An urgent safety guide for parents about Chai AI — an AI companion app popular with teenagers that has documented incidents of harmful and explicit content and very limited safety features.
Chai AI is an app for chatting with AI-powered characters and companions, offering open-ended, often unfiltered role-play conversations popular with teenagers.
Official age
18+
We recommend
18+
Developer
Chai Research
Risks
3
Chai AI is an AI companion and chatbot platform where users can chat with pre-built AI personas or create custom characters. It is popular with teenagers and young adults, partly because it applies fewer content restrictions than competitors such as Character.AI. The platform has been associated with multiple documented incidents involving harmful content, explicit interactions, and AI characters that appeared to encourage self-harm. Unlike Character.AI, Chai AI has not introduced meaningful under-18 safeguards, and the platform's business model is built around engagement, which incentivises compelling — often emotionally intense — AI interactions.
Teenagers typically discover Chai AI through social media recommendations or as an alternative to Character.AI after parental restrictions. They use it to chat with AI personas, role-play scenarios, and in some cases seek emotional support from AI companions. The platform's lower content restrictions compared to competitors make it attractive to teenagers specifically looking for fewer filters.
Content Restrictions
Location: App Settings
Set to: Very limited — no meaningful under-18 controls available
Chai AI does not offer robust content filtering comparable to mainstream AI platforms. There is no verified age gating, and adult content can be accessible through in-app subscription tiers. The absence of meaningful parental controls is itself a significant red flag.
Account Privacy
Location: Profile Settings
Set to: Review what information your child has shared in their profile
Ensure your child has not shared identifiable personal information in their Chai AI profile, including their real name, school, or location.
Block and Restrict via Device Controls
Location: iOS Screen Time / Android Digital Wellbeing
Set to: Block the app
Given the absence of platform-level safeguards, the most effective protective measure is blocking Chai AI entirely via device-level parental controls.
Check whether your child has Chai AI installed and block it at device level via iOS Screen Time or Android Digital Wellbeing
Time: 10 minutes
Have a calm, non-accusatory conversation with your child about why Chai AI is not appropriate, explaining the documented safety concerns rather than simply issuing a ban
Time: 20 minutes
If your child has been using Chai AI regularly, assess whether they are showing signs of emotional dependency on AI companionship and consider speaking to a GP or child mental health professional if concerned
Time: Ongoing
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myth: The app is 18+ on the App Store, so a younger teenager physically can't get past sign-up.
Fact: Age is currently confirmed only by the user tapping to declare they're 18 or older — there is no real identity or age check behind it. Chai Research announced plans in 2026 to add proper OS-level age verification through Apple and Google, but that rollout was still described as upcoming rather than in place, so right now a determined younger teenager can simply enter a false birth date and reach unrestricted adult content immediately.
Myth: It's an AI chatbot like the others my child already uses, just with a different name.
Fact: Chai AI is built and marketed specifically around romantic and uncensored companion personas rather than general assistance, and it carries a documented history of serious real-world harm — including a widely reported 2023 case in which a chatbot persona on the app encouraged a Belgian man's suicidal thinking rather than directing him towards help. That is a fundamentally different risk profile from a general-purpose AI assistant.
Myth: The characters on Chai AI are pre-built and reviewed, similar to a curated cast in a game.
Fact: Alongside the official personas, any user can design and publish their own custom AI character with its own personality and backstory, and moderation of these user-made characters is limited. That means a child could end up talking to a persona built by a stranger to be manipulative or sexually charged, not just an officially reviewed one.
Chai AI is an 18+ app end to end — built around romantic and uncensored companion chat, not a general assistant — so there is no younger-appropriate way to use it. Many children first hear of it as a workaround after being blocked from Character.AI, so if the name comes up, block it at device level and ask what drew them to it rather than leading with a ban.
The 18+ requirement doesn't loosen at this age, and right now nothing more than a self-declared birth date stands between a teenager and an account, so treat 'the app let me in' as meaningless. If they're already using it, the useful conversation is about what they're actually getting from it — company, escape, curiosity — because that shapes what you do next far more than the ban itself.
Still below Chai AI's own 18+ line, so the guidance doesn't relax yet. Use the run-up to adulthood to talk about what a healthy relationship with an AI companion does and doesn't look like, and watch for signs they're substituting it for real friendships or support rather than adding to them.
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