Snapchat to let parents decide whether their teens can use the app’s AI chatbot

Snapchat will now give parents the option to block their teens from interacting with the app’s myAI chatbot following some questions about the tool’s safety for young people.

Snapchat will now give parents the option to block their teens from interacting with the app’s “My AI” chatbot following some questions about the tool’s safety for young people. The change will mean that if parents opt to turn off the tool, teens can message My AI but the chatbot will respond only with a note that it has been disabled. Thursday’s announcement is part of a broader set of additions to Snapchat’s parental oversight tool Family Center. Snap rolled out My AI in April, a launch that was quickly met with worries from parents about whether it was healthy for their children to be conversing with a highly personalized computer chatbot. Snapchat said in a blog post Thursday that My AI already included “protections against inappropriate or harmful responses, temporary usage restrictions if Snapchatters repeatedly misuse the service, and age-awareness.” Snapchat will also now offer parents visibility into their teens’ safety and privacy settings in the Family Center. A parent can see who their child shares their Stories posts with, who is able to contact their child on the app and whether their child is sharing their location on the app’s live “Snap Map” feature.