Last week, the embattled chatbot platform Character.AI said that it would move to ban minors from conversing with its many thousands of AI companion and roleplay bots. Site users, including self-avowed minors and adults alike, have a lot of thoughts.

The policy change, announced last week, comes as the controversial AI company continues to battle multiple lawsuits alleging that interactions with its chatbots caused real-world emotional and physical harm to underage users, with multiple teen users dying by suicide following extensive conversations with bots hosted by the platform.

As of last week, Character.AI now says people under 18 will no longer be allowed to engage in what it refers to as “open-ended” chats, which seemingly refers to the long-form, unstructured conversations on which

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