Social Links: The Internet’s Awkward Teen Phase

By the end of November, Character.AI will stop letting anyone under 18 chat freely with its bots. No more late-night conversations with virtual friends, no more two-hour therapy sessions with imaginary Freud. The company says the change is about safety and “emotional dependency.” Maybe it is. But the timing, shortly after a lawsuit blamed the platform for a teenager’s suicide, suggests something more pragmatic. Lawyers have entered the chat.

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