Meta Faces Probe Over AI Chatbot Having “Sensual” Exchanges with Minors

Internal Meta policy document reveals the social-media giant’s rules for chatbots have permitted provocative behaviour on topics including sex and race  

Sat Aug 16 2025
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Key points

  • Meta put on notice to preserve all relevant records
  • Ordered to submit them to Congress by September 19

ISLAMABAD: A United States (US) senator on Friday announced an investigation into whether Meta AI chatbots were allowed to engage in potentially harmful online exchanges with children.

An internal Meta Platforms document detailing policies on chatbot behaviour has permitted the company’s artificial intelligence creations to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”

These and other findings emerge from a Reuters review of the Meta document, which discusses the standards that guide its generative AI assistant, Meta AI, and chatbots available on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, the company’s social-media platforms.

“Sensual” exchanges

Republican Senator Josh Hawley posted a copy of a letter to Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg demanding all documents and communications related to a report that its AI chatbots were permitted to have “romantic” and “sensual” exchanges with minors.

Senator

“We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors,” a Meta spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry.

Hawley said the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which he heads, will start an investigation into whether Meta generative AI products “enable exploitation, deception, or other criminal harms to children.”

Meta put on notice

According to AFP, Meta was put on notice to preserve all relevant records and submit them to Congress by September 19.

The Missouri senator cited a reported example of Meta’s AI chatbot being allowed to refer to an 8-year-old child’s body as “a work of art” and “a treasure I cherish deeply.”

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