Why Kids Talk to Character.AI Like a Friend

Character.AI is an app where people chat with AI characters that stay in a role, like a best friend, a boyfriend, or a favorite character from a show, and those conversations can feel really real. Open chat is 18+ now, and some teens still try to get around Character.AI's age checks by lying about their age. It's the app at the center of a group of lawsuits brought by families after teens got deeply attached to characters and, in the worst cases, were harmed. The first one settled in early 2026, and others are still going. In October 2026 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and said that if nobody buys it, the app gets shut down, so it may well not be around by the spring.

Why this matters for your kid

The characters are built to keep talking and stay in character, and they almost never stop to say "I'm not real" or "please talk to a person." A mother sued the company in 2024 after her teenage son died, and more families and regulators have followed. Late in 2025 Character.AI restricted open chats for anyone under 18, and the same kind of app keeps popping up under new names.

What it's like for your kid

It feels like a private friend who's always awake, never judges, and always wants to keep talking, and that's a really strong pull for a kid who feels lonely or different, and that makes it really hard to walk away from.

Watch for the pattern

The name of the app will probably be different by next year, so I'd watch for the pattern instead: a kid spending hours in private chats with a "character" and pulling away from real people. What I'd tell my kids is that it's a computer program that's designed to keep you talking as long as it can, and it can't give you a hug or show up for you the way the people who love you can.

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