Parents can now see what their children are asking about in Meta AI

Meta is giving parents more information about how teens are using AI on its platforms. the The company said Thursday Parents can see what topics their children have asked about artificial intelligence over the past week on Facebook, Messenger or Instagram — apps owned by the company run by Mark Zuckerberg.

While the move aims to support children’s safety on popular social media platforms, experts said it is no substitute for good content moderation and safe design, and warn that it could have unintended consequences by reducing teens’ privacy.

The new feature is called AI Insights and is now available to parents who supervise teen accounts in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil. Meta will roll out AI Insights globally in the coming weeks. Teen accounts are experiences designed specifically for teens on platforms with stricter default privacy and content settings.

The insights come on the heels of other safeguards Meta has introduced for parents and children regarding their use of AI. In October, the company told parents It can prevent children from interacting with chatbot characters or block certain characters. A character is a fictional being created by artificial intelligence.

Zuckerberg and his company have been under a lot of pressure over the past few years when it comes to children’s mental health. Last month, he was dead He was ordered to pay $375 million After he was convicted of responsibility in a child exploitation case, he was also Found liable in California case As a woman claimed that Instagram and YouTube were designed to be like this Addiction for children.

A Meta representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 40 US states Lawsuits were filed against Meta in 2023Claiming that the company is trying to addict children to its apps and thus contribute to the mental health crisis among young people.

How to use insights

If parents use to supervise their children on Facebook, Messenger, or Instagram, they will now see a tab labeled “Insights,” both in the apps themselves and online.

(Parents can enable supervision in Meta’s Family Center – this process It is detailed here –For children ages 13-17 who use teen accounts.)

After clicking on the Insights tab, parents can see what topics their children have asked Meta artificial intelligence About within the past seven days. The company said these topics can include school, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, writing, health, and more.

There are also categories within each topic – Fashion, Food and Holidays in Lifestyle and Fitness, Physical Health and Mental Health in the Health and Wellbeing topic. When parents click on topics, they can see the categories their kids have asked Meta AI about.

If teens ask the AI ​​about suicide or self-harm on Instagram, parents will be alerted, a feature the company provides It was added in February.

Meta also said that in cooperation with Cyberbullying Research CenterIt has evolved 11 conversation starters For parents to talk to their children about artificial intelligence. Parents can access it via a link in the Insights tab.

Meta said in its Thursday news announcement that it is trying to “make parental supervision more valuable to parents.” The company said the number of American teens enrolled in supervision has doubled over the past year.

Parental monitoring can be harmful

The feature shifts the responsibility for content moderation to parents, but it could also be harmful to children in potentially abusive family environments by giving parents a monitoring tool, he said. Ardath Winnachtassociate professor of sociology at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, specializes in mental health and domestic violence.

“Parental controls are not content moderation,” Weinacht told CNET. “As companies like Meta reduce content moderation, they repeatedly put children and teens in harm’s way. It shouldn’t be a parent’s job to make a product less harmful.”

Weinacht, who has worked in prisons and with youth with mood disorders and psychosis, said gay and transgender youth can suffer more than others from parental monitoring.

“Many are turning to digital spaces for support,” Weinacht said. “Fear of parental monitoring may force children into unsafe corners of the Internet.”

“It is a sad truth that children often need protection from their parents as much as they need protection from online harm,” she added.

More is needed to protect children

The new Meta feature is a “step in the right direction,” but it’s not enough to provide protection, says Donna Rice-Hughes, chief executive of Children Online Safety. That’s enoughCNET said.

“META cannot be trusted when it comes to teen safety, and continues to put profits over safety,” Hughes said. Lobbying efforts To kill the Child Internet Safety Act in the US House of Representatives in 2024.

Parents should use any parental control tools available online, such as Meta’s new Insights feature, but also have frequent conversations with their children about online safety, Hughes said. Controls need to be more robust and effective and implemented by the entire Big Tech companies, not just Meta. “Parents simply cannot continue to bear this burden alone,” Hughes said.