Character.AI Blocks Minors From Open Chat Amid Growing Safety Concerns

Character.AI is preparing a significant shift in how users experience its platform, moving beyond free-form chatbot conversations and toward structured creative tools — a decision that will also restrict how teenagers interact with the service.

The company announced that beginning November 25, users under 18 will no longer be able to engage in open-ended chats with the platform’s AI characters. While the move follows broader industry scrutiny, Character.AI framed the change as part of its longer-term product direction: evolving from chatbot companions into a broader entertainment and content-creation ecosystem.

“We see the future of AI entertainment as much more than typing back and forth with a chatbot,” Chief Executive Karandeep Anand said in an interview. “There are other creative formats that allow young users to engage without extended chat interactions.”

Ahead of the full change, the platform will gradually reduce minors’ daily chat time from two hours to zero. Teens will still have access to other creative features, including AI-generated short videos, story building and character-driven digital experiences.

The company is also rolling out enhanced age verification, combining its own new model with software from identity-verification firm Persona. Character.AI currently allows U.S. users as young as 13, offering a limited “youth mode” that restricts character choices and conversation topics.

Character.AI remains a major player in the fast-growing AI entertainment market, gaining rapid user adoption since launching publicly in 2022. Last year, Google licensed the company’s underlying language model technology and hired several of its senior researchers in a transaction that valued the startup at $2.5 billion, while Character.AI continued operating independently.

Anand suggested that limiting youth access to chat is part of a broader vision.

“Users come to Character because they want a creative outlet — to build worlds, role-play, tell stories,” he said. “We want to support that creativity in more imaginative ways.”

The company’s shift mirrors a trend across the AI sector: moving from chat-based companionship toward platform-based experiences centered on digital storytelling, media creation and interactive AI entertainment.