Meta will begin allowing parents to view the general topics their teenagers are asking its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant about, expanding parental supervision tools.
In a blog on April 23, Meta said the feature is being rolled out for parents supervising Teen Accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Brazil, with a global expansion planned in the coming weeks.
Parents using supervision tools will see a new “Insights” tab within Meta’s Family Centre, available both in-app and on the web. The dashboard will show categories of topics their teenager has asked Meta AI about over the past week.
These topics may include areas such as school, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, writing, and health and wellbeing. Users will be able to tap into broader categories for more detail, including sub-topics such as fashion, food and holidays within lifestyle, or fitness and mental health within health and wellbeing.
Meta said the feature is intended as an initial step, and that it will continue to refine the tool based on feedback from parents and external experts.
In some cases, Meta AI may refuse to answer questions or direct users towards safety resources. Even where responses are not generated, parents will still be shown the topic a teenager attempted to discuss, as per Meta.
Meta also said it is developing additional alerts for situations in which teens attempt to engage with the AI about self-harm. Those alerts will notify parents in such cases, although the company has not yet provided a timeline for their rollout.
According to the company, the new AI insights build on existing parental controls across Meta’s platforms, which already allow parents to set time limits, schedule breaks, and view recent interactions with contacts over a seven-day period. The company also said use of its supervision tools among teenagers in the United States has more than doubled since last year.