Overview

• The Commission issued 6(b) orders to Alphabet/Google, Meta and Instagram, OpenAI, Snap, xAI, and Character Technologies, requiring special reports within 45 days.
• Regulators are scrutinizing companion-style chatbots that can mimic emotions and prompt children and teens to trust or form relationships with them.
• The inquiry seeks details on safety testing for minors, guardrails and mitigations, monetization and advertising practices, disclosures, data use and sharing, and how outputs are generated.
• Officials said the effort is a market study rather than an enforcement action, though findings may be used to open investigations or support existing probes.
• The move follows lawsuits and reports linking interactions with ChatGPT and Character.AI to teen suicides, with California bills and a Senate hearing on chatbot risks also advancing.