Australia tells AI chatbot companies to detail child protection steps

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• Australia tells AI chatbot companies to detail child protection steps</p>

<p>By Byron KayeOctober 23, 2025 at 12:18 AM</p>

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<p>FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration created on June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo</p>

<p>By Byron Kaye</p>

<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia has ordered four artificial-intelligence chatbot companies to explain their measures to protect children from exposure to sexual or self-harm material, as its internet regulator beefs up safety measures on the AI fronti</p>

<p>The realistic conversational abilities of such services have taken the world by storm, but have also fanned concern that a lack of guardrails exposes vulnerable individuals to dangerous content.</p>

<p>In a statement, the eSafety Commissioner said it sought details of safeguards against child sexual exploitation, pornography and material promoting suicide or eating disorders.</p>

<p>It sent notices to Character Technologies, owner of celebrity simulation chatbot tool character.ai, and rivals Glimpse.AI, Chai Research and Chub AI.</p>

<p>"There can be a darker side to some of these services, with many ... chatbots capable of engaging in sexually explicit conversations with minors," Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in the statement.</p>

<p>"Concerns have been raised that they may also encourage suicide, self-harm and disordered eating."</p>

<p>Australia's online regulatory system gives the commissioner the power to compel internet firms to report internal safety processes or face daily fines of up to A$825,000 ($536,000).</p>

<p>The most popular of the services queried, Character.ai, is being sued in the United States after the mother of a 14-year-old said her son died by suicide following prolonged interaction with an AI companion on the site.</p>

<p>Character.ai has sought to dismiss the lawsuit and says it introduced safety features, such as pop-ups directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if they express thoughts of self-harm.</p>

<p>Schools in Australia have reported children as young as 13 spending up to five hours a day talking with chatbots, sometimes sexually, the regulator said, adding that minors risked forming sexual or emotionally dependent ties with them, or being spurred to self-harm.</p>

<p>However, the regulator did not query OpenAI, owner of the world's most popular AI search tool, ChatGPT, as its crackdown focused on companion-based tools and ChatGPT is not covered by an industry code until March 2026, an eSafety spokesperson said.</p>

<p>Australia has one of the world's strictest internet regulation regimes.</p>

<p>From December, social media companies will be forced to deactivate or refuse accounts for users younger than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million, in a bid to safeguard young people's mental and physical health.</p>

<p>($1=1.5389 Australian dollars)</p>

<p>(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)</p>

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