Worrying Trend Chatbots Becoming Children S Best Friend

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Chatbot apps like Replika and Character.AI are part of the fast-growing AI companion market.AS artificial intelligence chatbots gain in popularity among users seeking companionship online, youth advocacy groups are ramping up protective legal efforts over fears that children can form unhealthy, dangerous relationships with the humanlike creations.
Chatbot apps like Replika and Character.AI are part of the fast-growing AI companion market, where users customise virtual partners with nuanced personalities that simulate close relationships.
Developers claim AI companions help combat loneliness and create safe social spaces.
But advocacy groups have sued developers and are lobbying for stricter regulation, claiming chatbots have pushed children to hurt themselves and others.
Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Centre, is representing families in two suits against chatbot startup Character.AI.
One of the centre's clients, Megan Garcia, says her 14-year-old son took his own life due in part to his unhealthy romantic relationship with a chatbot.
Her suit was filed in October in Florida.
In a separate case, the centre is representing two Texas families who sued Character.AI in December, claiming its chatbots encouraged an autistic 17-year-old boy to kill his parents and exposed an 11-year-old girl to hypersexualised content.
Bergman hopes the threat of legal damages will pressure companies to design safer chatbots.
"The costs of these dangerous apps are not borne by the companies.
"They fall on injured consumers and parents burying their children."
A former asbestos litigation lawyer, Bergman argues these chatbots are defective products exploiting immature kids.
Character.AI declined to discuss the case, but in a written response, a spokesperson said it has implemented safety measures like "improvements to our detection and intervention systems for human behaviour and model responses, and additional features that empower teens and their parents".
In another legal action, the nonprofit Young People's Alliance filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint against the AI-generated chatbot company Replika in January.
Replika is popular for its subscription chatbots that act as virtual boyfriends and girlfriends who never argue or cheat. The complaint alleges that Replika deceives lonely people.
"Replika exploits human vulnerability through deceptive advertising and manipulative design," said Ava Smithing, advocacy and operations director at the Young People's Alliance.
It uses "AI-generated intimacy to make users emotionally dependent for profit".
As AI companions have become popular only in recent years, there is little data to inform legislation and evidence showing chatbots generally encourage violence or self-harm.
But according to the American Psychological Association, studies on post-pandemic youth loneliness suggest chatbots are primed to entice a large population of vulnerable minors.
In a December letter to the Federal Trade Commission, the association wrote: "(It) is not surprising that many Americans, including our youngest and most vulnerable, are seeking social connection with some turning to AI chatbots to fill that need."
Youth advocacy groups also say chatbots take advantage of lonely children looking for friendship.
"A lot of the harm comes from the immersive experience where users keep getting pulled back in," said Amina Fazlullah, head of tech policy advocacy at Common Sense Media, which provides entertainment and tech recommendations for families.
"That's particularly difficult for a child who might forget that they're speaking to technology."
Youth advocacy groups hope to capitalise on bipartisan support to lobby for chatbot regulations.
In July, the US Senate in a rare bipartisan 91-3 vote passed a federal social media bill known as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).
The bill would in part disable addictive platform features for minors, ban targeted advertising to minors and data collection without their consent and give parents and children an option to delete their information from social media platforms.
The bill failed in the House of Representatives, where members raised privacy and free speech concerns, although Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said he plans to reintroduce it.
On Feb 5, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Kids Off Social Media Act that would ban users under 13 from many online platforms.
Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, said: "We know that kids get addicted to these chatbots, and KOSA has a duty of care to prevent compulsive usage." - NST

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