Statement from Matthew P. Bergman, Founding Attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center
Today’s announcement by Character.AI marks a step toward creating a safer online environment for children. This step would never have happened without the courage and persistence of parents like Megan Garcia and Mandi Furniss, along with so many others who have bravely come forward to hold Character.AI accountable for the harm their children experienced.
We are also grateful for Senator Josh Hawley’s support. His steadfast leadership has elevated the voices of impacted families and helped drive accountability across the tech industry. His commitment to protecting children online has been instrumental in advancing legislative solutions and compelling platforms to take meaningful action.
We commend Character.AI for taking this first step, while cautioning that the devil is in the details and that effectiveness requires more than promises and press releases. Character.AI has not yet shared details such as what this new under-18 experience will look like, what testing has been done to ensure safety on the backend, how it will protect minors’ data, or how it intends to make its AI chatbots safer for consumers by design. We hope that Character.AI will approach such issues with the transparency they deserve.
While this policy change is a welcome development, it also does not impact the Social Media Victims Law Center’s ongoing Character.AI Lawsuits. We remain steadfast in our mission to seek justice for families and to ensure that tech companies are held responsible for the consequences of their platforms.