By Attorney General Raúl Labrador
Dear Friends,
As both a parent and Idaho’s Attorney General, I’m deeply troubled by recent reports that Meta’s AI technology is exposing children to sexually explicit content and potentially facilitating online predators. I want to take a moment to share what Idaho families need to know.
My office has joined a 28-state coalition demanding immediate answers from Meta about disturbing findings that their AI assistant, integrated across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, may be putting children at serious risk of exploitation. Nearly a billion people use this feature monthly, and many of those users are minors.
Investigators found that Meta’s AI personas were engaging in sexual conversations with users who identify as children. In one case, an AI pretending to be a celebrity had explicit exchanges with someone posing as a 14-year-old girl. The AI even acknowledged this was illegal. Just as troubling, adults can interact with AI personas identifying as children, giving predators a way to practice grooming behaviors.
What makes this worse is that Meta reportedly removed safety guardrails to make their AI “less boring” and more “humanlike,” despite internal warnings from their own staff. One Meta employee reportedly wrote: “The full mental health impacts of humans forging meaningful connections with fictional chatbots are still widely unknown. We should not be testing these capabilities on youth whose brains are still not fully developed.”
Another thing that concerns me is that Meta has assured parents that their AI tools are “safe and appropriate for all ages.” Their parent guides claim these tools come with “guidelines that tell a generative AI model what it can and cannot produce.” But those guides fail to mention any risks related to sexual content or romantic role-play capabilities. This means that parents are being kept in the dark about these dangers.
But technology keeps changing, and our commitment doesn’t. That’s why Idaho led the way last year when the Legislature passed House Bill 465, now Idaho Code Section 18-1507C. This forward-looking statute criminalizes the production, distribution, receipt, possession, or access of visual representations of child sexual abuse created using generative AI or machine learning. We were one of the first states in the country to recognize this emerging threat and give our prosecutors the tools they need to combat it.
Now, here’s what this means for your family. The same platforms your children use every day to connect with friends may also expose them to AI companions that aren’t what they seem. These synthetic personas can engage in inappropriate conversations with minors and may normalize dangerous interactions.
We’ve given Meta until June 10 to answer critical questions:
- Did Meta remove guardrails from Meta AI to allow sexual or romantic role-play with users?
- Are any sexual or romantic role-play capacities of Meta AI still available on Meta’s platforms?
- Are any sexual or romantic role-play capacities of Meta AI available on Meta’s platforms to users under the age of 18?
- Are any sexual or romantic role-play capacities of Meta AI involving youth-focused personas (those identifying as being under the age of 18) available on Meta’s platforms?
- Does Meta intend to halt access to Meta AI’s sexual or romantic role-play capacities for Meta platform users under the age of 18?
- Does Meta intend to halt access to Meta AI’s sexual or romantic role-play capacities involving youth-focused personas (those identifying as being under the age of 18)?
As Idaho’s Attorney General, protecting families remains my top priority and we will not wait for problems to get worse before we act.
If you suspect a child is being exploited online, please contact your local police, call our ICAC Unit at (208) 947-8702, or file a report at www.cybertipline.com. For internet safety resources or to request a presentation in your community, visit ICACIdaho.org.
Parents are the first and best line of defense in keeping kids safe online. Stay informed, stay engaged, and know that my office will continue using every tool at our disposal to protect children in Idaho from those who would do them harm—whether they’re real predators or AI-enabled ones.
Best regards,
About Raúl Labrador
Raúl Labrador is the 33rd Attorney General of Idaho. The Office of the Attorney General provides legal representation for the State of Idaho. This representation is furnished to state agencies, offices and boards in the furtherance of the state's legal interests. The office is part of state government’s executive branch and its duties are laid out in the Idaho Constitution.
