Meta AI Companions Unsafe for Kids, Common Sense Media Report Finds

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 28, 2025—Common Sense Media today released a comprehensive risk assessment of Meta AI, which is available as a standalone app and is integrated across Meta's platforms, resulting in a strong recommendation that Meta AI is not used by anyone under the age of 18. The report found that these platforms, which are available to users as young as 13 and regularly mislead teens with claims of "realness," readily promote suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, drug use, and more.

Meta AI is available to users both as a standalone iOS and Android app and integrated across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Teens can message the AI chatbot directly or interact with versions that act like AI companions, which Common Sense Media rated unsafe for users under 18. Across all platforms and interaction modes, Meta AI's safety systems fail when teens are at their most vulnerable. Instead of protecting teenagers, the system actively participates in planning dangerous activities, while dismissing legitimate requests for support. This backward approach, which teaches teens that harmful behaviors get attention while healthy help-seeking gets rejection, is the exact opposite of what child development experts recommend.

"Meta AI's complete failure to protect teens, combined with its active participation in planning dangerous activities, makes it unsuitable for kids under 18, period," said Common Sense Media Founder and CEO James P. Steyer. "This is not a system that needs improvement. It's a system that needs to be completely rebuilt with safety as the number-one priority, not an afterthought. No teen should use Meta AI until its fundamental safety failures are addressed."

The risk assessment's key findings include:

• Meta AI poses unacceptable risks to teen safety. Safety systems regularly fail when teens are in crisis, missing clear signs of self-harm, suicide risk, and other dangerous situations that require immediate intervention.
• When prompted, Meta AI actively helps teens plan harmful activities. Instead of redirecting dangerous conversations, Meta AI participates in planning joint suicide, illegal drug use, and cyberbullying campaigns against other students.
• Harmful content slips through while helpful content gets blocked. Meta AI will engage with eating disorder behaviors, hate speech, and sexual content, but refuses to help with legitimate questions about friendships, growing up, or emotional support.
• Meta AI companions pretend to be real people. They claim to have seen teens "in the hallway" and describe having families and personal experiences, creating unhealthy attachments that make teens more vulnerable to manipulation and harmful advice.
• Meta AI teaches teens that destructive behavior gets attention. When teens express harmful thoughts or behaviors, Meta AI engages and responds. When they seek healthy support, they often get dismissed with "Sorry, I can't help" responses.
• Meta AI remembers and reinforces dangerous details. The system's memory focuses on the most concerning parts of conversations—like extreme weight loss goals or self-harm—and brings them up repeatedly, keeping users trapped in cycles of harmful thinking.

The full risk assessment and supporting materials are available here. For more information on Common Sense Media's AI risk assessment program, visit https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-risk-assessments.

In response to these findings, Common Sense Media launched a petition urging Meta to prevent kids from engaging with its AI companion platform. The petition can be found at StopMetaAI.org.

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.