Meta launches a function that makes conversations between children and Ai more transparent

Just a few days after the debut of YouTube's exclusive feature to restrict teen access to Shorts and the expansion of protections aimed at teens on Instagram, Meta announces the release of yet another new feature to help parents know what topics their children discuss with Meta's artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant: already revealed last October, it is now available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil. In fact, for parents using the supervision function on Facebook, Messenger or Instagram, either from the app or the web, a Topic Information tab is now available within the Family Centre that shows the topics on which their children have asked Meta AI questions during the last week: they can then select a single topic to learn in detail about related categories such as, for example, nutrition, leisure, physical and mental health, fitness and many others. All this is in addition to the already active protections dedicated to teenagers: in fact, even AI experiences respect the 13+ classification and the feedback sent by parents, so Meta AI will not give feedback inappropriate to the teenager's age group if they might be out of context in a film rated 13+: therefore the virtual assistant might decide not to answer certain questions or, alternatively, refer the teenager to dedicated support pages. For the same purposes, the development of notifications for parents in case their child engages in conversations with the AI on sensitive topics such as self-harm or suicide was also recently announced, and more details on this will be revealed soon. Adding to this is Meta's recent collaboration with Dr. Sameer Hinduja, co-founder of the Cyberbullying Research Center, to provide parents with practical guidance to facilitate a non-judgmental dialogue about youngsters' AI experiences by accompanying each request with details explaining what the conversation might be about and how to approach it. Finally, Mark Zuckerberg's company reaffirms its commitment to the safety and well-being of teenagers, providing new details on the AI Wellbeing Expert Council: a group of specialists that supports the development of Meta's artificial intelligence experiences for youngsters, with the aim of making them safer and more age-appropriate. The Council, in fact, was born from the meeting between already consolidated competences and new figures expert in ethics and responsible use of AI; the company's teams will therefore constantly collaborate with this body, sharing updates on upcoming features and collecting useful feedback to orient both product development and policy decisions.