Meta said on Friday it will let parents disable their teens' private chats with AI characters, adding another measure to make its social media platforms safe for minors after fierce criticism over the behavior of its flirty chatbots.

Meta is adding parental controls to kids’ interactions with artificial intelligence chatbots — including the ability to turn off one-on-one chats with AI characters altogether

I nstagram on Friday announced a set of safety features for teenage users who use AI chatbots on the social media app that include expanded parental controls, amid concer

The new controls will let parents stop their children from speaking with AI chatbots entirely or block access to specific characters they don’t like, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri and Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang wrote in a blog post announcing the changes on Friday.

Meta is rolling out new parental controls to improve teen safety on its platforms. Parents will soon be able to disable private AI chatbot conversations and limit content to PG-13 standards by default.

TV, social media, junk food -- parents have been setting limits on their kids forever. Now, add AI chatbots to the list. Meta announced Friday that, starting in 2026, parents will be able to block teenagers from interacting with AI chatbots on Instagram.

Meta announced on Friday parents would be allowed to disable their teenagers' private chats with AI characters, the latest safety measure for its social media platforms.

Instagram will launch new safety features for teens, including the ability for parents to prevent their kids from chatting with the platform’s AI characters.