Meta said on Thursday it is adding a new layer of visibility for parents who use its supervision tools, allowing them to see the types of topics their teens have asked Meta AI about over the past week across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.
The feature appears as an “Insights” tab inside the supervision hub. Rather than showing exact conversations, it organizes a teen’s interactions with the AI chatbot into broad categories such as School, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Travel, Writing, and Health and Wellbeing. Parents can tap each category to see a more detailed breakdown. For example, Lifestyle may include fashion, food, and holidays, while Health and Wellbeing can include fitness, physical health, and mental health.
The rollout has already started in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Brazil, with a global release expected in the coming weeks.
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Meta first signaled this direction in October 2025, when it said it was working on tools to help parents better understand and guide how teens use AI.
The company had also been exploring more direct controls for parents, including options to block specific AI characters or turn them off entirely. Those plans have since shifted. In January, Meta paused teen access to its AI characters across all its apps, saying it would redesign the feature into a version better suited for younger users.
These AI characters are interactive personas with distinct voices and identities. Users can chat with them as if they were real people playing specific roles, such as a chef or coach, or even modeled after well-known figures like Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton.
Meta made that move just days before a closely watched case in New Mexico was set to go to trial, where the company faced allegations that it had not done enough to protect minors on its platforms. The court ultimately ruled against Meta, marking the first time it has been held legally responsible for putting child safety at risk.
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That case is part of a broader wave of legal challenges targeting Meta and other major tech companies over how they handle younger users. In that context, the decision to pull AI characters for teens and add more visibility for parents around AI use appears less like a routine product update and more like a strategic shift.
Alongside these changes, Meta said it is introducing prompts to help parents start conversations with their teens about AI in a way that feels open and non-judgmental. The company is also launching a new AI Wellbeing Expert Council, which it says will help shape how its AI tools for teens are designed and released going forward.