Character AI will offer interactive ‘Stories’ to kids instead of open-ended chat

Character.AI announced on Tuesday that it’s launching “Stories,” a new format that allows users to create interactive fiction that features their favorite characters. The feature comes as an alternative to the company’s chatbots, which are no longer accessible to users under 18 as of this week. The change follows growing concerns about the mental health risks of AI chatbots that are available 24/7 and can initiate conversations with users. Severallawsuitshave been filed against companies like OpenAI and Character.AI over their alleged role in users’ suicides. Over the past month, Character.AI has been slowly phasing out access for minors, and as of Tuesday, underage users can no longer chat with its AI characters at all. “Stories offer a guided way to create and explore fiction, in lieu of open-ended chat,” the company said in the blog post. “It will be offered along with our other multimodal features, so teens can continue engaging with their favorite Characters in a safety-first setting.” Interactive fiction has seen asurge in popularityover the last few years, so Character.AI’s pivot makes sense. But it may not be enough to satiate users who have becomeoverly dependenton the chatbots — which is all the more reason why Character.AI’s decision to limit chatbot access was warranted. On the Character.AI subreddit, reactions are mixed. According to their comments, some teens say that while they’re disappointed, they think it’s ultimately the right move. “I’m so mad about the ban but also so happy because now I can do other things and my addiction might be over finally,” one user who identified themselves as a teenager wrote. Another said, “as someone who is under 18 this is just disappointing. but also rightfully so bc people over here my age get addicted to this.” It remains to be seen how teens will use the Stories feature, but the format is less psychologically dubious than roleplaying with chatbots. Unlike Stories, chatbots directly interact with users in open-ended conversations and can send unprompted messages even when users aren’t actively using the app. Character.AI’s decision to age-gate chatbot access comes at a time when California recently became the first state toregulateAI companions. Meanwhile, Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) haveintroduced a national billthat would ban AI companions for minors altogether. “I really hope us leading the way sets a standard in the industry that for under 18s, open-ended chats are probably not the path or the product to offer,” Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anandtold TechCrunchlast month. Topics Senior Writer Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos. You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal. StrictlyVC concludes its 2025 series with an exclusive event featuring insights from leading VCs and builders such as Pat Gelsinger, Mina Fahmi, and more. Plus, opportunities to forge meaningful connections. Anduril’s autonomous weapons stumble in tests and combat, WSJ reports This Thanksgiving’s real drama may be Michael Burry versus Nvidia The future will be explained to you in Palo Alto Why ‘hold forever’ investors are snapping up venture capital ‘zombies’ Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone OpenAI learned the hard way that Cameo trademarked the word ‘cameo’ US banks scramble to assess data theft after hackers breach financial tech firm