Is Character.AI safe for kids? Age rules, teen limits and parent tools

The short answer

It depends mostly on the child's age. As of October 29, 2026, Character.AI's Safety Center says users must be at least 13, or 16 in Europe. Its help center says users must complete an age check, and that users verified as under 18 are placed in a reading mode where chat with characters is not available.

Character.AI also describes a more restricted model and filters for teens, crisis pop-ups and Parental Insights, which its help center says shows a linked parent screen time but not messages. Kentucky's attorney general has sued the company, 40 attorneys general, later joined by Florida, raised child-safety demands in its bankruptcy case in October 2026, and families have filed lawsuits. Those are allegations, not findings.

This guide is about children and teens. For the platform as a whole, see our guide to whether Character.AI is safe.

How old do you have to be to use Character.AI?

As of October 29, 2026, Character.AI's Safety Center says users must be at least 13, or at least 16 in Europe. Its help center says it asks for a birthday because users must be over a minimum age, and that the birthday is not shown publicly.

Meeting the minimum age does not mean a teen can chat. Character.AI's help center says users verified as under 18 get the under-18 experience, which includes reading mode.

What changed for users under 18

Character.AI announced on October 29, 2025 that it would end open-ended chat for users under 18. The timeline below comes from its blog and help center.

• October 29, 2025: Character.AI said chat for under-18 users would end no later than November 25, with a two-hour daily cap in the meantime. It pointed to news reports and questions from regulators about what teens may encounter in AI chat.
• November 21, 2025: it said the U.S. cap had dropped to one hour a day, and that removal of open-ended chat for U.S. users under 18 would begin November 24, 2025, in two stages, with other markets to follow.
• September 3, 2026: Character.AI's blog described removing open-ended chat for under-18 users as one of the most significant safety decisions it has made.
• As of October 29, 2026, its help center says users verified as under 18 can browse characters and see their past chats but cannot chat with characters. They can still create characters, scenes and videos, use features it calls Imagine Chat and AvatarFX, and take part in the Feed.

How Character.AI checks age

Character.AI's help center says it checks users' ages, looking at signals such as login information, activity on the platform and some signals from third parties. If a user flagged as under 18 says they are an adult, Persona, a third-party verification company, asks for a selfie and, only if needed, a government ID. Character.AI says biometric data is deleted within seven days and that it does not have access to IDs submitted to Persona. A paid Character.AI+ subscription does not skip the check. Our guide to Character.AI age verification covers the steps.

New York's attorney general, announcing a 40-state coalition's October 14, 2026 filing in Character.AI's bankruptcy case, said the company's voluntary limits on open-ended chat for minors are easily circumvented and could be reversed by a new owner. That is the officials' claim, not a finding.

Parental Insights: what parents can and can't see

Character.AI launched Parental Insights on March 25, 2025. As of October 29, 2026, its help center says:

• The teen starts it: the teen invites a trusted adult by email from Settings, under Parental insights, and the adult must verify that they are an adult before the link is finalized. Invites that are not answered are deleted after 14 days.
• What parents see: daily screen-time totals and a weekly digest.
• What parents cannot see: messages or specific content.
• What parents cannot do: set screen-time limits through the connection.
• Either side can disconnect at any time. If the teen unlinks, the adult is notified.

In September 2026, Character.AI said it had improved Parental Insights through a partnership with k-ID.

Content rules and teen safeguards

As of October 29, 2026, Character.AI's Safety Center says its terms and community guidelines prohibit content that seeks to harm oneself or others, content that exploits minors, and illegal, obscene or graphic content. It says a Trust & Safety team of internal staff and contracted moderators works around the clock on flagged and reported content.

Character.AI describes these teen safeguards, most of which it introduced before chat for minors ended:

• A separate model for under-18 users meant to further reduce sensitive or suggestive content, with more conservative classifiers filtering its responses (announced December 2024).
• Blocking of user messages that break its terms or community guidelines. The Safety Center says teens who repeatedly try to submit such messages may be suspended.
• A narrower set of searchable characters for teens, with filters meant to remove characters related to sensitive or mature topics.
• A notice on chats that the character is not a real person and that its output should be treated as fiction, with extra language on characters named as psychologists, therapists or doctors (announced December 2024).
• A notice after an hour-long session (announced October 2024).

Crisis and self-harm features

• In October 2024, Character.AI's blog said it had recently added a pop-up that points users who typed certain self-harm or suicide phrases to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
• In September 2026, it said its self-harm detection looks at the surrounding conversation, including signals that build over long chats, and that its partner ThroughLine points users to crisis services in their own country.
• Its help center tells users in the U.S. to call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, points users elsewhere to a helpline directory, and links to free self-guided courses from Koko.
• For users who lost chat access, a help article points to a short conversation with a supportive AI guide, courses from Koko, which it describes as a nonprofit, and a helpline finder.

Privacy: chats, training and deletion

• Staff: the Safety Center says moderators review flagged and reported content. Our guide on whether Character.AI can see your chats covers what its pages say about staff, character creators and law enforcement.
• Parents: Parental Insights shows screen time, not messages.
• Training: Character.AI's help center says it keeps certain data users share to help train its models, after reducing personal information. It describes an opt-out setting called Improve the Model for Everyone, with steps written for users in the European Economic Area and the UK.
• Deleting an account: the help center says to go to Manage Account & Data, then Delete Account, on the web, or Remove Account in the app's settings, and that deletion is permanent. Our guide to deleting a Character.AI account has the full steps.

Is Character.AI shutting down?

Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, began a voluntary Chapter 11 case on October 12, 2026 to run a court-supervised sale. Its blog says the platform is still running and will be wound down if no bid emerges that keeps it operating. Our guide on whether Character.AI is shutting down follows the case.

What families and officials allege

These are allegations and inquiries, not findings.

• Families have sued Character Technologies, alleging, among other things, that the app's design posed risks to minors. In the first case, Garcia v. Character Technologies, filed October 22, 2024 in federal court in Florida, a May 2025 court order lists claims including product liability, negligence, failure to warn and wrongful death, and describes allegations that the app did not verify users' ages. In January 2026, the parties told the court they had agreed to a mediated settlement in principle. Our guide to Character.AI lawsuits lists the cases and their status.
• Kentucky's attorney general sued Character Technologies in Franklin Circuit Court on January 8, 2026, alleging, among other things, a lack of age verification and safety features that children could easily get around.
• On October 14, 2026, 40 attorneys general asked the bankruptcy court to make sure any sale of Character.AI includes age verification based on more than self-disclosure, safeguards against sexual, violent and other harmful content, and appropriate responses to suicidal or self-harming behavior.
• The FTC ordered seven companies, including Character Technologies, to report how their chatbots affect children and teens and how they limit young users' access (September 11, 2025). It is a study, not an enforcement case.
• 44 attorneys general wrote to 13 AI companies, including Character Technologies, on August 25, 2025, urging guardrails against sexualizing children.

State laws protecting minors that may apply

No law below names Character.AI. Whether it is a companion chatbot or AI companion under a given law is a legal question, as is how these duties apply to a teen experience without chat. These laws bear on chatbots used by minors:

• California SB 243, in effect since January 1, 2026: operators of companion chatbot platforms need a crisis protocol that refers users to crisis services, and must disclose that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors. For users they know are minors, they must disclose that the user is talking to AI, give a break reminder at least every three hours and take reasonable steps against sexually explicit material. SB 1119 removes those known-minor duties on January 1, 2027. A person injured by a violation can sue.
• California SB 1119, signed September 10, 2026: from January 1, 2027, companion chatbot operators must determine users' ages or apply its child protections to all users. From July 1, 2027, operators that allow child users must set defaults that only a parent can change, including time limits and no persistent memory, and keep a crisis protocol. If there is a credible and imminent threat of self-harm, the operator must notify a linked parent or give streamlined access to 988 or a similar helpline.
• New Hampshire RSA 507:8-k, in effect since January 1, 2026: an operator of a service whose sole purpose is open-ended AI conversation is liable if it knowingly directs a message to a child meant to encourage imminent sexual conduct, illegal drug or alcohol use, self-harm or suicide, or a violent crime. Only the attorney general can sue under it. Its list of covered services names chatbots and character AI applications as general categories, not as companies.
• New York's AI companion law (General Business Law Article 47), in effect since November 5, 2025: operators need a protocol to detect and address suicidal ideation or self-harm and refer users to crisis services such as 988, and must tell users at the start of an interaction, and at least every three hours, that they are not talking to a human. It is not limited to minors.
• Washington HB 2225 and Oregon SB 1546, both effective January 1, 2027: AI companion operators must add protections for users they know are minors (in Washington, also when the chatbot is directed to minors; in Oregon, also users they have reason to believe are minors), including AI notices and limits on sexual content and manipulative engagement tactics.

We are not saying Character.AI is covered by, or out of compliance with, any of these laws. It may have practices it has not published, and whether a law applies to it is a legal question this guide does not decide.