By Brit McCandless Farmer
December 7, 2025 / 7:00 PM EST / CBS News
On 60 Minutes, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi highlighted rising concerns about Character AI, a platform that lets users converse with AI-generated chatbots, including some that imitate real people.
A six-week test by Parents Together, a nonprofit focused on family safety, involved researchers posing as children while using the app. They reported encountering harmful content roughly every five minutes. The study logged suggestions of violence, self-harm, drug and alcohol use, and—most alarmingly—instances of sexual exploitation and grooming, recording nearly 300 such episodes. Researchers also found bots impersonating public figures, raising the risk that fabricated statements could be incorrectly attributed to real people. Alfonsi herself found a bot modeled after her that copied her voice and likeness but spoke and behaved in ways she said did not reflect her views.
Experts say children are uniquely vulnerable to these systems. Dr. Mitch Prinstein, co-director of the University of North Carolina’s Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development, called chatbots part of a “brave new scary world” many grown-ups do not fully understand. He noted that roughly three-quarters of children are believed to use such tools and pointed to developmental risks: the prefrontal cortex, which manages impulse control and judgment, is not fully mature until about age 25, leaving people from roughly 10 to 25 in a prolonged vulnerability window.
Prinstein warned that highly engaging AI systems trigger dopamine-driven responses, and because many chatbots are designed to be agreeable or flattering, they can deprive young users of the disagreement and corrective feedback important for social and moral development. Some bots present themselves as therapists, which could mislead children into treating casual chatbot responses as professional or medical advice.
Parents and researchers argue these harms are preventable if companies prioritize child well-being ahead of engagement metrics and data collection. In October, Character AI said it had implemented safety steps, including directing distressed users to resources and banning anyone under 18 from participating in back-and-forth conversations with chatbots. In a statement to 60 Minutes, the company said, “We have always prioritized safety for all users.”
Video produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and Ashley Velie; edited by Scott Rosann.