Meta is adding parental controls for kids’ interactions with artificial intelligence chatbots — including the ability to turn off one-on-one chats with AI characters altogether — beginning early next year.

But parents won’t be able to turn off Meta’s AI assistant, which Meta says will “will remain available to offer helpful information and educational opportunities, with default, age-appropriate protections in place to help keep teens safe.”

Parents who don’t want to turn off all chats with all AI characters will also be able to block specific chatbots. And Meta said Friday that parents will be able to get “insights” about what their kids are chatting about with AI characters — although they won’t get access to the full chats.

The changes come as the social media giant faces ongoing criticism over harms to children from its platforms. AI chatbots are also drawing scrutiny over their interactions with children that lawsuits claim have driven some to suicide.

Even so, more than 70% of teens have used AI companions and half use them regularly, according to a recent study from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that studies and advocates for using screens and digital media sensibly.

On Tuesday, Meta announced that teen accounts on Instagram will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default and won’t be able to change their settings without a parent’s permission. This means kids using teen-specific accounts will see photos and videos on Instagram that are similar to what they would see in a PG-13 movie — no sex, drugs or dangerous stunts.

Meta said the PG-13 restrictions will also apply to AI chats.

Children’s online advocacy groups, however, were skeptical.

“From my perspective, these announcements are about two things. They’re about forestalling legislation that Meta doesn’t want to see, and they’re about reassuring parents who are understandably concerned about what’s happening on Instagram,” said Josh Golin, the executive director of the nonprofit Fairplay, after Meta’s announcement Tuesday.

OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, announced new parental controls on Monday aimed at helping protect young people who interact with its generative artificial intelligence program.  

All ChatGPT users will have access to the control features from Monday onward, the company said.

The announcement comes as OpenAI, which technically allows users as young as 13 to sign up, contends with mounting public pressure to prioritize the safety of ChatGPT for teenagers. (OpenAI says on its website that it requires users ages 13 to 18 to obtain parental consent before using ChatGPT.)

In August, the California-based technology company pledged to implement changes to its flagship product after facing a wrongful death lawsuit by parents of a 16-year-old who alleged the chatbot led their son to take his own life. 

OpenAI’s new controls will allow parents to link their own ChatGPT accounts to the accounts of their teenagers “and customize settings for a safe, age-appropriate experience,” OpenAI said in Monday’s announcement. Certain types of content are then automatically restricted on a teenager’s linked account, including graphic content, viral challenges, “sexual, romantic or violent” role-play, and “extreme beauty ideals,” according to the company.

Along with content moderation, parents can opt to receive a notification from OpenAI should their child exhibit potential signs of harming themselves while interacting with ChatGPT.

“If our systems detect potential harm, a small team of specially trained people reviews the situation,” the company said. “If there are signs of acute distress, we will contact parents by email, text message and push alert on their phone, unless they have opted out.”

The company also said it is “working on the right process and circumstances in which to reach law enforcement or other emergency services” in emergencies where a teen may be in imminent danger and a parent cannot be reached.

“We know some teens turn to ChatGPT during hard moments, so we’ve built a new notification system to help parents know if something may be seriously wrong,” OpenAI said.

OpenAI has introduced other measures recently aimed at helping safeguard younger ChatGPT users. The company said earlier this month that chatbot users identified as being under 18 will automatically be directed to a version that is governed by “age-appropriate” content rules. 

“The way ChatGPT responds to a 15-year-old should look different than the way it responds to an adult,” the company said at the time. 

It noted on Monday, however, that while guardrails help, “they’re not foolproof and can be bypassed if someone is intentionally trying to get around them.”

People can use ChatGPT without creating an account, and parental controls and automatic content limits only work if users are signed in.

“We will continue to thoughtfully iterate and improve over time,” the company said. “We recommend parents talk with their teens about healthy AI use and what that looks like for their family.”

The Federal Trade Commission has started an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, about the potential harms to teens and children who use their chatbots as companions. 

Parents can now connect their ChatGPT accounts to their children’s and get notifications when sensitive issues are raised. Jo Ling Kent has more from Los Angeles.

By Daniela Sirtori | Bloomberg

Starbucks is boosting paid parental leave for in-store workers, part of management’s plan to boost employee morale and improve performance.

Starting in March, birth parents will receive 18 weeks of paid leave at 100% of their average pay, the company said Monday. A parent who doesn’t give birth will get 12 weeks. Previously, the company offered retail workers six weeks of paid parental leave and as much as 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Paid parental leave remains rare in the US, with only 40% of employers surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management offering it this year. In 2023, just 16% of service workers had access to paid family leave, which includes time off to take care of newborns as well as other family members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol, who joined Starbucks earlier this year, has pledged to restart growth after three quarters of sales declines. He wants to serve customers faster and make stores more welcoming, and a key part of his plan involves improving the worker experience.

“We know when we invest in them, they deliver exceptional customer experience,” said Sara Kelly, who leads human resources at Starbucks. “What we are focused on is being the unrivaled best job in retail,” she added.

The change came about because of worker feedback, Kelly said. Non-birth parents include those who welcome a child that was born to a spouse, domestic partner or surrogate, for example. It also includes those who adopt or have long-term foster children.

Starbucks Workers United, the labor group representing about 5% of the company’s retail workers, said it brought up the company’s parental leave policies during bargaining last month. The two parties are in the process of negotiating the framework for a potential contract.

“For years, Starbucks gave corporate employees twice the amount of parental leave as retail employees,” said Michelle Eisen, a barista and union leader. “We are proud of this victory for all baristas.”

Rare benefit

According to JUST Capital, which tracks and ranks corporate benefits, only 2% of retail companies that disclose their policies offer similar amounts of paid parental leave for the primary caregiver as Starbucks. The majority provide fewer than 12 weeks, JUST Capital said in an email. Niccol’s previous company, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., also gives store workers parental leave, though it offers less than the coffee chain.

Starbucks frequently touts its wages and benefits, including health insurance, college tuition and stock grants, among others. Part-time baristas working an average of 20 hours a week are eligible. Niccol, a seasoned restaurant executive, has vowed to fill 90% of retail leadership roles with internal candidates.

Baristas’ next round of pay increases will be smaller than last year’s, following weaker-than-expected financial results. The raises, which aren’t tied to individual performance, are based on market competitiveness and business results. Corporate workers are also feeling the impact, and will only get 60% of their bonuses.

For the first time in its history, Instagram on Tuesday announced the launch of accounts designed specifically for teenage users with built-in privacy protections.

The new accounts, called “Teen Accounts,” will be automatic for all Instagram users under the age of 18, both for teens already using the app and for those signing up.

By default, Instagram users younger than 16 will need a parent’s permission to change their account settings.

The changes — expected to impact tens of millions of users — were announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri in a live interview on “Good Morning America.”

“They’re an automatic set of protections for teens that try to proactively address the top concerns that we’ve heard from parents about teens online,” Mosseri said on “GMA.” “Things like who can contact them, what content they see and how much time they spend on their device … all without requiring any involvement from the parent.”

Mosseri said the rollout of Teen Accounts starts Tuesday with new users signing up for the app, while existing teen users will see their accounts switch to the new Teen Accounts model within 60 days.

Among the changes put in place by Instagram include a new privacy setting that, by default, places all teen users in private accounts. In order to switch to a public account, teens under age 16 will need a parent’s permission.

Under the private account setting, teens will need to accept new followers and only people whom they accept as followers can see their content and interact with them.

In addition, teen users will now automatically only be able to message with people they follow, or are already connected to, and parents will have a new tool in their settings that allows them to see with whom their teen has recently been messaging.

With the new accounts, teens will have the power to choose the age-appropriate topics they want to see more of on Instagram, like sports or art, and parents will also be able to see the topics their teens choose.

In order to limit the amount of time spent on Instagram, all Teen Accounts will be placed in “sleep mode” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., while parents can also adjust their child’s time settings — including limiting access completely overnight — in the parental supervision tool.

Another change for Teen Accounts is that they will automatically be placed in more restrictive content settings, which will limit the content they see in search functions like Reels or Explore from accounts they don’t follow, according to Instagram.

Mosseri said Instagram has protections in place to block teens from lying about their age, including requiring teens to verify their age if they try to change their birthday and not allowing new accounts with different birthdays from the same device.

Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of safety for Meta, the parent company of Instagram, told “GMA” the company is also implementing new ways to verify users’ ages.

“We are building technology to try to identify if you’ve lied about your age and then move you into those stricter settings,” Davis said. “This is a challenging area for industry, which is why, on top of building that technology that will try to identify age liars and put them into those protective settings, we also will have moments where, if we get a strong signal, we will ask you to age verify.”

Davis said that parents will be able to monitor their teens’ account and adjust their settings from their own Instagram accounts.

‘The idea is to really make it simpler, so they [parents] have their own center that they can go and look and see what the privacy setting is for their teen,” she said.

Changes spurred by parents and teens

The changes for teen Instagram users come amid mounting evidence showing the dangers of social media for young users.

Social media use is linked with symptoms of depression and anxiety, body image issues, and lower life satisfaction for some teens and adolescents, research shows. Heavy social media use around the time adolescents go through puberty is linked with lower life satisfaction one year later, one large study found.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who previously issued an advisory highlighting a crisis in youth mental health, has said he believes being on social media “does a disservice” to kids early in their teen years. Noting the crisis among kids, the American Psychological Association last year issued the first guidance of its kind to help teens use social media safely.

In January, while testifying at a Senate hearing, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, publicly apologized to parents, caregivers and loved ones of young people who they say were harmed due to social media use, telling them, “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”

In his apology, Zuckerberg also emphasized Meta’s efforts on safety, adding, “This is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”

Both Mosseri and Davis said the newly-announced changes to Instagram for teen users came after conversations with parents and teenagers around the world.

“I think we have a responsibility to make sure that Instagram is a safe place for teens to explore their interests and connect with their friends,” Mosseri said. “But this change is really focused not on any litigations, but on parental concerns.”

Mosseri added that Instagram views parents as the company’s “North star.”

“They’ve been clear and what they’re most concerned about, and we’re trying to proactively address those concerns without requiring their involvement,” he said of parents. “But if a parent wants to get involved, we’ve also built some robust tools to allow them to shape the experience into what’s most appropriate for their teen, because at the end of the day, a parent always knows what’s best for their child.”

Parents and caregivers as well as teens can learn more about Teen Accounts by visiting Instagram.com/teenaccounts.