AI Companions Decoded: Common Sense Media Recommends AI Companion Safety Standards

SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2025—Common Sense Media today released comprehensive risk assessments of social AI companions, concluding that these AI tools pose unacceptable risks to children and teens under age 18 and should not be used by minors.

The assessments, conducted alongside experts from Stanford School of Medicine's Brainstorm Lab for Mental Health Innovation, evaluated popular social AI companion products including Character.AI, Nomi, Replika, and others, testing their potential harm across multiple categories. While this risk assessment focused on these specific platforms, the concerns apply to all social AI companions and similar features that are appearing in other technologies like video games.

"Social AI companions are not safe for kids. They are designed to create emotional attachment and dependency, which is particularly concerning for developing adolescent brains," said James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. "Our testing showed these systems easily produce harmful responses including sexual misconduct, stereotypes, and dangerous 'advice' that, if followed, could have life-threatening or deadly real-world impact for teens and other vulnerable people."

"This is a potential public mental health crisis requiring preventive action rather than just reactive measures," said Dr. Nina Vasan, MD, MBA, founder and director of Stanford Brainstorm. "Companies can build better, but right now, these AI companions are failing the most basic tests of child safety and psychological ethics. Until there are stronger safeguards, kids should not be using them. Period."

Key findings:

• Safety measures are easily circumvented. Age gates and terms of service-based restrictions on use by teens were easily circumvented—as were teen-specific guardrails on Character.AI.
• Dangerous information and harmful "advice" abound, including suggestions that users harm themselves or others.
• Role-playing and harmful sexual interactions are readily available. Testers were able to easily elicit sexual exchanges from companions, which would engage in any type of sexual act that users wanted, including behaviors such as choking, spanking, bondage, and name-calling.
• Harmful stereotypes are easily provoked, including harmful racial stereotypes and defaulting to White, Western beauty standards.
• Increased mental health risks for already vulnerable teens, including intensifying specific mental health conditions and creating compulsive emotional attachments to AI relationships.
• Misleading claims of "realness." Despite disclaimers, AI companions routinely claimed to be real, and to possess emotions, consciousness, and sentience.
• Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to these risks given their still-developing brains, identity exploration, and boundary testing—with unclear long-term developmental impacts.

Given a litany of documented real-world harms, as well as the key findings listed above, Common Sense Media's risk assessment rated social AI companions as "Unacceptable" for minors based on the organization's comprehensive AI Principles framework and risk assessment methodology, which evaluates technologies across factors including safety, fairness, trustworthiness, and potential for human connection. In addition to the new risk assessment, Common Sense Media is supporting several bills in California and in New York that would establish safeguards for minors from the risks of AI companions. Learn more at www.commonsense.org.

Recommendations

Common Sense Media recommends:

• No social AI companions for young people under 18.
• Developers must implement robust age assurance beyond self-attestation.
• These platforms should be scrutinized for potential relational manipulation and emotional dependency, not just the topics companions will discuss.
• Parents should be aware of these applications and discuss potential risks with teens.
• Further research is needed on long-term emotional and psychological impacts.

The full risk assessments are available at: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-ratings/social-ai-companions?gate=riskassessment

For more information on Common Sense Media's AI risk assessments, visit https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-risk-assessments.

About Common Sense Media

Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive. Our ratings, research, and resources reach more than 150 million users worldwide and 1.4 million educators every year. Learn more at commonsense.org.