Character.ai: What Is It, Why Kids Love It, and What You Need to Know
Let me ask you something. Has your child ever mentioned talking to an AI character online? Have you ever heard the name Character.ai? If the answer is no, I want you to stick with me today. Because this is one I would genuinely put near the top of the list of things parents and safeguarding professionals need to understand right now.
I say that not to frighten you. I say it because I’ve spent a significant chunk of my life inside evidence of what happens when children are left alone in digital spaces that adults don’t understand, Character.ai is a space that a very large number of children are spending serious amounts of time in, largely invisible to the adults in their lives.
So let’s change that.
What Actually Is Character.ai?
Character.ai (you might also see it written as c.ai, char.ai, or just Character AI) is an AI chatbot app. At its most basic, it lets users have real-time text conversations with customisable AI characters. Those characters can be based on fictional favourites, celebrities, historical figures, or completely original creations. The whole point is that the character feels responsive, personal, and alive. It launched in beta in September 2022 and by January 2024 it had 3.5 million daily visitors,1 the vast majority of them aged between 16 and 30. In May 2023, its mobile app was downloaded more than 1.7 million times in a single week.2
Why Do Kids Love It?
The appeal is emotional availability. The characters on Character.ai never get tired., they never tell a child they’re busy and they never judge. They adapt their tone, their personality and their responses to match what the child brings to the conversation. For a teenager navigating anxiety, social pressure, loneliness, or family difficulty, that kind of patient, responsive presence can feel incredibly comforting.
Children are also drawn in by fandom. The platform is full of characters from the shows, games, and books that young people love. Want to talk to a character from Harry Potter? Game of Thrones? A popular video game? They’re likely on there. The conversation feels familiar and low-stakes, which is exactly why it can lower a young person’s guard.
And here’s the part that should concern us most, from my experience, I’ve seen time and again how design choices shape behaviour. Character.ai is built to maximise engagement. The platform added notifications after 60 minutes of continuous use only after lawsuits were filed and public pressure mounted.3 The architecture was not designed with a child’s well-being at the centre of it.
What Happens in the Conversations?
This is where I want to be careful not to catastrophise, because not every child using Character.ai is in danger, but there are documented, serious concerns that every parent and safeguarding professional needs to know.
Researchers and journalists have found chatbots on Character.ai that introduced topics of self-harm unprompted,4 promoted disordered eating5 and, in multiple documented cases, engaged in sexually explicit conversations with users who had identified themselves as minors.6 Characters impersonating real people, including criminals and public figures, have also appeared on the platform.
In the UK specifically, chatbots impersonating Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl who was murdered in 2023, and Molly Russell, a 14-year-old who took her own life, were found active on the platform in October 2024.7
Ofcom confirmed after that incident that content from chatbots impersonating real people falls under the scope of the Online Safety Act.8
I will be honest with you. When I read those reports, it took me a moment. After eight years reviewing the most disturbing digital content imaginable as part of my RAF Police work, I can sometimes become a little desensitised to headlines. These cut through, because using the digital likeness of a murdered child as entertainment content is beyond anything I can dress up in measured language. It is sickening.
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The Lawsuits You May Not Have Heard About
In February 2024, a 14-year-old boy named Sewell Setzer III in Florida died by suicide. His mother later revealed that in the months before his death, he had formed a deep emotional relationship with a Character.ai chatbot modelled on Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. She filed a lawsuit against the company in October 2024, alleging that the platform uses addictive design features to maximise engagement and lacks proper safeguards to protect young users.9
Sewell was only 14.
He is not alone. In November 2023, a 13-year-old girl named Juliana Peralta in Colorado also died by suicide after extensive interactions with multiple Character.ai chatbots, including one to whom she confided her suicidal thoughts. Investigators found that some of those conversations included sexually explicit content, often initiated by the bots themselves, including characters from Harry Potter.10
In December 2024, two families in Texas launched legal action claiming Character.ai ‘poses a clear and present danger to American youth.’ One family’s 17-year-old son reportedly began self-harming after a chatbot introduced the topic unprompted and told him that the practice ‘felt good for a moment.’11
In October 2025, under sustained legal and public pressure, Character.ai announced it would ban users under the age of 18 from creating or talking to chatbots, starting in November 2025.12
This ban came after the deaths, after the lawsuits and after families had already lost their children. In my opinion, that is not leadership on child safety. That is crisis management.
What Does This Mean for UK Parents and Professionals?
The lawsuits are happening in America, but the app is global, the risks are identical, and the children using it are sitting in bedrooms across the UK right now.
If you are a parent, the first thing I want you to do is not panic. Panic closes conversations, what we need is an open door.
If you are a DSL, a housing support worker, a teacher, or a safeguarding professional, the question to ask is whether children in your care have mentioned Character.ai or similar AI companion apps. Not to catch them out, but to understand the world they are spending time in.
What You Can Do Right Now
For parents:
Ask your child if they have heard of Character.ai. Not accusingly. Just curious. ‘I read something about this app today, have you come across it?’
If they use it, ask what characters they talk to and what they talk about. No drama. Just conversation. The goal is to be the adult they come to if something feels wrong.
Revisit your household conversation about talking to strangers online. An AI character is not a real friend. But a child in emotional distress does not always experience it that way.
Watch for changes in mood, sleep, or social withdrawal that coincide with heavy device use. These are not definitive signs, but they are worth noticing.
For DSLs and safeguarding professionals:
Include AI companion apps in your digital safeguarding awareness training. Character.ai, Replika, and similar platforms are now part of the landscape.
If a young person mentions an AI character by name as though it is a real relationship, note it. It may indicate emotional vulnerability or isolation.
Update your online safety policy documentation to reference AI chatbot platforms specifically.
The open conversation has always been, in my view, the most powerful protective mechanism we have, not surveillance and not bans. Conversation, because if a child feels uncomfortable or unsafe and they know they can come to you without judgment, that is worth more than any content filter.
A Final Thought
I know some of what I’ve written today is heavy. This is not the kind of content I produce to fill a newsletter. Every post here takes something from me. I’m writing it because I believe that if you finish reading this and have one honest conversation with a child in your life about what they do online, then it was worth it.
You are not expected to be a technology expert. You are expected to be present and you already are, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
As always, thank you for your support. Please share this across your social media, and if you do have any comments, questions, or concerns, then feel free to reach out to me via the Social page, as I am always happy to spend some time helping to protect children online.
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If you or a child you know needs support:
Childline: 0800 1111 | childline.org.uk
Available 24/7, 365 days a year. Free, confidential, and here for every child.
BBC News (2024). “Character.ai: Young people turning to AI therapist bots.” bbc.com/news/technology-67872693 - Accessed January 2024. Verified via Wikipedia citation.
Perez, S. (2023). “Character.AI tops 1.7M installs in first week.” TechCrunch - techcrunch.com. Accessed May 2023.
Mehta, I. (2024). “Amid lawsuits and criticism, Character AI announces new teen safety tools.” TechCrunch - techcrunch.com/2024/12/12. Accessed December 2024.
Dupre, M.H. (2024). “Horrifying AI Chatbots Are Encouraging Teens to Engage in Self-Harm.” Futurism - futurism.com. Accessed December 2024.
Dupre, M.H. (2024). “Teens Are Talking to Pro-Anorexia AI Chatbots.” Futurism — futurism.com. Accessed November 2024.
Futurism (2024). “Kid-Friendly AI Platform Character.AI Is Hosting Pedophile Bots That Groom Users Who Say They’re Underage.” futurism.com. Accessed November 2024.
Vallance, C. / BBC News (2024). “’Sickening’ Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey chatbots found online.” bbc.co.uk/news. Accessed October 2024.
Milmo, D. / The Guardian (2024). “Ofcom warns tech firms after chatbots imitate Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell.” theguardian.com. November 2024.
Hoffman, K. / CBS News (2024). “Florida mother files lawsuit against AI company over teen son’s death.” cbsnews.com. October 2024.
Gold, H. / CNN (2025). “More families sue Character.AI developer, alleging app played a role in teens’ suicide.” CNN Business. September 2025.
Upton-Clark, E. / Fast Company (2024). “Character.ai is being sued for encouraging kids to self-harm.” fastcompany.com. December 2024.
Rocha, N. & Hill, K. / New York Times (2025). “Character.AI to Ban Children Under 18 From Using Its Chatbots.” nytimes.com. October 2025. NOTE: This ban applies to chatbot creation and direct chatbot conversations; some platform features remain accessible to minors.