Meta has announced a temporary suspension of its AI character chat feature for teenagers as the company works on developing an enhanced version of these characters, promising a more improved experience. This decision was revealed in an updated blog post originally from October, which outlined additional parental controls for teen AI interactions. The restriction on teen access to AI characters is set to begin in the upcoming weeks.

Spokesperson Sophie Vogel explained to The Verge the reasoning behind this move. “Since we outlined our intentions to introduce parental controls for AI characters in October, we’ve embarked on creating a new version of AI characters for both adults and teens,” she stated. “To avoid developing parental controls twice—once for the current and once for the new AI characters—we’ve decided to pause teen access to the existing version. The new iteration, once available, will include parental controls for teens.”

This decision seems to be partly driven by feedback from parents, as reported by TechCrunch. Meta reportedly received requests from parents seeking greater insight and control over their teens’ interactions with AI characters, prompting these adjustments.

Previously, in October, Meta introduced plans for parents to manage their teens’ interactions with AI characters. These controls would allow parents to block their teens’ one-on-one conversations with AI, restrict communication with particular AI characters, and provide insights into the topics their teens discuss with Meta’s AI characters and assistant. While the initial plan was to implement these controls earlier this year, Meta is still finalizing how to share conversation insights with parents. According to Vogel, this feature is “coming soon.”

In a related move last year, Meta adjusted Instagram’s settings for teen accounts, allowing them to access content akin to that suitable for audiences aged 13 and above.

Update, January 23rd: Additional details were provided by a Meta spokesperson.

Correction, January 23rd: Clarified that Meta is still working on how to share insights with parents about the conversations their teens are having with Meta’s AI assistant.