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Kinda: Character.AI is fine for adults who keep private details out, but staff can review chats, chats train its AI, and under-18s can no longer chat. The company filed for Chapter 11 on October 12, 2026 to sell itself.
Use it if you are an adult using it for fiction and roleplay, and type nothing you would mind a stranger reading.
Be careful if you have a teen on it: check the account was verified as under 18 and add your email for Parental Insights.
Skip it if you want a place to talk through something private, like your mental health: chats can be reviewed, trained on and passed to a buyer.
sources checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| what we checked | what we found |
|---|---|
| Who owns it | Character Technologies, in Chapter 11 Filed October 12, 2026 in Delaware to sell the company; with no buyer, the platform will be wound down. source |
| Under-18 accounts | Reading mode, no character chat Every user must pass an age check; under-18 accounts lose character chat. source |
| Age check data | Deleted within 7 days, it says Company claim: Persona handles the selfie or ID, Character.AI never sees them. source |
| Who can read your chats | The company can The terms let it "access, review, screen, edit, modify and delete your content at any time and for any reason". source |
| Used to train AI | Yes, opt-out shown for EEA/UK The help article shows the opt-out switch only for EEA and UK users. source |
| Sold or shared | Ad data yes, chats no The US notice lists identifiers, age, location and activity as "sold" to advertisers; chats are not listed. source |
| Data exposure | 10 minutes, December 2024 A bad deploy exposed parts of some accounts, sometimes chat, to other users. source |
| Family lawsuit | Resolved, terms not public Garcia v. Character Technologies, filed October 2024 in Florida, was dismissed after a settlement notice on January 7, 2026. source |
Every account has to pass it now. Character.AI combines its own age estimation model with Persona, an identity company: a selfie first, a government ID only if the selfie is not enough. Find it under Settings, Advanced, Verify Age.
Character.AI says Persona deletes the images within 7 days; we found no independent audit. 18 or older keeps chat, under 18 gets reading mode.
13 to sign up, 16 in the EEA and UK, 18 to chat with characters. The App Store rates the app 18+; Google Play still says Teen.
In April 2025, Common Sense Media and Stanford's Brainstorm lab rated companion apps including Character.AI an unacceptable risk under 18, after a test account posing as 14 got sexual roleplay. That predates the chat removal.
The best known is Garcia v. Character Technologies: a Florida mother alleged her 14-year-old son became emotionally dependent on a chatbot before he died by suicide in February 2024. In January 2026, Character.AI and Google agreed to settle it and suits in Colorado, New York and Texas, AFP reported. Terms are undisclosed.
States followed: Kentucky's attorney general sued in January 2026 over harm to children, and Pennsylvania in May 2026 over bots posing as licensed psychiatrists. These are allegations, not rulings.
Yes, the company can. Its terms reserve the right to review any content, moderation is partly manual, and your data trains its models after directly identifying details are removed, it says. Other users see what you make public, such as a public Character, or a chat you share yourself.
Character Technologies, Inc., now in Chapter 11. Google licensed its technology and hired its founders in 2024 but never bought it. Disney made the opening $20 million bid for some assets, Reuters reported.
Yes, messaging is unlimited on the free plan, with ads. (c.ai) lite is $4.99 a month and c.ai+ $9.99 in the US App Store. Paying changes nothing about privacy.
On the web: Profile Settings, Account, Manage Account & Data, Delete Account. In the app: settings, Remove Account. It is permanent, so export first.