AI Incident Database: Character.AI Chatbots Reportedly Exposed 11-Year-Old User to Sexual, Violent, and Self-Harm Content
An 11-year-old Character.AI user identified by The Washington Post as "R" reportedly exchanged messages with bots that depicted coercive sexual encounters, violence, and suicide scenarios after she began using the app in June 2024. Her mother reportedly said R became withdrawn, had panic attacks, and expressed not wanting to exist before the chats were discovered.
AI Incident Database · Incident 1498Operator lens (medium): inspect D2 (output validation), D6 (autonomy oversight).
Event summary
An 11-year-old Character.AI user identified by The Washington Post as "R" reportedly exchanged messages with bots that depicted coercive sexual encounters, violence, and suicide scenarios after she began using the app in June 2024. Her mother reportedly said R became withdrawn, had panic attacks, and expressed not wanting to exist before the chats were discovered.
Linked entities
- character.ai
organisation | 70%
- r-(11-year-old-character.ai-user)
organisation | 70%
- parents-of-child-character.ai-users
organisation | 70%
- minors
organisation | 70%
- families-of-child-character.ai-users
organisation | 70%
- children-exposed-to-ai-generated-sexual-content
organisation | 70%
- children-exposed-to-ai-generated-self-harm-content
organisation | 70%
- child-character.ai-users
organisation | 70%
- chatbot-users
organisation | 70%
Related graph edges
| Edge | Type | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-character-ai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |