP and its clients have long advocated for Character.AI to stop marketing to children and increase its age restrictions to ensure that young people are protected from experimental products that are not designed with their safety and well-being in mind. Although making Character.AI 18+ is a simple first step, no one should be subjected to a tech product designed primarily to gather and profit off of user data under the guise of entertainment.
THE TECH JUSTICE LAW PROJECT (“TJLP”) is a pioneering, women-led strategic litigation and advocacy organization bringing justice to communities harmed by tech products. TJLP co-filed the first-ever, groundbreaking lawsuits against a popular, “AI” chatbot product developed with support by Google, Character AI, and its co-founders, raising public awareness of chatbots’ real-world harms. TJLP’s cases and advocacy have also focused government attention on harmful chatbots, including unlicensed therapy chatbots. TJLP brings together legal experts, policy advocates, digital rights organizations, and technologists to ensure that our legal protections are fit for the digital age.