jugendschutz.netCharacter bots - sexualization of minors and risky interaction

A romantic relationship with the heroine of a fantasy novel or a close friendship with the main character of your favorite series - character bots enable users to have digital experiences in a wide variety of scenarios. Interacting with AI characters can also be exciting and entertaining for children and young people, but it also involves considerable risks. Shortly before Safer Internet Day 2026, which will take place on February 10, 2026 under the motto "AI and me. In an artificial relationship.", jugendschutz.net is now publishing the results of research into these services.

Character bots - sexualization of minors and risky interaction

The research carried out by jugendschutz.net in September 2025 focused on three well-known services (Character.AI, Talkie and FlowGPT). Particular attention was paid to the risks of sexualized violence against minors. This showed that weak filters and inadequate precautionary measures can lead to minors quickly coming into contact with unsuitable or potentially dangerous content. For example, bots independently generated texts in which minors were sexualized or sexual acts with them were described. Although some protection mechanisms were available in the services, these were generally very easy to circumvent, meaning that they proved to be ineffective in actual use. klicksafe came to a similar conclusion when we tested the Character.AI service in July 2025.

A persistent problem with these services is that access is inadequately regulated. The problem starts with the inconsistent age ratings. The example of Character.AI is a good illustration of what parents are confronted with when they want to find out about the age rating of these services (age ratings as of February 2026):

Regardless of these completely inconsistent age ratings, users quickly realize when registering that none of these age ratings are reliably checked. As is known from many other platforms, simply entering a (fictitious) date of birth is sufficient. There is no check as to whether the information is true or whether a child is actually registering who is not allowed to use the service according to its own terms and conditions.

Many more details on the problem areas as well as all research results can be found in the report "Character bots - sexualization of minors and risky interaction" on jugendschutz.net.

→ Download report "Character bots - sexualization of minors and risky interaction"

Safer Internet Day 2026

For Safer Internet Day 2026 (SID) on February 10, we are presenting the topic "AI and me. In an artificial relationship.", we are focusing on the question of how the increasing use of AI companions affects the way we live together and, above all, how children and young people grow up.

Discover all the materials and offers relating to the action day on our SID website. We offer brand new material for parents and teachers. School classes can still register for our klicksafe school lesson with over 50,000 pupils until February 6. In addition, more than 300 civil society activities are taking place around the SID throughout Germany.

→ You can find all information and offers relating to Safer Internet Day 2026 here