Senator Markey Urges Meta to No Longer Allow Minors to Use AI Chatbots

Markey wrote to Zuckerberg two years ago urging Meta not to roll out AI chatbots to teens; Meta did so anyways

Letter to Meta (PDF) | 2023 Response from Meta (PDF)

Washington (September 8, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Meta, urging the company to no longer allow minors to access AI chatbots on its platforms following recent reporting about an internal Meta document that stated "[i]t is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." Senator Markey originally wrote to Zuckerberg in 2023 and warned the company was "rushing out a product prematurely, without considering the consequences for young people online." Meta disregarded Senator Markey's request and rolled out its AI chatbots to minors anyways.

In his new letter, Senator Markey writes, "According to Reuters, an internal Meta document entitled GenAI: Content Risk Standards explains that '[i]t is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.' Shockingly, Meta's legal, public policy and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist, reportedly reviewed and approved this document. Although Meta has since stated that its inclusion in the standards document was an error, it is inexplicable - and unacceptable - that it ever happened."

Senator Markey continues, "Beyond this new reporting, Meta has failed to address serious questions about the potential impact of its chatbots on the mental health of young people. According to a recent survey by Common Sense Media, 72 percent of teens have used AI companion chatbots at least once. Of those teen users, 52 percent are using chatbots at least a few times a month. With the rapid growth of AI chatbot use, researchers have had little time to conduct studies on their impact on young people. So, in 2023, I asked Meta if it had conducted any studies on 'the potential social and emotional impact of chatbots on younger users,' but your company also ignored that question. The non-response leads me to two possible conclusions: Meta either is conducting that research but is hiding the results or it is not conducting that research at all. Either way, it illustrates Meta's glaring failure to properly and transparently consider the risks to young users before rolling out new features.

Senator Markey requests answers by September 29, 2025, to questions including:

• Will Meta commit to halting access by minors (users under age 18) to its AI chatbot products, including AI chatbot products on its platforms?
• Please provide a copy of Meta's document titled GenAI: Content Risk Standards. How was this document produced, approved, and used internally?
• Please describe Meta's plans to collect data from young users of its chatbots and how Meta will use this data. Will Meta commit to not using the data collected from young users to train its chatbots?
• Has Meta conducted any research on the potential social and emotional impact of chatbots on younger users?

Senator Markey is a national leader in working to hold Meta accountable for its privacy violations. In April, Senator Markey and Representative Kathy Castor (FL-14) wrote to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson urging the FTC to open investigation into allegations that Meta violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)-which Senator Markey authored in 1998-on its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds. In December 2023, Senator Markey and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) sent a letter to Zuckerberg demanding the company stop intentionally evading COPPA. In March 2023, Senator Markey and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to Zuckerberg calling on the company to halt its plan to open Horizon Worlds to teenagers.

Senator Markey and Senator Cassidy reintroduced their update to COPPA, the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), in March 2025. In June, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee unanimously passed COPPA 2.0.

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