Overview
- Under‑18 users can no longer access open‑ended chats as of November 25, capping a phased rollout that included a two‑hour daily limit and brief grace periods for select power users.
- Stories offers a structured, choose‑your‑own‑adventure format where teens pick two or three characters, select a genre, set a premise, and navigate branching narratives with AI‑generated images.
- Character.AI positions Stories as a safer alternative to freeform chat and says teens can continue using other multimodal features in a more controlled environment.
- The company highlights safeguards such as thresholds on sexual and violent content, stopping conversations at the first sign of self‑harm with help‑line prompts, and new age‑assurance tools that include third‑party verification like Persona.
- Pressure continues from courts and policymakers, including wrongful‑death suits, new California rules on AI companions, a bipartisan Senate proposal to bar such tools for minors, and an FTC inquiry into major AI firms.