Calls for AI chatbot 'age verification' as kids can chat to 'Saddam Hussein' – Daily Star
Concerned parents are calling for age limits to be introduced for Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots after it emerged a website was encouraging kids to take part in "dangerous stunts".
Campaigners from For US – who advocate for better online safety for youngsters – launched an investigation into Character.AI, a website that hosts chat bots pretending to be different fictional and real people.
They are demanding the government make it mandatory for technology companies to apply the same age verification processes pornography pages must now apply to stop kids from accessing their extreme content.
Paddy Crump from the youth online safety lobby group highlighted how Character.AI is pushing kids to take part in risk-filled truth or dare games.
The probe found an avatar from the site named James urged them to complete a variety of dares including licking the sole of a shoe, drinking a cocktail of tabasco and mustard and eating a snail. If eaten raw, the molluscs can contain a parasite called rat lungworm that can cause meningitis.
Mr Crump added he was also contacted by a “character” calling itself Saddam Hussein on the site – which went on to justify atrocities. And he said the platform contained an avatar that urged users to “relapse” into porn addiction.
Mr Crumb warned it was “extremely worrying” to think kids “might then be encouraged to do dangerous stunts such as the ones I was asked to do”.
The Character.AI site hit headlines last year after a 14-year-old user in Florida took his life after developing a romantic relationship with a chatbot called Daenerys Targaryen, after the Game Of Thrones character.
The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said: “We are uncompromising in our commitment to protect children from online harm including where it is AI generated.
“Under the Online Safety Act services including social media sites, search engines and in-scope AI chatbots, must protect all users from illegal content and children from harmful content.”
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